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    Internal 5400rpm hd vs External 7200rpm hd

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Gi1b0, Jul 14, 2007.

  1. Gi1b0

    Gi1b0 Notebook Consultant

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    Will an external hard drive (500gb) running at 7200rpm, run faster than an internal 160gb 5400rpm hard drive. I know this sounds like a dumb question, but my question is if the usb 2.0 cable slows the data rate down to compared to an internal drive which is connected directly to the system.
     
    Gi1b0, Jul 14, 2007
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  2. lupin..the..3rd

    lupin..the..3rd Notebook Evangelist

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    USB will turn that fast external disk into a sniveling, whining, pathetic excuse of a storage device. You're cutting its balls off by using USB. It will be waaay slower than your internal 5400 rpm disk.

    If your notebook has built-in firewire, as most do, use an external firewire disk. It is between 1.5x and 2x faster than USB for talking to the same disk!! There are many threads on this subject, did you do a forum search?

    USB is great for joysticks, keyboards, mice, and other low bandwidth devices. It's just terrible for bulk data transfer. USB delivers twenty-something MB/s data transfer for external disks. Firewire was designed specifically for bulk data transfer, which is why it's soooo much faster than USB for external disks. Firewire delivers 38 to 40 MB/s for external disks.
     
    lupin..the..3rd, Jul 14, 2007
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  3. hlcc

    hlcc Notebook Evangelist

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    or just skip both and get eSATA. a sata2 expresscard and an eSATA capable external HD.

    and besides not all benchmarks have firewire being 1.5 to 2 twice as fast as USB 2.0, some have firewire being 30-40% faster.
     
    hlcc, Jul 14, 2007
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