Hard Drive - old 7200 vs new 5400?

Hi,

My laptop, currently, has this hard drive:

Code:

    ATA Device Physical Info:
      Manufacturer                                      Hitachi
      Hard Disk Family                                  Travelstar 7K100
      Form Factor                                       2.5"
      Formatted Capacity                                80 GB
      Disks                                             2
      Recording Surfaces                                4
      Physical Dimensions                               100 x 70 x 9.5 mm
      Max. Weight                                       115 g
      Average Rotational Latency                        4.2 ms
      Rotational Speed                                  7200 RPM
      Max. Internal Data Rate                           561 Mbit/s
      Average Seek                                      10 ms
      Track-To-Track Seek                               1 ms
      Full Seek                                         18 ms
      Interface                                         SATA
      Buffer-to-Host Data Rate                          150 MB/s
      Buffer Size                                       8 MB

Which i suppose to be good by being Hitachi and 7200rpm. I don't have any performance complaints.

So i like it, but i really need more space. As i would not be willing to get a slow(er) hard drive, i was considering on buying an external hard drive solution (desktop hd + case) for media data and keep the operating systems and everyday data on this internal one which is fast and mobile.

However, i came to think that maybe as this is a somewhat old hard drive, nowadays drivers might have better performance even being larger and with lower rpm? In that case, i would be better served replacing this internal hard drive with a newer one and gaining a great deal on mobility. I could also maybe then buy a notebook HD case and put this older hard drive on it for data i would use very occasionally or for maybe important data backup.

I ask this because it would not be easy to find a large and 7200 notebook drive for any considerable price here in Brazil. Heck, it is even hard to find 7200rpm notebook drives at all.

So, bottom line, i would like to take this doubt off, is it possible for a newer 5400rpm notebook hard drive be faster than an older 7200rpm notebook hard drive?

 

Yes, AFAIK, a newer 5400 will be faster than an old 7200.

 

Ahl is correct. Although I'm not positive about seek times for your particular drive, but even so, the difference would be minimal, and the newer 5400rpms should have higher read/write speeds. You could run hdtune on your drive, and then compare it to the hdtune results on these boards for the new 500gb 5400rpm drives

 

Most 5400rpm drives will be slower than even the 7K100
I have two 7K100's still in operation because they are fast.
The 7K100 had a 11ms seek time, which even the 7200rpm drives today cannot even make.
However newer drives have a higher data bandwidth which can offset the slower seek times.
You would want a 320gb or larger 5400rpm drive to get the same performance as your 7K100.
I noticed that my 5K250 Hitachi was slower than my 7K100 when installed in the same laptop.

Good drives to look at, which can outpace your 7K100 are:

Hitachi 5K320 (320gb 5400rpm)
Hitachi 5K500.B (500gb 5400rpm)
Hitachi 7K320 (320gb 7200rpm)
WD3200BEVT (320gb 5400rpm)
WD3200BEKT (320gb 7200rpm)
WD5000BEVT (500gb 5400rpm)

K-TRON

 

Hi,

thanks for the answers.

I would be getting a 320gb drive which would probably be Samsung, given to local availability. If they had Hitachi or WD around it would probably be twice the price lol.

I have contacted the local shops i saw "320gb notebook hard drive" announces and am waiting for their answer, probably tomorrow only now (it's 22:00). I have asked them for the brand and model at least, so that i can dig around for specs to compare with my current one.

So given last answer, should i assume a Samsung 5400rpm 320gb is going to be slower?

 

I believe the WD3200BEVT is a 5400rpm drive from the scorpio blue line, what you probably meant was the WD3200BEKT which is the 7200rpm drive from the scorpio black line .

 

Correct you are

Changes will be made momentarily


The Samsung 320gb drive is not much slower. It will be similar in speed. I think the model is HM320JI for the SATA model
If Samsung drives are easier to get by you, you may want to look at the HM500JI
You would want to avoid the HM500LI series as it is based on a triple platter design

K-TRON

 

Hey,

for a moment I would fear they would send me specs saying HM320LI, but they say
MODEL: HM320JI
HDD P/N: HM320JI

I guess I will be buying it then

 

Why are there no devices with the 802.11n standard out yet?? No phones, no printers, etc???

 

Lol random. 802.11n seems to be overkill for phones and printers. Your internet connection is well below n speeds, and I doubt you are transferring tons of data across your home network to your phone.