5400rpm HDD...why? and...problem?

Hey all, new user.

I just took delivery of a new m11x R3, and I absolutely love it. However, it comes with a 5400RPM 1TB HDD. Getting an SSD from Dell was way too expensive, but I do plan to one eventually. In the meantime...

1. Why would they even make a 5400RPM HDD an option in a "gaming" laptop? 7200RPM should be the minimum, if not SSD as standard. Am I right?

2. How much of a bottleneck is this going to be for games and stuff? I have Diablo 3, and I don't think I'll have any problem with the graphics and processor, but will the HDD hold me up?

Thanks in advance, for your advice.

 

I'll take a stab at this.... I don't really think the 5400 RPM of the hard drive is going to slow your gaming down. Content for the game is loaded into memory and from there it is accessed and used while playing. Assuming your have enough memory (4+GB) and then a good graphics card, I don't think you'll see any issues. I think the only time the 'slow' 5400 RPM drive will have an effect is when loading games or loading levels within games. I am not sure that it would be a detectable difference in your wait times (measurable yes, noticeable... I am thinking probably not). Now... if you were comparing and SSD to your 5400 RPM HDD, I think there very well could be a noticeable difference in load times. Well, just my thoughts on the matter. Maybe a real hardware guru will chime in.

 

I always thought for the M11x series, the CPU was the bottleneck, save maybe the brand new i7's. I never really had problems with my hd and slow running games. The only problem I ever had with gaming was that my cpu was too slow.

 

Oh, well that's good news, and I did get the one with the i7 and 6GB of RAM. I won't worry about it for now then.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice!

 

The i5's are pretty damn decent too, in most situations i'd consider the GPU to be the bottleneck.

for a 1tb drive i would want 5400RPM tbh, faster speeds inevitably lead to faster failures and with 1TB there's just so much to lose. You'll see a difference in the seek times of loading large folders, and when loading levels for games.

Personally, i would get a 128/256GB Crucial M4 and then put the 1TB drive into an external case (they cost ~$20) and use that for storage.

 

That's exactly what I plan on doing, Rishwin. I have my eye on the 256GB M4, just can't afford it for a couple months.

THanks

 

Yeah I would say to upgrade to a SSD as well, you will be fine with what you have now though.

 

Your first question is answered by your not wanting to pay Dell for the SSD. If it were standard the price would likely reflect it.

 

I had 2 5400RPM 500GB hard drive running in RAID 0 on my G70S back in the day,...

It was bloody awful!

Swap that big clunky thing for a nice new SSD you are looking at 10 times the speed with ease not to mention more battery and less of that droaning HDD noise.

In regards to the earlier comment about the ULV CPU's these things are amazing I was expecting them not to be able to process fast enough either but they perform as well as the early Gen 1 I7's and they were very quick for their time. With a 17watt TDP as well you are laughing.

 

I would recommend you to go for the SSD option later on, just give it a try with the 5400RPM HDD and if it is too slow for you you can upgrade it later, it should not be holding the gameplay a lot and also D3 is not that hard to run for our computers. Keep this quick tips in mind for you to get good performance on that HDD.