5400 rpm drives versus 7200 rpm question.

[Hypomixolydian]

Hi,

Maybe a question that has been asked a million times before, but the search engine on this forum is fairly crap.


I would like to change hard drive on my laptop (a five year old ASUS, which is extremely reliable).

At the moment it has a 7200 rpm 60gb drive. Unfortunalety, it seems virtually impossible to get 7200 rpm 2.5 inch IDE drives for laptops these days. 5400rpm drives are still available and I have managed to find a 250 GB drive. I do use an external, but it's a drag having to always use the two in tandem. I would rather not have to use the external drive and would prefer to run everything via the laptop itself.


Anyway, to get to the point, how much of a compromise is there between a 5400 rpm and a 7200 rpm? How significant is the difference? Should I stick to what I already have and rely on an external drive (I'd rather not)?


Thanks

[fishmonkey]

the spin speed of a hard drive is only one factor... the density of data on the drive (i.e. more data on the same number of platters means more data passing under the heads on each rotation), head mechanism speeds, and disk caches are also all factors... you may find that the new 250GB drive is actually faster than your old 7200RPM drive...

there are also different kinds of "faster", e.g. random access times and sustained transfer speeds...

[Hypomixolydian]

No more comments/input?

[Tarekith]

I don't think you'd find much difference between a 5400 and 7200 drive, certainly 5400 drives have been serving most people here just fine.

[leedsquietman]

for IDE drives the 7200 does actually give a big speed advantage and helps with higher plugin counts etc. I had a Hitachi travelstar 80GB 7200 rpm drive in my old laptop, which was a lot better performance wise than the Toshiba 5400.

However, the new SATA drives 5400 is faster than an IDE 7200 drive. In newer laptops with SATA, the difference is less pronounced.

[gjm]

Hi.

This little free application should help give you some numbers for comparison should you go with the new drive. HD Tach Download it and use it to check the spec's and performance of both of your hard drives. It will tell you the average speed and data transfer rate. Remember these are average rates, but the graph will show you how different the outer rim of the disk is to the inner.

Although there has been some disagreement regarding the actual real advantages, this application Ultimate Defrag allows you to strategically place Programs and Audio files toward the outside of your Hard Drive, and your non audio stuff like images and less used programs towards the inside. In conjunction with the graph you get out of HdTach, you can help Live out by putting it and you library etc on an optimum spot on your drive. Its a paid app, but it gives you 10 licenses.

I have used both app's my old P4 lappy when upgrading to 5400rpm drive. Like you, I could not find a 7200rpm drive.

All the best. G.

[fishmonkey]

also, if you do a Google search on the actual models of drive you are considering, you should be able to dig up some performance tests...

[jOop.]

for IDE drives the 7200 does actually give a big speed advantage and helps with higher plugin counts etc. I had a Hitachi travelstar 80GB 7200 rpm drive in my old laptop, which was a lot better performance wise than the Toshiba 5400.

However, the new SATA drives 5400 is faster than an IDE 7200 drive. In newer laptops with SATA, the difference is less pronounced.

Why would drive speed ever effect plugin counts?

It's not the plugins are being streamed live off the drive..

[3phase]

The general handling of my Mac book speeded up in an significant amount with a 7200 upm drive..

opening windows... copying files aso...
I dont know If this is OS x related or would apply to a windows machine aswell..

However the new drive is way louder than the old one.. but still nothing in comparison to fan noise...

[Tarekith]

Why would drive speed ever effect plugin counts?

It's not the plugins are being streamed live off the drive..

That's what i was wondering....