Hitachi 7K320 vs. 5K320

I ordered a Sony Vaio Z (model here: http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VGN-Z590NGB) and requested the harddisk to be upgraded to a Hitach 5K320, because I wanted my Z to be silent, cool, battery efficient.

Now I received my Z, but what's in it? A Hitachi 7K320. ****. I really don't know if I should feel happy/lucky that I got a better drive (I only got billed for the 5K320), or that I should go through the trouble of sending my notebook back and have the 5k320 put in there.

Like I said, I am concerned about noise/heat/battery life. With the 7k320in there, I can feel some vibrance, and hear a little bit of noise as well, but the the main 'noise issue' definitely is the fan. However, the problem is I really have no fckng idea what the 5k320 would be like. How would it compare? Does the 7k320 let the fan run considerably more louder than the 5k320 would? I'm afraid that if I would go through the hassle of having the 5k320 swapped for the 7k320, it will probably turn out anyway that there's barely any improvement concerning noise/heat/battery life etc, but that the Z is way slower than it is now...

What should I do? Is the 5K320 considerably less noisy/hot and does it produce noticeably less fan noise?

The seller of my notebook says the following about the Hitachi 7k320:

To what extent is this true? Is it (also) possible to 'customize' the 7k320 such that it is less noisy and less vibrant?

 

Keep the 7K320. It's probably the best HD out there. It shouldn't be hotter or noisier than the 5K320.

 

well, you could set the drive thru the 'tool' by setting it to quiet mode rather then performance mode. it doesn't hurt to try.

by that time, im sure you'll notice the difference...

 

I have the 7K320 and I find the single platter version I have to be very quiet. I can barely even hear it in either of the systems I use it in. I have heard a 5K320 and it is quieter than a 7K320 but the difference is not very much. Maybe 2-3db in noise. The vibrational amount is about the same for both drives.
I think you should stick it out with the 7K320 cause its a faster drive and its pretty quiet.

The harddrive does not correlate in any way to fan speed, unless the system's harddrive is running extremely hot, resulting in teh fan coming on. (highly unlikely)

K-TRON

 

The 7K320 will be hotter and vibrate more than the 5400rpm, but whether it's a problem is subjective.

Tell us if your 7K320 gets hot and vibrates.

Yes you can. You need to set the AAM value.

 

I'm sure you can find someone to trade a 5K320 for your 7K320 if you really want.

It won't make your fan quiet though. IF the 5K320 produces less heat (and I'm not sure but I guess it might), then it might make your fan run slightly less often. But I wouldn't expect a drastic difference. Blame Sony for using a noisy fan.

I have a 7K320 and I find the drive itself to be very quiet. I don't know if I'd notice a difference in noise or battery life if I used a 5K320 instead.

Also keep in mind that the hard drive is the biggest performance bottleneck in general-purpose use (well, after the network)... so if you use a slower drive you are likely to notice the performance difference. I'm not sure how the 5K320's performance compares though.