Wanting to upgrade hard drive - help

What hard drive should I get if I need storage and performance.

SATA 100GB 7200 rpm 8MB
OR
SATA 160GB 5400 rpm 8mb

I use my laptop for game play 80% of the time but I also need space for large media files. It's also used as a desktop replacement - almost continuously left on (I use a cooling pad to help keep the temperature down so heat is not a concern).

Would a 5400 transfer files slower over the network and USB (I can transfer a 800MB file to my external drive in 35 sec +/-), and would running multiple applications cause it to run sluggish?

I want larger storage capability for my internal drive (or I would just get an external 3.5") but don't want to lose any performance when I play games (Tomb Raider, Sims 2, Age of Pirates, etc...), transfer / copy large files, or when I have multiple apps running (I usually have at least 2 to 5 apps running when I'm not playing a game).

Some technical advice please.....



Internal - 60GB Travelstar 7K100 SATA
External - 100GB Travelstar 7K100 ATA-6

I have less than 11GB of space left between the two (which makes defragmenting fun trying to find that 15% free). After the upgrade I will be keeping my current drive as external storage.

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Inspiron 6400 DuoCore
1GB RAM
256MB Graphics
Titan Serina Cooling Pad
Razor Copperhead - Chaos Green

 

If you can wait a bit some bigger drives are coming.

 

The higher data density of the 160GB compared with 100GB means that 160/5400 is not much slower at data transfer than 100/7200. Access is a bit slower at 5400rpm. You can make comparisons using the Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts.

John

 

Here is the correct link to the tom's Hardware 2.5 HDD chart.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html

7200rpm drives are faster but you might not notice it.

Edit: take a look at this thread on Hitachi 7k100 100gb 7200RPM SATA vs
-Hitachi 5k160 160gb 5400RPM SATA

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=104636

 

The Seagate 7200.2 has just started to ship. Its a 160gb 7200rpm drive. I'd wait for that, I guess a few weeks more and it will be available.

 

I agree. You can get both speed and storage with the new 160GB 7200 drives from Seagate, Hitachi and Fujitsu. Why compromise with a 5400 one?

 

I often have to ask this: what do you need the extra performance for? How often will it matter that you got more performance over more space? The only time I've seen that it matters is during boot time (~10 sec diff.), copying files, and video encoding. If you're not doing of the last two in excess, always get more HDD space.

 

^yep. And the extra rpms won't make a difference in gaming, and as long as you're maintaining your machine, startup times are negligible. Either you wait for the new (and more expensive) drive, or simply save some bucks and get the 160gb right now.

 

A 7200RPM is a bit more peppy overall. I prefer it as it gives desktop like preformance, but 5400RPM is still pretty good. Thank goodness the 4200RPM days are mostly over.

 

7200 is faster. It is not going to be a huge difference but it is there. Even the older 7200 drives are faster than the newest 5400 drives. Space for laptops is limited and therefore there is no point going for the biggest drive as it will never be enough. So go for the fastest drive (doesn't need to be the biggest one) and get an external 500GB if you haven;t one already.

 

I use NERO A LOT to encode & burn avi to DVD (which takes about 45 min right now) - my laptop is faster at everything than my husbands desktop and I don't want to lose the speed.