Hard drive RPM speeds

Hello everyone,
I'm looking into purchasing a laptop this month and while mock building it online a few times i keep coming to the same question, whats better?

The choice is between two boot drives on what will be my Alienware m14x, but im not sure if i should go with:


750GB 7,200 RPM SATA + 64GB mSATA Caching SSD
or
1TB 5,400 RPM + 64GB mSATA Caching SSD

is the extra storage space big enough difference to overcome the RPM difference of the 750 GB hard drive?

what are the pros and cons of each i should be looking into?

thanks for any help! I searched for something similar but wasnt able to find anything that really helped explain it, if i missed something please link it for me

 

In my testing: 7200 RPM drives are up to 60% faster than 5400 RPM HDD's for O/S and program use. This includes having them partitioned to ~100GB for the C:\ and also using a program like PerfectDisk Professional (currently at v12.5) to maintain their performance.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ades/441674-so-many-tests-so-little-time.html



With a caching SSD in the mix - I have found that the overall performance of the HDD's increases by around 30% overall.

This is not what I would consider bang-for-the-buck. Definitely do not recommend this.

While some processes may speed up at up-to-ssd levels - most will not. Throw in the added complexity and possible compatibility issues that a Cache brings into the mix - and this becomes simply a recipe for disaster if you want performance, reliability and consistency from your storage subsystem.

Even without knowing your specific usage patterns expected from your new system, I would recommend to forget about using a Caching SSD at all.

A much, much better setup would be a 'full size' mSATA SSD (240/256GB nominal) for your O/S and programs and either the 750GB or 1TB HDD for your data/media files.

Using an SSD for Caching and getting 30% (avg.) of the possible maximum performance it offers (which at the 64GB capacity is already much less performance than the 240/256GB capacity would offer) is kind of like putting racing stripes on a Ford Pinto and thinking you got a Mustang.

Hope some of the above helps?

Good luck.

 

Tilleroftheearth, thank you so much for your reply. very informative!
This is the setup i currently have been mock building online for my alienware m14x on dell. There are a few other options for the hard drive that are possible, single drive and single drive with boots it seems (not caching, which to be honest im very uninformed about the difference)

The other options within my budget area are:

under "single drive"

750GB 7,200 RPM SATA + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD ($50 cheaper than above)

1TB 5,400 RPM SATA 3Gb/s ($75 cheaper)

750GB 7,200 RPM Storage + 128GB mSATA Boot Drive ($150 more expensive)

My goals with the laptop is to have a bit of a powerhouse i can use for gaming, but be able to also use for business and everyday life when i need it.
I havent had any computer at all in over 2 years so my information on all of them are, as you can imagine, quite misinformed on the new technology and what they are good for.

also thank you for the link, i shall be reading up on all that as much as possible.

ps. this is why i signed up for this forum, so much knowledge!

 

The platform you're suggesting is very potent.

Is increasing your budget a possibility (or putting off the purchase a few weeks until you've saved the difference)?

I would suggest Win8x64 PRO over Win7x64 and an mSATA SSD that is at least 240GB or larger. Why? Because the latest O/S is very well tuned to the newest technologies like SSD's, IB processors and utilizing 16GB+ RAM.

The bigger capacity in the SSD will allow all the controller's channels to be fully populated and each nand chip to be optimally interleaved to provide the best performance possible. Also the bigger capacity will more importantly allow you to leave at least 30% (or more) 'unallocated' (called 'over-provisioning') which will give you the lowest WA (write amplification) and least destructive GC (garbage collection) routines possible while also giving you the highest sustained performance (almost) no matter how you use the system.

If this was a 2.5" SSD you were researching I would be recommending the Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD for maximum performance. In the mSATA space, the Crucial M4 seems to be the most popular and also recommended (the Intel mSATA SSD at 240GB seems very scarce at this time) although it is ultimately slower than the Intel 520 Series drives.

One thing that is easy to recommend - Caching is not the way to performance and almost any mSATA SSD will give far more performance than even a Hybrid HDD like the Seagate Momentous 750GB Hybrid (with a built-in 4GB SLC SSD cache).


Especially in a system like you've configured anything less than what I've recommended above will limit the performance of the rest of the platform you've put together.

Check Anandtech.com in the SSD section for current SSD topics (especially the importance of over-provisioning/spare-area and the power consumption sections on specific SSD's).

Good luck and good reading.

 

Tiller, again thank you for your feedback. It is very appreciated.

To start ive made some modifications to the system ive been building, I still have a couple of weeks before i want to order it, so i havent rushed myself into anything just yet.

Ive changed my hard drive to a 256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s, being the best i can afford (everything else is at least another 350 dollars, just a little too much for me) I think this is the best option for me based on the advice ive recieved, as well as the research ive done.

to make room for this i downgraded my memory to a 12GB from a 16GB, which i think is still plenty for me, if not an external hard drive is an option.

I also upgraded my wireless card, so in all ive ended up spending nearly $100 more, which i can swallow (and hopefully get taken off while talking to Dell reps)

as for upgrading to windows 8 pro, im not fully convinced with windows 8 myself yet. In the admittedly limited time ive had with the OS, i have not liked it very much. I find the interface isnt to my liking, so i will stay with windows 7 for now and later on i always have the option to switch if i become more in tune with it.

so my system ended up becoming: