The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Is a 250GB @ 5400RPM same speed as 160GB @ 7200RPM?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by fairtrade55, Aug 9, 2008.

  1. fairtrade55

    fairtrade55 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    86
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Some said this on one of the boards, which scared me because I bought a Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB hard drive to replace the 250GB (5400RPM) one that will come with my dell laptop?

    Are they really the same speed or does that guy not know what he's talking about.
     
    fairtrade55, Aug 9, 2008
    #1
  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,133
    Messages:
    6,399
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    206
    Well, I won't be very technical and stuff, and I have no benchies on those drives :D
    But you would have been better of buying a Hitachi 200GB 7K200 or a WD3200BEVT.

    The real-world performance will be similar but the 7200RPM might beat the 5400RPM drive in synthetic benchies by a small margin, but the 7200.2 will consume more power and produce more heat and noise than the 5400RPM drive.
     
    Andy, Aug 9, 2008
    #2
  3. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,389
    Messages:
    10,552
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    456
    Look for the 1 platter 7200RPM drive, that will definitely be faster. Plus it will consume less energy and less heat.
     
    sgogeta4, Aug 9, 2008
    #3
  4. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    The throughput on smaller 7200RPM drives will usually turn out to be similar to the throughput on larger 5400RPM drives, but the seek times on the 7200RPM drives will always be faster.
     
    Commander Wolf, Aug 9, 2008
    #4
  5. Phil

    Phil Retired

    Reputations:
    4,415
    Messages:
    17,036
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    455
    Phil, Aug 9, 2008
    #5
  6. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    7,101
    Messages:
    5,757
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    The guy you are talking about was likely trying to get across higher data density can overcome rotational speed for sustained read/writes. That is correct. In your specific example I don't think it does and as commander said seek times are faster with higher RPM drive. So the point is valid the comparison and conclusion could be wrong.
     
    powerpack, Aug 9, 2008
    #6