How much of a difference is RPM?

[sephirothXR]

If one harddrive is 7200 RPM and the other is 5400 RPM, what exactly will that do for the harddrive? Is the difference huge and should you always go with the 7200?

 

[Zorg]

1. Make it faster.
2. Uh, yeah :!:

The faster the drive spins the faster it can access the data on it. Some might say to use a 5400 drive for notebooks because it uses less power, but they are so dog slow that you might smash the notebook on the floor out of frustration.

If you are looking for a HD get Seagate's Barracuda 7200.10. It uses perpendicular magnetic recording which increases speed. There are also other PMR drives out there. If you have the cash the Western Digital 10,000 RPM Raptor is still holding on to the lead, mostly due to it's seek times. I have one and I like it.

 

[Zorg]

Some additional information for you on which HD to choose.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage.html?modelx=33&model1=117&model2=676&chart=34

Ignore interface performance as it means nothing. The other benches like random access time and read/write performance will give you a good idea of how the drive will perform.

 

[MagicPants]

Generally speaking you'd be better off adding more ram, depends on the application though.

 

[nvalhalla]

As an upgrade, the 7200 won't help make your computer much faster if you have a 5400 already, RAM would help you more. If you are trying to decide between buying one or the other, definitely get a 7200. Faster load times, faster seek times, just all around faster.

 

[Zorg]

Generally speaking you'd be better off adding more ram, depends on the application though.

This was a simple question about the difference between 5400 and 7200 drives. The whole comment about adding ram is completely non-sequitur. Also, in the absence of anything in his post to indicate how much ram he has, how do you know that he doesn't have 2G of ram already. That was really good advice you gave.

 

[Zorg]

As an upgrade, the 7200 won't help make your computer much faster if you have a 5400 already, RAM would help you more. If you are trying to decide between buying one or the other, definitely get a 7200. Faster load times, faster seek times, just all around faster.

Well that depends on which 5400 he has and which 7200 ghe would get. I disagree with your general premise. Also, same question posed to you. Do you know how much ram he has currently, and whether adding ram would have any effect whatsoever? Of course you don't because he didn't state it.

 

[nvalhalla]

He also doesn't state why he needs to know. I thought I'd cover the possibility that he is asking how much faster a 7200 is than a 5400 because he has a 5400 and wants to know if a faster drive will help his performance. I think, as a general rule, it's safe to recommend a 7200 RPM drive over a 5400 RPM. Sure, drive performance differs from one to another and there may very well be a 5400 drive that can outperform a 7200, but I can't ever remember seeing one. I think my advice was perfectly valid and I stand behind it.

 

[f61]

@Zorg

Buy a Western Digital 7200 rpm SATAII WD1600YS, or a Seagate 10 both are NCQ. I thought the main advantage of the PerpRec was in certainty and compaction. Speed also? Some of those older 5400's poke along.
f61

 

[Zorg]

At least you did say

Faster load times, faster seek times, just all around faster.

I will give you that. however you also said

As an upgrade, the 7200 won't help make your computer much faster if you have a 5400 already

When it will make a noticeable difference. You also said

RAM would help you more

When you have no idea how much ram he has currently. You might qualify that comment with if you have 256Meg of ram, then more ram would make a bigger difference. This OP is obviously a newb or he wouldn't be asking such a question so you need to be careful how you respond.

 

[Zorg]

@Zorg

Buy a Western Digital 7200 rpm SATAII WD1600YS, or a Seagate 10 both are NCQ. I thought the main advantage of the PerpRec was in certainty and compaction. Speed also? Some of those older 5400's poke along.
f61

First understand that I'm no HD expert. PMR reduces the chance of superparamagnetic effect, which allows densities to increase. This gives larger platter capacity which is the main benefit. As a side benefit, since the bits are closer together, the speed increases. Also, NCQ is the new hot stuff for desktop, but I have seen mixed reviews of its value on desktops. Apparently, it depends on how you will be using the machine. I don't know that it is the panacea across the board that it is purported to be.

 

[croc]

I'd say that depends on your needs... For instance, if you are trying to upgrade a laptop, then you are trading off some speed for much reduced battery life.

So why are you asking the question?

 

[MarkG]

Some might say to use a 5400 drive for notebooks because it uses less power, but they are so dog slow that you might smash the notebook on the floor out of frustration.

Sure, if >30 megabytes per second counts as 'dog slow'.

For the average XP user, 5400rpm hard disks are plenty fast enough. You might notice a real difference with a much more bloated OS like Vista.