Which Vaio SZ hard drive is better ?

Hi All,

I would like to purchase a Sony Vaio SZ but could use your help in determining which one I ought to buy. I am not a gamer, I don't edit video, etc., but I am an avid multi-tasker. The question is which of the following two hard drives would you prefer, if cost were not an issue, but if you wanted to optimize both performance and battery life as much as possible:

160 GB Hybrid Hard Disk Drive [5400 RPM]
200 GB Hard Disk Drive [7200 RPM]

Incidentally, I don't need the extra 40 GB of space, so the consideration really involves which drive performs better and which drive decreases battery life more and by how much. Thanks for your help!

 

The 200gb 7200 speed is really fast. Eats more battery, but the performance will be great.

Not sure how much, but it wouldn't be huge.

 

Absolutely 7200rpm.. It's not decrease battery life much.. Maybe 10-30 minutes... and Hybrid HDD have long (sometimes) shutdown issue..

 

Yup, my shutdown takes forever with my hybrid drive, will probably replace it next year with a 7200 drive. For now I only hibernate the machine.

 

Hey, this is the first time I am hearing of shutdown delays in regard to hybrid drives. Has this been tested somewhere?

There are many posters reporting shutdown delays in Vista, but not in reference to hybrid drives in particular so I suspect this is a generic Vista issue.

I have SZ hybrid and before reinstall the system would take ages to shutdown and startup and sometimes wouldn't shutdown at all. However after a fresh Vista install boot time has gone up from 2.5-3 min to 35 seconds and shutdown time from 2-3min to 10-15 seconds. Also Vista occasionally shuts down slower, one shutdown out of 10. Haven't figured out why yet, maybe some optimization routine. That's Vista for you.

 

Go with the faster 200GB

 

I'm changed stock hybrid HDD (seagate) to 7200rpm (seagate 7200.2) and shutdown issue gone !! and never happened again... Both of these work on clean vista installation...

 

Thank you very much for your replies. Let me ask one further question. For price considerations I'd probably end up having to go with a slightly slower processor in order to be able to afford the slightly more expensive 7200 RPM hard drive. If you had to choose between the following, which would you select?

2.4 Ghz T7700 processor with 160 GB Hybrid Hard Disk Drive [5400 RPM]
--or--
2.2 Ghz T7500 processor with 200 GB Hard Disk Drive [7200 RPM]

Again, I'm not a gamer but am a big multi-tasker and am looking for the best combination of performance and battery life. Thank you for your thoughts.

 

I and I'm sure everyone else would choose the second option, you'll notice a larger performance increase from 5400 Hybrid to 7200 rpm hard drive rather than 2.2 to 2.4 ghz processor.

 

For everyday things like booting up and general use you probably won't notice a difference with a 7200rpm HD. If you go to test sites like Tom hardware review you will see that for yourself. There are some 5400 HD's that are booting up just as fast as 7200rpm HD's today. If you do more intensive stuff with your computer it is then you may notice a difference.

I have had a 5400 and a 7200 rpm HD both in a MacBook Pro and i did not notice the difference and i multi task a lot as well. Boot times and the HD under normal use it felt exactly the same to me. I thought that my newly replaced notebook actually had a 7200rpm HD in it as that is what i ordered it was an error and i got the wrong drive. I found out that my drive was not a 7200rpm that i ordered when i went to go and check the HD part i was using.

The 7200 rpm uses a little bit more energy and they may well be slightly noisier also.

The hybrid HD was tested to have about 5 minutes better battery life than a standard 5400 HD. It maybe a minute or so more compared against a 7200rpm drive.

 

You will notice much more speed improvment over the second option. That's to say that the T7500 with the 200gb 7200 drive is a far better choice.

 

Thank you all very much for your helpful replies.

Sincerely,

Brian

 

I've noticed a long shut down time with my Hybrid HD, can't the Hybrid be diabled? Is there a fix out yet? I probably going to go to XP, I remember reading that Hybrid doesnt work with XP, is that right?