5400rpm vs 7200rpm HD.Any 1 notice a difference?

Any 1 notice a different in speed, performance, and maybe evn reliability between the two. Debating if its worth the 100$ upgrade from 40gb 5400rpm to a 60gb 7200 rpm.

 

Unless you're doing hard drive intensive tasks very often, you won't need 7200 RPM.

 

here is some information...hopefully it helps:

http://www.powernotebooks.com/articles/index.php?action=fullnews&id=5

http://www.mobilityguru.com/2004/12/13/nine_notebook_hard_drives_make_their_debuts/page15.html

 

what are harddrive extensive tasks?

 

ah nevermind just read the article. Doenst sound like there is too much of a difference.

 

I upgraded about two months ago from an 80GB 5400RPM SATA drive to a 100GB 7200RPM. I am noticing the difference - boot-up is improved by about ten seconds, and game loading time is faster. Defragmenting is faster, and so is opening up programs and transferring data - all noticable differences, but nothing that will jump out at you.

Is it a a big difference? Not a huge one. My laptop is my primary machine, so I like to have it as fast as possible. The 7200RPM drive was worth it for me. On the whole, I would say the performance increase was about 10-15%, perhaps 20% in some cases.

 

hmmm im considering getting a 7200, good or bad idea? I need speed, but i dont want it causing my unit to overheat or anything. I heard the hitachi travelstar is even quieter than most 5400's

 

The temperature difference is minimal . .perhaps 1-2*, at least on my notebook. It runs about the same temperature at idle, but heats up a bit faster when you are transferring data, etc. Still shouldn't get much warmer. Considering you have an XPS M170, you'll be fine.

 

Actually sorry I should have edited my signature, I have a Sony.

Anyways, just reading benchmarks, why didnt I get Seagate to start? Samsung is no comparison to them. And it looks like the Seagate Momentus 2. is not too far off from the Travelstar.

Im buying a new drive tommorow. I just dont like this Samsung.

Also can any of you guys give me some pointers or tips on how to do a safe install of a new HD? I know how to do it, but wouldnt hurt to be even more careful, since it seems mine now has gone kaput. You still have to ground yourself right? Remove battery yes......etc

 

The difference between the two is slight at the very least, but generally I'd say the difference is noticeable enough. It kinda depends on your laptop really. Personally I upgraded my laptop to a 7200 rpm HD and I definetly noticed it from the first time turning it on after the upgrade. ChazMan421 covered most of what needs to be said about it.

One thing to note though, the increased speed doesn't really eat up more power, most of the 7200 rpm HD use roughly the same amount of power as the 5400 rpm ones.

@TripleH
If you want speed, 7200 is worthwhile then. Hitachi makes some noise but not much, if you use their ftools program you can set the HD to low noise mode. As for pointers, I'd suggest trying to find as much information about opening up your Sony as you can. I have an S series, and they have little hooks on the casing that takes a little wiggling to get the top part off.

 

The performance diference is noticeable. If you think about it, everything you do on your laptop uses the HD. The faster the HD, the better the perfornance.

Also, 7200rpm drives are really no hotter than 5400rpm drives.

 

I just bought a 60gb 5400 HDD with my Inspiron e1705 from Dell. I bought the cheapest so that later I can upgrade for less $ than that for which Dell sells its HD's and RAM. Would I trully be able to upgrade easily later to say 100gb 7200 SATA? What about laptop warranty becoming void?

 

Thanks for the info mate.

I just bought a Seagate 5400 Momentus 2 Wed night, read good reviews on it...and even though my old Samsung was 5400 too, the Seagate runs noticeable smoother and faster. Probably from better quality heads im thinking.

Its quieter than the Samsung, no annoying hum but if I can still manage to quiet it even more that would be great. Does seaget have any software made for this?

Also, I installed the drive no problem, was very careful.

 

I have a hitachi travelstar 100gb 7200RPM HD, I never hear it. It's fast, so it makes my notebook feel like a desktop. but, it does make the palmrest hot. I'm not sure if it's the HD that's doing this, but I'm speculating it is.

edit: oh.. you already decided what to get. I missed it! Hope it works out well for you!

 

7200 was tempting, but I figured I dont really need it. It worried me, because I have a very slim unit and didnt want too much heat trapped in there. Anyways Seagate is awesome. Samsung sucks

 

what about battery life when compared to a 5400? Im sure there is a difference there as well.

 

There's not much of a difference. 7200RPM drives have the same power specification as 5400. You'll have a few minutes of life knocked off because the spin-up time - that is, the drive has to spin up to optimal rotation speed when you turn it on - is longer.

Chaz

 

Chaz, In one of the HD utilities (..tune?) I saw an option for changing spin up time [sut].
Any good links or info on the end result, Benefits / disadvantages of the various settings?
Wear on HDD, Batt life, reliabilty, boot time (<sut=faster boot?), changes in HDD BM? TY d8d

 

Interesting, well...had the Hitachi came in bigger sizes, at least a 80GB i would have got it. But 60 is just barely cutting it for me.

 

You can reduce the noise, but it also reduces the performance . . I leave mine at max. performance because that's the reason I bought the drive.
Not sure what the spin up time would do.

 

The Hitachi does come in 80 and 100gb sizes.

I'm upgrading my 4200rpm 100gb drive to a 7200rpm 100gb drive. The Hitachi 7k100 is only about $60 more than a 5400rpm 100gb drive. This isn't that expensive in the overall scheme of things.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=54323&highlight=sony+seagate