Energy consumption and noise between 5400 & 7200rpms HD

Is it worth opting for the 7200rpms 160Gb HD instead of the standard 5400rpms HD for the M1330? How much noisier and/or energy-hungry is it? Will I notice the speed difference? Thanks in advance!

 

Noise and heat difference for the latest 7200 drives compared to the 5400 is a thing of the past. But you will notice an improvement on performance.

I always go for a 7200 drive as the HD is the biggest bottleneck in terms of performance for a windows user.

 

7200 rpm drives do make slightly more noise than 5400 HD's. Of course some things may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. You can still say though generally that they do make more noise. For one they vibrate more than 5400 rpm drives do because of the higher rotational speed.
I have used 7200 rpm drives in a laptop not that long ago but i won't again because i found that the 5400 HD ran cooler for me and it made less noise. I am quite sensitive to noise anyway.

If you go to sites like Tom hardware review you will see nearly in every single test that they have run for HD's that 7200 rpm HD's do also consume more power than 5400 HD's. This may not have a massive impact on battery life but they still use up slightly more energy than 5400rpm HD's do.

 

This chart at Tom's hardware will give you an idea of the power consumption and performance differences.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html?modelx=33&model1=414&model2=394&chart=157

Fuzzy

 

The first Dell 1520 I ordered had the 160 GB 7200 rpm HD. The replacement I ordered has the 250 5400 rpm. I wish I would have stuck with the 7200 rpm. I did not notice any extra power drain or noise and the 7200 rpm was faster.

 

Be more helpful is the rachUK chart was with the latest HD's as there has been big improvements since the 7200.1 and 7k100

 

Ok the latest chart still shows that 7200rpm do still use more energy on the whole than 5400 HD’s. Btw, the chart that i posted was from April of this year.
Under load the 7200RPM HD’s ran from 3.4-4.6 and the 5400 HD’s ran from 2.4-3.4. The Hitachi 5400 HD ran at 2.4 under load and the 7200 version ran at 4.6.
These are the latest chart I believe they were done in July and August of this year.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/should-you-care-about-hybrid-hard-drives,review-2350-10.html
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Notebook-harddrive,review-2376-9.html

Edited to add:
For 5400 HD’s I know that Dell often use Hitachi, Seagate and Samsung HD’s.
7200rpm drives I know that they sometimes use Fujitsu and Hitachi HD’s. The Hitachi drives are quite notorious for being quite noisy.
There maybe other brands that they use also.
I am not so impressed to see that my old 160 HD had a energy score of 2.6 but this new drive I am using has an energy score of 3.1. I doubt that it will make a real difference but I am tempted to switch back my drives.

 

I got a replacement drive for my i1520 and it was a 7200RPM compared to the 5400RPM that i originally ordered. The 7200RPM is def. louder and warmer than my 5400RPM was, but the drive label has a lower wattage listed than was on the label for my 5400RPM...

 

The 160GB 7200rpm drive that was in the 1520 that I sent back was nice and quiet.
The 160GB 7200rpm drive that is in the 1720 I have now is noisy -- makes crackly hard drive sounds when it's working. I've had desktop hard drives make this type of sound, though it's not as obvious on a desktop full of fans. It's not exceedingly loud, but Vista (or is it PC-cillin) works the drive so often that it gets annoying. This drive is a Hitachi. I think the drive in the 1520 was also a Hitachi (can't remember for sure), but this drive is certainly noisier.

 

Just received my 1520 with a 7200rpm drive and noticed it was much louder then my 1705. It also has the crackling noise when working. It is probably the only thing I dont like about my new 1520, but in the whole scheme of things its not that big of a deal. I mean most of the time I have music on or other noises in the background. I also dont mind a hum in the background. The performance increase was nice though; load times are slightly quicker compared to the 5400rpm drives Ive used in the past.

 

Hey, isn't it possible to set your HDD to been at "quiet" mode which reduces their noise? I tried it with my desktop HDD and the difference between "quiet" and "performance" is a lot.