XPS m1330, battery time 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm?

Does anybody know if the battery time will be lower with a 7200 rpm hard disk compared to a 5400 rpm hard disk on a Dell XPS m1330? How much lower (in min.)?

 

of course it will be lower, cos more power is needed to spin the drive at a higher speed. As for how much lower, I cant give a guaranteed figure, but my guestimate is about 15 - 20 minutes max!

 

How much faster is the 7200 rpm HDD compared to the 5400 rpm HDD (in MB/s)? When will I notice the difference in speed?

 

depends on the drive manufacturer! I've seen some 4200rpm drives that are the same speed (in MB/s) as 5400rpm drive.

In theory the 7200rpm drive is faster, but thats about it. It's all luck of the draw, and if you get a really good drive, chances are you will notice a SLIGHT (but nothing major) speed performace boost over a good 5400rpm drive!

 

Like H3rmaN says some 5400rpm will outperform some 7200rpm drives speed wise. I have a 5400rpm drive in my inspiron 9400 and it's pretty fast. I wouldn't bother with the 7200rpm drives if I were you.

 

Well, the new 200Gb 7200 models from Hitachi are, objectively, the fastest laptop HDs around, with no 5400rpm drive coming closer than, say 15-20% slower.

If you're not doing anything IO intensive for extended periods of time, it's likely you won't notice that much.

When it comes to power consumption, the figures I've seen indicate a negligible difference, contrary to what you would believe. So I wouldn't care at all about that.