7200 much faster than 5400?

Hey,

Apologies in advance - i don't know much about this stuff...

Am about to buy new vostro 1400 14.1". 2.2ghs cpu, 800fsb, 4mb cache, 8400m gs graphics card

My question is - should i go with the 5400 hdd option or the 7200 speed? Obviously the 7200 is faster but a)will it also weigh more? b)in what kind of circumstance would i notice the speed difference - i would mostly be doing Office stuff or online gaming (World of Warcraft etc) In other words is it worth the cash n weight trade-off?

Also can anyone help me with memory. Will get at least 2gb ddr2 but i can choose either 3 or 4gb also. Again wqould it be worth it given above cpu/graphics card? Getting 4gb quite a lot more expensive than getting 3gb.

Would be running either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate (32 bit) - again i can choose...

 

1) get the smallest amount of memory you can from dell. then buy it from newegg for cheap. you can get 2 X 2 Gb for 80 bucks or less.

2) buy the biggest, fastest hard drive you can. it is probably the best performance/dollar investment you can make for you computer.

3) ignore #2 if you don't care about performance...

 

the faster HDD wont make it any heavier as far as i know. But it mostly increases boot time, plus like moving files, coping, etc. I'd say its worth an extra $35.

 

No it won't weigh more to get 7200. And I recommend it and transfer rates are generally higher.

Get 3gb, if you get 4 Gb the laptop will only be able to use 3.3 Gb's of it.

Hope this helps.

 

The 7200 will be faster than the 5400, but will eat up a fair bit more battery life than the 5400. I'm not sure how important battery life is to you, but it's reason enough for me not to want a 5400rpm hard drive.

Greg

 

It wont increase boot times...it'l DECREASE them...just a note

 

right. the faster hard drive will make the computer boot faster, sure ahl395 meant that!

 

You also have to consider platter density. For example a 250GB 5400rpm HD is pretty similar to a 160GB 7200rpm because the increased density allows data access to be slightly faster and make up for the slower speed.

 

yes, that is right. that is why bigger = faster, and higher rpm also = faster. in general (there are other factors, such as cache which come into play, of course). smoothtofu makes a good point here!