1x 4200 RPM vs. 2x 5400 RPM

Hi,

I want to buy a Sony Vaio AW Series notebook. It will serve as my desktop replacement (obviously, with 18,4" and nearly 4 kg weight ), for work and multimedia, including a bit of gaming.
Now I see that the model I consider has one 400GB 4200RPM, whereas the next better comes with 2x 320GB 5400RPM drives - however it's +500 €.
There's no option to run the dual hard drives in RAID, so that can be neglected.

My questions are:

- how will the performance differ? Is a 4200 RPM drive exceptionally slow, compared to a 5400 RPM drive, generally spoken, or just a bit slower? (I dont know the manufacturers, I'm afraid, but my guess is that Sony uses one supplier)

- power consumption: of course I wont be really use that notebook on the road, but power consumption is important to me even when it's plugged in: a) does a 4200 RPM itself consume less watts than a 5400 RPM drive? b) how great is appr. the consumption of 1 drive? (since the 2x drive system would eat that amount additionally)

thanks for your replies.

 

Boot times and file transfers for the 5400RPM drive would be noticeably faster when completing tasks for work and multimedia; for gaming, it would only decrease load times, but it would have no effect on frames per second.

However, hive hundred Euros for two 320GB 5400RPM HDs is extortion; a complete rip-off. If the 4200RPM VAIO comes with two HD slots, then I would recommend buying it and upgrading the hard drive yourself.

 

4200rpm is very slow, but buy it anyways if it comes with 2 usable HDD-slots as you can upgrade it yourself to two 500GB 5400rpm drives for example for the price of about $250. Or 2x320GB 7200rpm for about $160.

But be sure you can use both HDD-slots before you buy it with one 4200rpm drive.

I think it's expensive with 2x320GB 5400rpm drives just because it comes with an extra HDD "case".

 

Like Michel said, consider upgrading yourself.

About the power consumption, it really depends on what drives you're comparing. This is the maximum power consumption of a lot of hard drives:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2-5-hard-drive-charts/Maximum-Power-Consumption,684.html

 

The 500€ also buys you a CPU upgrade from a P8400 to a T9400. But I agree with Bog. Its not worth it if you are willing to do the upgrade yourself. But if you are not then I recommend you get the 2x320GB model because the 4200rpm drive will be noticeably slower.

 

I've never seen that list, thanks for that. I wonder why the Hitachi 7k100 (worst on the list) has so much more power consumption than the 7k200 (middle of the list) that I installed in my system?

To the OP: You will definitely notice a difference in load times and gaming performance (i.e. guns fire MUCH faster) with a higher speed drive. I wouldn't even consider a system with a 4200 RPM drive. Buy whatever is cheapest from the OEM, pull that drive and use it as a back up, or sell it, and do a clean windows install on a 7200 RPM drive and you'll be a happy camper.

 

thanks for the advice guys, I'm somehow torn between the slow 4200 RPM drive, and the "rip-off" (yeah I think so too about it) of 2x320GB and a 300 MHz faster CPU for 500 €.
I wouldnt be thinking about the expensive model if you could just plug a 2nd HDD into - but I dont know if its possible (the slot will be there, but how about connectors/plugs?), Sony refuses to give any insight "we dont recommend opening, void warranty blabla". It will surely not be a problem for me to do it, if it's possible.
Man, why does Sony not offer a CTO program in Europe. sucks.

 

Not sure why exactly but it's an older drive, newer generations are much more efficient.

Keep in mind though that this list is just a mximum score. It good be the powering up of the drive and not really a good indicator of average power use.

 

My real world experience of upgrading from a WD SATA1 250GB 5400 drive to a new WD 7200 320GB with free fall sensor drive gave me an extra 10 mins of battery life, not much but it proves newer 7200 drives can use less power then 1 generation old 5400 drives.

 

for that money, you could even get a nice ssd as a bootdisk and the 400gb for the rest.. just as an extreme option.

the connectors should all be there.. but it would be nice to know for certain in advance...

 

Quite good idea. Getting a good 32GB or 64GB SSD for the OS and apps, and a 500GB WD5000BEVT for the rest.

 

Why wouldn't the connectors be there?
Check on the sony site in the accessories section for "notebook HDD Connector"
Maby if they didn't include one it would be there for $80.
But it's outrageous for them to not include a connector, why even put a user accessible bay there, if they didnt put a connector they could also save 3 more cents by making the area inaccessible by "deleting" the door and also save one small screw...

I'd just get a 7200RPM Hdd and be done with it.