Which is faster: 160GB 7200RPM or 1TB 5400RPM

My old laptop has a 160GB 7200RPM drive, while the new one I ordered will have a 1TB 5400RPM drive. I was a bit worried about getting a 5400RPM drive since a 750GB 7200RPM was not an option at the time. But I was starting to think that the massive areal density of the 1TB drive alone would make it faster than the 160GB one despite having a lower RPM. So which one will ultimately be the faster drive? Thanks.

 

The spindle speed of the 160GB does not compensate for the low data density.

The 1TB 5400 will be faster because the platter is more dense.

 

Thank you!

What about between a 1TB 5400RPM drive and a 750GB 7200RPM drive? By quickly crunching numbers, it appears as though they would have roughly the same speed:

1TB 5400RPM - 5400 revolutions/minute x 1TB/revolution = 5400TB/minute
750GB 7200RPM - 7200 revolutions/minute x .75TB/revolution = 5400TB/minute

I figured this is a viable rough calculation since both of the drives use three platters (333GB/platter for 1TB and 250GB/platter for 750GB) and this is assuming their platters have the same areas/cache/etc./everything else.

 

If you want to compare performance between two hard disk drives, you want to use benchmarking software. The very rough calculations you did are not the correct way to determine relative performance.

In general, a 7200rpm drive will have roughly a 10% - 15% performance boost over a similar-generation 5400rpm drive. For the specific case of the two drives you are interested in, this chart from LegitReviews on the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB 5400rpm drive illustrates this. The rest of the review confirms this approximate 10% - 15% performance difference.



Note that these benchmarks typically show numbers related to sequential read/write performance, because those are the "big" numbers that show well on charts. However, sequential performance only accounts for about 5% of the usage pattern of a typical end-user computer.

It is random read/write performance that matches the remaining 95% of usage pattern you'd expect in real-world usage. And in that case, a 7200rpm drive will have about a 20% - 25% advantage over a 5400rpm drive because of its faster spindle speed (and therefore faster random access times). However, nobody ever pays attention to this number, because it's relatively small and un-sexy compared to the "big" sequential numbers.

To use a sports analogy, everyone pays attention to the 300+ yard tee shot drives in golf. However, 40%-60% of the shots are short-range chips and putts. So the people who REALLY know golf pay attention to a player's 0-50yard short game performance, not their 300+ yard drives. Just like everyone who really knows computer storage technology pays attention to random read performance (small numbers), not sequential read performance (large numbers).

If your only two choices were a 7200rpm drive or a 5400rpm drive of similar-generations, then get the 7200rpm drive. If you have other options, smart money would buy an SSD (with an external USB drive with 5400rpm HDD for inexpensive bulk media storage) for performance; or a hybrid hard drive for middle-of-the-road between cheap storage capacity and better performance.

To give you an idea, look at some of the videos in my signature.
Windows 7 boot time + load 3 apps (5400rpm): 2m54s
Windows 7 boot time + load 3 apps (7200rpm): 2m20s
Windows 7 boot time + load 3 apps (SSD): 0m24s

 

Thanks! That was a very informative post. I'm actually planning on getting a 120GB mSSD as a boot drive and using the 1TB 5400RPM drive as a storage drive. That's probably the best solution for me.

 

The only thing 5400 HDD is good for nowadays is backup. If thats not your intention, steer away from this obsolete drive.

 

I think 5400rpm drives are great for storage. The benefits are that they are quieter, use less power, and are available in larger sizes. The 33% increase in capacity alone from 750GB to 1TB makes it all worth it.

And you can also check 2.5" hard drive benchmarks here: Benchmarks 2012 Mobile HDD Charts

7200rpm 750GB drives do not offer much more performance than 5400rpm 1TB drives.