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.

    Sony FE series - slow hard drive?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by AaaBaa, Mar 15, 2006.

  1. AaaBaa

    AaaBaa Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    In the UK, the higher range model (FE11S) is supplied with a 160GB hard drive, but it only runs at 4200rpm. Great size, but isn't the speed a backward step, especially since many other notebooks seem to have 5400rpm or even 7200rpm as standard? Will it not slow everything down?

    I will not be doing *seriously* intensive tasks such as recording video in real time but still I do a lot of multimedia stuff, and in any case want to future-proof my purchase (as much as is possible with computers anyway!)

    What do people think about the relative importance of the speed of the hard drive?


    P.S. Here are the specs for the FE11S:
    http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/So...B&languageId=EN&s=external&ss=show&id=laptop*
     
    AaaBaa, Mar 15, 2006
    #1
  2. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    1,326
    Messages:
    7,137
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    It should not be too bad. For light use the 4200rpm drive wont be too slow. But if you are constantly working with large files and opening up big applications, then the speed might affect performance to a certain extent. It is a compromise between hard drive space and speed. Most 5400rpm and 7200rpm HDD top out at 120 - 100GB. If you need anything bigger 4200rpm is the only choice.
     
    miner, Mar 15, 2006
    #2
  3. Aero

    Aero PC/Mac...Whatever works! NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    733
    Messages:
    1,919
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I use my laptop for everything. Gaming to Word Documents. Its all working good on my 40GB 4200RPM. Though my next notebool will have a 100GB 5400RPM.
     
    Aero, Mar 15, 2006
    #3
  4. matt_h1

    matt_h1 Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    319
    Messages:
    1,667
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Due to the _extreme_ data density this drive performs similarly to a 5400rpm disk.
     
    matt_h1, Mar 15, 2006
    #4
  5. DaCheese

    DaCheese Notebook Consultant NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    40
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    What? I thought the 160GB is just 2 stacked 80's? So the data density isn't that much ...denser.
     
    DaCheese, Mar 15, 2006
    #5
  6. matt_h1

    matt_h1 Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    319
    Messages:
    1,667
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Really o_O I thought that it used ....horizontal...or vertical.... recording o_O If they could use two platters why would it max out at 80gb. I know I saw a fe user on notebookforums saying it performed just as fast as his old 5400 drive.
     
    matt_h1, Mar 15, 2006
    #6