XPS M1530 -Upgraded to 7200rpm HDD...no difference..

I just upgraded from a WD 5400rpm HDD to a WD scorpio black 7200rpm HDD. Despite reading people saying it makes a noticeable difference...I have yet to notice any difference in terms of access times and system performance. Transfer times with my external HDD have decreased but apart from that, it all feels the same. Maybe I expected too much but I'm kind of disappointed. Is it just me or has anyone else experienced the same?

Also, just wondering...I know 7200rpm HDD should use more power but is this related to CPU voltage? Cause with RM Clock whilst undervolting, I noticed how my voltage range for the multipliers has changed. With the 5400rpm HDD the lowest I could set the voltage was 0.9250v but with the 7200rpm HDD, the lowest I can set it is 1.0375v. So now I'm in the process of testing them all again so I can find the right voltages. Is this normal?

...I'm kind of considering changing back to 5400rpm...

 

You might see a difference if you access your HDD often.

 

Hmm well the only difference I can notice is transfer rate between my external HDD as something which took like 8 minutes now takes around 5 minutes. Another thing is in the pictures folder, all the thumbnails appear to load quicker cause I remember before if I scroll down, I'd have to wait a bit for the thumbnails to load but it seems to load almost instantly now.

But other than that still nothing. I defragged which doesn't help. Game load times seems the same. What's even more annoying is the site I bought it off just reduced the price the day after I received it..

Startup times are still slow. I'm running vista with sp2 and it takes pretty long for everything to startup..like all the icons in my taskbar and windows side bar....they don't load instantly. My sister's inspiron 1525 loads everything instantly on the desktop when she starts hers up. She's not running any service packs...I swear the service packs make startup slower..

 

Can your verify that you selected:

Advanced CPU Settings / CPU type selection : [x] Mobile

 

Desktop systems tend to run a little faster since their CPUs are different. Also did you chose the 'quickboot' option on the BIOS? I just upgraded my RAM to 8gb and don't really see that much difference in speed but one thing I noticed though is it runs warmer than usual. I guess those RAMs are sucking more power and is also depleting the battery faster. I intend to place a 500gb in it once Win7 comes. BTW I got my WD 500gb HDD on Amazon with free super saver shipping. By the time Win7 comes out they'll be a larger faster capacity HDD.

 

You can always benchmark your computer to see the speed of the hard drive.

I use HD Tach. It will tell you everything you want to know about your HD's speed. Plus, its free!

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

 

strange I changed mine to 7200 rpm, turned out to be more quite and better performance (not noisy, although I already set in BIOS as performance)

 

Get a ssd and you will then see a difference

 

Yes I have it set to mobile however I don't seem to be getting that problem anymore. It's weird because after I restarted my comp, the voltage settings changed to what they were before...0.9250v....so now I have them set like I used to on the 5400rpm. It's pretty weird how the lower voltages just randomly appeared. Sometimes when I put my cursor over the RMClock sytem tray icon, the voltages will actually change sometimes. So if I was idling for example, while it's set to 0.9250v, the voltage in the system tray icon will sometimes show 1.0375v (my old lowest voltage). Don't know if it's just saying that or if the voltages are actually changing....no idea why it would do that though..

Well I'm not going to pay like $800 for a decently sized SSD..

It's strange cause 7200rpm should be hotter but I'm getting a max temp of 40 degrees C after playing games, whereas my 5400rpm would go up to 45 degrees C. So the 7200rpm is actually cooler. Sound wise, it sounds exactly the same as the 5400rpm.

 

Well for me, I bought the gskill falcon 128gb and I kept one of the 320gb 5400rpm drives as my misc files drive. It works pretty well. Load times are outstanding. The time it took to load world of warcraft levels on my raid 0 2x320gb 5400rpm drives, it took my falcon like half if not a bit faster to do.

 

I still don't think faster load times justifies the purchase of one...especially if it's only 128gb. SSD IMO is still too new technology and the prices they're asking for are just not realistic....maybe in a few years time when they get cheaper to make and the prices drop significantly....like all new technology. But hey, whatever satisfies your needs. It's not that I find the 7200rpm slow....just that I expected to see a noticeable difference. I think after having it run for a few days now with the fresh windows install, things are kind of settling. I think my Steam games are loading a bit faster....well that Steam box that says 'Preparing to launch *game*...' when loading games just flashes now but before it would stay on that for like 5 seconds.

 

That's strange... I upgraded to a Seagate 500 gig 7200 RPM a few days back and the results are amazing. Much much faster boot up, faster transfers and eveything. Can't fathom why it's different with you.