Hard Drive Speeds

Would I notice a significant difference in a 4200rpm drive as compared to a 5400rpm drive. I'm a little concerned about battery life, so I don't think a 7200rpm is in the question.

 

1.) Yes, you will find a speed difference from 4200rpm to 5400rpm.
2.) The power difference between 5400rpm drives and 7200rpm drives is negligable, if anything.

 

I went from 4,200 rpm 2 mb cache through 5,400 rpm 16 mb cache. From 4200, my start up time was 1:30. 5400 rpm was 50 seconds. However, I didnt noticed any huge impact with working regular applciations.

JC

 

wow if it took 1:30 to startup windows i'd kill myself mine atm with my 7200RPM Hitachi is like 40 seconds

 

You will see a nice boost going from 4,200 to 5,400RPM. I upgraded the drive in a notebook from a 40GB 4,200RPM + 2MB cache to an 80GB 5,400RPM + 8MB cache - big difference. It's probably the best upgrade you can do to improve overall performance in your notebook. If you don't already have 1GB of RAM, that will help too.

 

Dont say a 7200rpm drive is out of the question. Like RogueMonk said the difference in battery consumption is slim to none. If you think going from a 4200 to a 5400 is a big difference, try going from a 4200 to a 7200, its unbelievealbe. I did, I had a 4200 in my old desktop, about 2:30 to boot up. Now I have a 7200 in my notebook, 20-30 seconds to boot up, and everything is blazing fast. Well thats also because of my processor, but the hard drive is the bottle neck on all systems, no matter how fast it is. A 7200 will not use more power than a 5400, it will just give you faster speeds in everything. And infact a new 7200 rpm may actually use the same or even less power than an old 4200, just because of the new technology in it. Hitachi Travelstar's are really good drives.