5400 rpm vs. 7200rpm

Hi all,

How is HD with 7200rpm different from 5400rpm? Does 7200rpm HD run hotter? Is it worth the extra buck?

chris

 

1. It is faster.
2. Yes it does run warmer.
3. Can't really answer that for you.

 

It is generally only worth it if you do a lot a gaming or photo editing or rendering where you need the extra speed. Even in gaming, it's only going to make the loading a bit faster. Not worth it for me, but may be for you.

Matt

 

i bought 7200 because i want windows to load faster and games to load faster.. did i justify the cost? yea ive seen kids in school boot up a toshiba in like a min i didnt want that

 

check this test report out. the results are surprising. they test only seagate and hitachi 5400 & 7200, but the 5400 seagate often outperforms the hitachi 7200.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/mobile-hdds/index.x?pg=1

 

7200 spins faster than 5400. runs bit hotter. not worth extra dough. IMO.

 

i would choose the 5400rpm drive. enuf speed for most things and runs cooler than a 7200rpm drive.

also note if your laptop came with a 5400rpm drive and your upgrading to 7200rpm, there might not be sufficient cooling/airflow for the drive and the drive might heat up the insides of the laptop

-dj

 

I have the 5400 in 2 of my laptops but was considering a 7200 for another one. I kept hearing the performance was way better then the 5400 and ran not much hotter.
The price does not seem worth it right now.

 

100 gig Seagate (supposedly better quality and quieter than Hitachi):

5400 - $165 at newegg.com
7200 - $201 at thenerds.net ($267 at newegg)

7200 also uses up battery more quickly.

Older 4200 and 5400 drives can run hotter than the new, more efficient 5400 and 7200 drives, so heat would not be an issue at all in some laptops.

 

A 4200 is fast enough for me. Plus they are better for battery life in Notebooks. My startup time is about a minute. My notebook is about 3 months old.

 

Thanks all! I think I'll go with 5400

chris

 

well i went from 4200 to 7200 and well it was a plesent upgrade. yes it is a bit louder, warmer, and I've taken a 20minute battery nock, but its worth the extra speed IMO

not sure if it was worth the $293 NZD I paid for my 80GB hitachi, but then for the video editing, sort of needed it.

 

I lied (well acually I just esimated the start up time) the real start up time of my 4200 rpm is about 30 sec or so.

 

7200rpm is worth it, that's for sure. If you're a power user, then it's a must. But then again, I'm a power user and still running on the 4200rpm Can't justify the money to buy the faster HDD atm.

 

5400 is the average speed and most people (including myself) do quite well with them. Mine must be an older one cause it seems to run warmer than the latest ones do. ANyway I would like a 7200rpm 100gig for my next lappie if I can afford it

 

Another thing to consider is the amount of cache that the drive has.

The new 16mb buffer HD's will generally perform better than the 8mb and especially the 2mb buffer drives.

We need to see some more benchmarks of all these combinations.
I would love to see all of the below 2.5'' hard drives all benchmarked together.

4200 2mb cache
4200 8mb cache
5400 2mb cache
5400 8mb cache
5400 16mb cache
7200 8mb cache
7200 16mb cache

This is a good site
www.storagereview.com

 

Large cache doesn't necessarily make a good drive. Toshiba 5400rpm drives have always had 16MB cache, but they've always been on the slow end, and have a disturbing tendency to fail.

 

Here is that article that I was referring to when I said "dual-platterness".

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/mobile-hdds/index.x?pg=1

 

I have a 160 gig 5400 RPM for my T60P...In my opinion, I don't really think that the 7200 RPM will make a difference if you're just using it for business or for school purposes.

If you're doing gaming, the applications will run slightly faster, but it's almost the same as the 5400 RPM. I know, I've tried with my T60P. I have a neighbor who has a T60P with 100 gig 7200 RPM. We compare things a lot.

 

I heard something about platter density. Apparently a 160gb 5400 rpm drive will perform equally, if not better than a lower capacity 7200 rpm drive.

 

You guys realize this thread was from Feb?

That said, I'd rather have a higher capacity 5400RPM drive, for the same cost as a lower capsity 7200. The higher density on the 5400 RPM will almost make up for the performance difference and you get more storage space.

There are also some new drives that may be real interesting if you have the mondy to spend. There's a 200GB 7200 RPM and a 250GB 5400 RPM. Those could be real winners if the price is reasonable.

 

I'm excited about the 200GB 7200RPM drive. Hopefully there will be some benchmarks and power consumption figures soon. The 250GB drive isn't that appealing to me as 200GB is already a lot and the increase of 25% isn't really worth a 25% drop in seek time imo. These drives are both available on Komplett.co.uk for around £110.

 

There's a HDtune test result for the Samsung HM250JI here. One lucky member got one several weeks ago and I have placed an order with Komplett for one.

If power consumption is a concern then the graph here is very informative.

John

 

well then please tell me how much faster is a 5400rpm than a 4200rpm????

 

Study the charts at Tom's Hardware. A selection of recent 4200, 5400 and 7200rpm HDDs are included.

Note, however, that older and lower capacity HDDs will have slower data transfer rates.

John

 

looks like 1200rpm faster...