5400 vs 7200 RPM (750GB) for game and movies

So as the title says, I'm wondering if it's worth the upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive from a 5400 RPM hard drive used for just games, movies and storage?

Both drives are 750GB and the included drive that comes with the laptop is a Toshiba 5400 RPM hard drive which is one of the faster 5400 RPM hard drives available.

I'll be using a SSD for OS and programs for and my major concern is battery life since I won't be gaming or watching movies off the secondary hard drive on battery.

Other things I care about is drive temperature and noise but if a 7200 RPM drive is significant faster for loading games than the same capacity 5400 RPM drive than I may re-consider.

 

If it weren't for the games, i'd be fine with the 5.4K RPM drive, i recommend the hitachi 7K750 since the HDD will affect your game load times. I do hate long load times quite a bit though.

 

How significant are the load times in comparison?

What I mean is I'm getting a Intel 320 120GB SSD instead of a Crucial M4 because of the lower power consumption the Intel SSD offers despite that fact the M4 is faster is every way however is real life performance it'll be hard to tell the difference between the two, a few second difference for loading applications and the OS is not worth the battery life difference for me.

Would this also apply for the 5400 vs 7200 RPM scenario for games?

As long as the Toshiba 5400 RPM (750GB) is at least as fast the older 7K500 (500GB) for loading games I'd be happy, HDTune and CrystalMark benchmarks taken from reviews of the Toshiba (750GB) drive shows it's pretty much as fast as a 7K500 (500GB) however real life performance for loading games I cannot comment on; if the game lading performance is few seconds like comparison of the SSD's above then I'd rather stick with the Toshiba drive for battery life.

 

Go for a hybrid 750GB mate. Well worth it !

 

Drive temperature shouldn't be a huge deciding factor, noise can be. People complain about WD Scorpio Blacks, but I own the 750, 500, 320 and 160 GB without any complaints.

By the way, a MomentusXT as a secondary drive is a foolish idea, it does not reap the benefits as having it as your OS drive. Plus they are overpriced for performance that does not deliver (I owned 2 x MomentusXT 500 GB). It booted as slow as a normal 7200 rpm HDD, is 2x the price, and isn't even the fastest 7200 rpm drive out.

 

Not to disrespect Tsunade_Hime but hard drive temperature can be a deciding factor depending on how well the laptop is built (materials used is the HDD bay and palm rest area), trackpad placement (sometimes placed right on topof the HDD bay and can get hot to touch) and how tolerant the user is to heat when resting his/her palm and using the trackpad especially when the climate starts getting warmer.

Also, hard drive temperature can be a direct linkage to overall laptop noise since in some cases like the MBP a hotter running hard drive and lead to the exhaust fan spinning more than normal but in any case I do somewhat agree it's not a huge deciding factor since it's very hard to dig of temps for hard drives in a review comparison.

I totally agree the a Momentus XT 750GB would not only be a waste of money while offering minimal gain in game loading times but I'll also drain more battery life (more than a standard 7200 RPM drive), run hotter and maybe more noisy. Guess some people just want and can afford the best for everything.

Honestly, I'm already leaning towards keeping the Toshiba 5400 RPM mainly because I'm using it more as a storage drive then gaming drive however I'll still be installing all my games on the drive as I'd like to keep the SSD for my just the OS, programs and photo/music files (I like using start menu for photo/music) but I'm open to other considerations and thoughts.

 

Compared to a 5400 rpm HDD, the difference is like 2-3C, which honestly doesn't make a difference. In 1st Z61t, the 5400 rpm Seagate HDD ran about 29C on idle, while in my 2nd one with the 750 GB Scorpio Black, it ran 32C on idle. It's not like there is a 15C difference.

 

Of the 7200 RPM hard drives, I'm considering only the between the Momentus 750GB and 7K750 750GB.

The Hitachi is a bit less noisy, cheaper and probably be slightly faster, however the Momentus has 15GB more space and has a built in AF controller which automatically aligns the drive to 4K.

 

7K750 would by my choice.....

 

Thanks, I've decided on the Momentus 750GB because the 15GB more space, automatic AF controller and free fall sensor.

I've also decided to go with a Crucial M4 instead of Intel 320.

 

Speaking of the 7.2K RPM drive, while i do not have a 5.4K to compare to, pretty much every steam game i play has near instantaneous load times, a few seconds at most.

 

Thanks again tijo, I think there shouldn't be much difference between the Momentus and 7K750 as secondary drive in terms of performance, noise and power consumption.

I've never had a 5400 RPM hard drive as main in any of my laptops, I've always end of upgrading to a lager 7200 RPM drive if stock drive is 5400 RPM but in this case I was thinking maybe I could get away with performance as a secondary drive for loading games and save some battery life.