One last upgrade question (Hard Drive) and I'll stop hogging the board

The min for my Dell xps m1330 is a 120GB SATA 5400 RPM. To get the 7200 RPM w/free fall sensor, you have to upgrade to 160GB for $150. Would I see a noticable difference in performance (booting, programs loading/running) by upgrading the RPM? I'm not really concerned with GB size (ie, 120 would be fine for me). Thanks, you guys are so helpful!

 

It really depends on what you're doing.

I'm a performance-oriented user myself, and I still went with the 5400rpm hard disk. Today's 5400rpm notebook drives are faster than ones of just 2 years ago, due to higher-density platters (which means less platters per drive + data is closer together = faster access times) and better caching algorithms in drive firmware. I usually tell people that more RAM is a better idea as a first choice for upgrading --the more RAM you have, the less your system needs to go to the hard disk anyway, as the operating system will cache a lot of data in RAM. 5400rpm hard disks also run a little cooler, and may give you slightly more battery life.

However, if you are going to be video editing, or working with programs that involve a lot of disk reads/writes, a 7200rpm hard disk can be useful. It will also be faster when accessing data that is not cached in RAM, since your system will need to go looking on the hard disk for it.

From what I have read of your needs in previous posts, a 5400rpm disk will be fine.

 

No you can get a HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722016K9SA00 (0A50939) 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s from NewEgg for 134.99. Then sell the one that came with it to offset the cost or buy an enclosure and have an external HDD. Here is the Link.

 

I'll stick with the 5400, esp due to the battery and possible heat issues. Thanks much!

 

Heat and battery issues w/7200 are mostly a thing of the past, but saving $150 sounds like a solid plan.