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.

    7200 RPM versus 5400 RPM?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Prince_Phoenix, Aug 15, 2006.

  1. Prince_Phoenix

    Prince_Phoenix Notebook Consultant NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    16
    Messages:
    256
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I'm wondering if you could put a quantitative measure (how much % faster) on performance between the two (the particular case being the 100 GB SATA 5400 RPM versus the 7200 RPM on the T60)?
     
    Prince_Phoenix, Aug 15, 2006
    #1
  2. chris2pher71

    chris2pher71 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    433
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    7200-5400=1800----->1800/7200=.25---->.25*100=25%

    what kind of performance? write speeds? Read speeds? Seek time? What applications? etc...
     
    chris2pher71, Aug 15, 2006
    #2
  3. brianstretch

    brianstretch Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    441
    Messages:
    3,667
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    I can't, but I can tell you that throughput will be about the same between the two (5400RPM drives use higher-density platters) but access time will be much better on the 7200RPM drives. When given a choice I'll buy 7200RPM, if the price isn't too much higher, but last time around I kept the 5400RPM drives my notebook came with and I haven't missed my 7200RPM Hitachi 7K60 all that much. Then again, my 5400RPM drives are a generation newer than that 7K60.

    4200RPM drives are, of course, utterly lame.
     
    brianstretch, Aug 15, 2006
    #3
  4. nferra2

    nferra2 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    77
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    From everthing I have read, there will be a difference, but it is not as extreme as the 25% suggested. I went with the 5400 drive, since it was $100 I can spend elswhere.
     
    nferra2, Aug 15, 2006
    #4
  5. chris2pher71

    chris2pher71 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    433
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    oh yea, sorry to mislead about 25%....thats just the increase in spin rate performance. Real benchmarks need more information, and real world performance only differs in shorter load times.
     
    chris2pher71, Aug 15, 2006
    #5
  6. hclburnzu

    hclburnzu Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    youre definitely not going to see a 25% increase in speed, but it's noticably quicker booting windows and accessing files.
     
    hclburnzu, Aug 16, 2006
    #6
  7. playstationfx

    playstationfx Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    37
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    around 10% overall increase.
    5400 to 7200 is not a big difference, unlike the 4200>5400 (around 25%)
     
    playstationfx, Aug 16, 2006
    #7
  8. Smith2688

    Smith2688 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    417
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    10% is not a big difference? Granted, it's not as big of a jump as 4200 to 5400, but it's still quite noticeable. My last notebook I switched from a 40GB 5400RPM drive to the 60GB 7200RPM and I definitely noticed a difference. I couldn't put any hard numbers to that increase in speed and performance, but I personally think it's worth the $100. I feel it's a better investment than, say, spending $200 to increase your processor speed, but not as important as spending $xxx to get 1GB of RAM.
     
    Smith2688, Aug 16, 2006
    #8
  9. dgsowers

    dgsowers Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Is there an increase in noise or heat with the 7200RPM drives over the 5400?
     
    dgsowers, Aug 17, 2006
    #9
  10. Smith2688

    Smith2688 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    417
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I never noticed anything significant. There is a slight gain in noise and heat as well as a small drop in battery life, but you'd more than likely be hard pressed to actually notice the difference.
     
    Smith2688, Aug 18, 2006
    #10