5400rpm vs 4200 rpm hd

I see that Best Buy has the MT3707 on sale this week for $599, 160 GB HD Intel T2060 processor.Circuit City has the MT3708 for $579, after mail in rebate, with 120GB HD,Intel T2080 processor.The Gateway website component page for each lists the following....MT3707 160 GB 5400 RPM,either Hitachi or Seagate, MT3708 120 GB, 4200 RPM either Fujitsu, Seagate, OR Hitachi all 4200rpm, my question, which would be a better buy? Does the larger 5400rpm drive outperform the smaller one, even though it is paired with a slower processor? (1.6GHZ vs 1.73 GHZ)

 

Many times, the hard drive is going to be the bottleneck in terms of how much your PC can do...so no processor, no matter how powerful, is going to be able to compensate for that slow drive.

For most/all applications 4200RPM drives are just too slow. You will notice a drag in your daily activities...

You could always upgrade the hard drive later, if you want the faster processor and a faster hard drive.

 

yup thats why i went for the sony sz-450nc instead of the 470 exact same specs but the hdd is 200gb in the 470 but 4200 rpm which i would rather have the speed instead of 40 gb extra.

 

Thank You, for your prompt reply(s)! I will only consider the 5400 RPM option.

 

For that matter, is a 7200 RPM hard drive worth considering on any sort of notebook? Right now I'm looking at the dv6500t, which doesn't offer it, but I could always look for something else.

 

Go for the one with a better CPU, you can always upgrade the HD and RAM easily while waiting for the warranty to expire

I feel a major difference between my old 4200 and 7200RPM HD. Boot-up time was cut down dramatically. My clean XP install on my mx7525 loads with only 3-5 bars on the xp bootscreen compared to 9-13 using gateway'sd oem 4200RPM drive.