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    Is Hard Drive upgrading worth it?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Bush, Sep 10, 2009.

  1. Bush

    Bush Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello all,

    I have a question... My current hard drive is Fujitsu 80 GB SATA drive, 5400RPM. If I upgrade to a newer drive (I was planning to buy WD Scorpio Blue, 320 GB, 5400 RPM) will i notice some speed increase when launcing Windows or various programs? I saw some benchmarks and the newer WD drive has about 3x the performance in average read/write speeds compared to my current Fujitsu drive. Is this speed "bump" actually going to be noticeable in real life situations like multi tasking or during Windows startup or is it just noticeable in synthetic benchmarks like HDTach?

    Thanks for the help!
     
    Bush, Sep 10, 2009
    #1
  2. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    You will notice it with launching programs.

    Booting Windows not so much, but loading all start up processes will be quicker.
     
    Phil, Sep 10, 2009
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  3. stampede12

    stampede12 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Perhaps go for a 7200RPM drive?

    I went from 250GB 5400RPM to 300GB 7200RPM, and the extra performance is noticeable across the board.
     
    stampede12, Sep 10, 2009
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  4. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    I agree with stampede12, 320GB 7200rpm would be better, like Scorpio Black.
     
    Phil, Sep 10, 2009
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  5. Bush

    Bush Notebook Enthusiast

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    Are they louder then 5400 RPM models? This is probably the most important thing to look at because my notebook is completely silent, and I can only hear my hard drive spinning. And the notebook is on my desk, maybe 0.5m away from my face, so I don't want it to be too loud.

    Thanks for your answers.
     
    Bush, Sep 10, 2009
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  6. Vinyard

    Vinyard Notebook Evangelist

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    You will most likely notice a speed increase... if not quite a big speed increase.
     
    Vinyard, Sep 10, 2009
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  7. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Some are completely silent, some are not.

    I put a Scorpio Black in my Samsung NC10 (small netbook), the sound was very soft but I could feel the vibration.

    If you're very concerned about sound a 5400rpm might be a better idea.

    WD5000BEVT is a good, fast 5400rpm drive, slightly faster than the 320GB.
     
    Phil, Sep 10, 2009
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