I hear different things about getting a 7200 rpm HD vs a 5400 in terms of the increased noise. Some say that the increase in rpm means the fan will turn more to cool it off, making more noise. Others say not. To me - if getting the latest super-spec item means more irritating noise, I'd go with a slightly lower performance piece. Does anyone have experience with this issue?
What is the truth here?
-
-
It shouldn't affect fan spin rate, as the hard disk in most notebooks is in a seperate, confined area and has no active cooling of its own. Normally, 7200 RPM drives do make a little more noise, because of their higher spin rate, but they do give an advantage of better performance. Having said that, some of the newer 5400 RPM drives, with large densities of 160 GB, are almost to thr level of the same performance, so that may be worth looking in to.
-
The difference is very little, and more dependant on laptop than drive, some muffle noise better than others. If you find your current HD noisy, then upgrading will probably increase the noise somewhat. When I went from my 4200 to my 7200, there was a slight noise increase, but it was not irritating, and I got used to it very quickly. Unless you are unusually picky about it, I doubt it will bother you - I'm very picky, and it didn't bother me.
7200 rpm HD & ++noise
Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Elliott108nl, Mar 26, 2007.