what are the differences between...

i'm not sure if this has ever been asked about..maybe..but anyways I was wondering how big of a difference is there betweeen 5400rpm and 4200rpm..

 

^^^ I don't know the numbers, but certainly there is a noticeable difference performance-wise between the two. My last laptop had a 4200rpm drive because I was trying to cut corners and save money - big mistake - it was slow as ?@#!, especially seemingly the more stuff I had on it. It sometimes took forever to access and load up programs. So, JUST SAY NO to 4200s.

 

For a same disk size, the difference between both is very noticeable. I had a 40gig 4200RPM drive, and it was the bottleneck of the whole system. Everything felt slow because the hard drive was slow. Usually, always get at least a 5400RPM drive. The only reason to choose a 4200RPM is if you are buying a 200+gig HD where most of the drives are of the 4200 variety.

 

because i found this toshiba at best buy that has a 250 gig HD..check it out at www.bestbuy.com it is 849.99 (originally 999.99) its got the 4200 rpm.
So why do the 200+ gigs come with only 4200rpm instead of 5200 or higher?

 

Link to general not to your notebook, but since very few 200GB w/above 4200 seems ok. They package other nice things in order to get rid of them at good price. Mass storage.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat103700050031&id=1181347549982

baddogboxer- get rid of what..the notebooks? i was loooking at an HP and the CSR came over and asked me a few questions and then showed me that Toshiba. what do you think baddog?

 

That notebook looks good. Since the HD is 250gig, a 4200RPM is fine.

 

What I mean is it is a trade off, faster smaller, bigger slower. This looks like a fair deal, CPU good, 2GB RAM, IGP is very good for what it is! It is a good deal at that price at best buy they also have the same thing smaller faster HDD but IGP is not as good! So it is as always a trade off. If you like it I think very good buy. For regular day to day stuff with the kids around I don't think the HDD @4200 is going to matter and you have more room for storage!!

Edit: If you want a 5400 160 GB I will find, 5400 are faster kind of the sweet spot on a budget!

 

SAHM1, it looks pretty good for the price, but I can't believe that you wouldn't be able to get a similarly priced one online (at least with certain companies like Dell) for as good or better, and with a 5400rpm. I really can't stress enough how slow 4200s can get... but I guess it depends what you'll be using it for. If you're a casual user and don't do much with big programs or multimedia or multitasking, then it's not a problem. Otherwise, if you really want a huge HD that you'll be filling up, then how about 2 120GBs or 2 160GBs @ 5400rpm? (EDITED for clarification)

 

Good point but that would cost so much more!

 

I don't think that you can find a 15" laptop that houses 2 HDs except for a toshiba 205. Also, at high capacities, a 4200RPM will perform "similarly" to a lower capacity 5400RPM.

 

baddogboxer, certainly it'd cost more, but there's the trade-off thing again. In this case, price for performance, as opposed to size for performance.

 

Oh? Didn't know that. How come?

 

FYI- will be doing photo editing, word processing, internet browsing ( i do want to multitask.not heavily) and the guy said it would play Halo 1 well..it is a good price for what it has..I do a lot of photos because i do a lot of photography...man..what should i do?

 

You will be fine and the IGP is better than anything else you can get at that price. When you want to load a photo and it takes 2 seconds instead of 1 do you care? I don't know, like I said I can find you almost the same thing w/faster HDD and good IGP but not quite as good like ATI 1150, it is a trade off, I would get this it will not affect most of what you need! Best I can do.

 

I'm not too sure on why, but this is basically what I understand. On a high capacity drive, the bits are packed closer so it takes less time to reach the required data. So the fact that it's a high capacity compensates the slower spin speed.

SAMH1 - For the activities that your doing, the slower hard drive shouldn't matter too much. And since your doing photography, a bigger hard drive is more convenient too. That Turion X2 should handle your multitasking without problems.

 

To me, everything sounded fine until you mentioned a game. BTW, I'm personally not a fan of Best Buy floor rep knowledge based on personal experience, but that's just a sidenote. Anyway, yes I think it'll do ok with Halo 1 but I dunno about "well". Anytime you have integrated graphics instead of dedicated and especially with an older card, you'll be in trouble with games that have come out in the past year or two. So, if you'll want to dabble with Halo 2 or 3, or many games newer than Halo 1, then definitely do not get that system. But if you're rarely going to play games, then go for it. You won't feel much of a difference in terms of performance if that's all you'll be doing.

 

okay..b/c i know Toshiba is a good brand. Our IT at the college were handing them out as part of their laptop program. They quit their lappy program my freshmen year..but my a couple of my friends bought em from the IT (cause they were selling them) and after all the use they were still running great. NO problems..anyways thanks copycatken..so it is a good deal?

 

I think that the X1200 should be enough to play CS (the original, not CS:Source) and halo 1 with an acceptable frame rate. Probably at low-medium settings only though.

 

HappyFunBall wants you to spend $2000 w/dual HDD's and dedicated GPU, next it will be an Intel C2D 2.2Ghz, blue-ray add another $700. Total cost $2700, Hmm?

 

yea..thanks guys..all i wanted to play was just Counterstrike..and not any of the other ones. and Halo 1. I have the desktop for other gaming with the nvidia geforce 7600 LE..but i'll be upgrading that as well as the RAM and hard drive within the next few months..but i would like to put Counterstrike and Halo 1 on the lappy. does anyone know if upgrading graphics cards are actually possible on a lappy..and no i don't really care if it takes 2 sec. instaed of 1 to load a photo..heck i'm running 512 MB of RAM on windows basic right now..with a 149 gig hard drive..and an intel pentium D at 2.8 GHz..so no with the 2 gigs on the lappy it should be faster than the dell i have right now..right..maybe?

 

happyfunball wants me to do whaaat??? can't afford it..if i could i would..LOL..wow..what have you two been talkin about baddogboxer?

oh and copycat..he didn't exactly say well..but kinda what you said.. he siad it woudn't look that great but it would still play..and it wouldn't all of a sudden just stop for any reason..but he did say it would still play.

 

Read the posts! Also you know a lot more about HDD then you let on so keep having fun with turning answers into questions! Man you are a trip!

 

what me?? you would be a trip to if you've hardly had any sleep b/c of a teething 14 month old..LOL! i dunno what have i been doing by turning answers into questions..or visa versa..and how do you know i know mroe about HDD than i let on..i think i'm too tired to not feel confused..mmm..

 

Whoa whoa, hello...? Either that's supreme sarcasm or a misinterpretation. All I said was that the Toshiba in question will struggle with games that are from the past year or two and onwards (unless everything is turned to minimum settings, possibly). There's no denying that, is there? I also said that the system was just fine for everything that she listed including "ok" for Halo 1, just not great, as SAHM1 had originally indicated the rep told her. So anyway, SAHM1, sounds like you're good then and yes it is a good deal.

 

oh yea..and my dell can support up to 2 HDD's for a total of 640!!!

well hey at least it will play..at least i will be able to see what i'm shooting at and where i'm going right..LOL

 

As far as the diffenence in hd speeds. Here a link to a MacTech article that tested the speed difference between the two drives. It does not include the 4200 rpm drive, just the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. It used real world tasks not benchmarks. It is a Mac system, but I wouldn’t expect the difference in a PC to be all that different.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.01/2301LaptopHardDriveSpeed/index.html

Edit: It also doesn't include any games but some games do access the hd frequently enough for rotational speed to be a issue.

 

i don't need the difference between 5400 and 7200. I just want the difference between 4200 and 5400..thats it. I don't want it on a Mac i want it on a PC. thank you. Oh and hey are you gonna go see the new Beowulf movie thats coming out november 16th?