Speed comparasion between 2.5 and 3.5

[moboking]

We all know that 2.5 inch drives consume less power than their 3.5 inch counterparts because the platters of the latter are bigger and heavier to spin. What about data transfer speed? if both the 2.5 and 3.5 inch drives spin at 7200rpm and both are SATA 300 drives, are their data transfer speeds the same? I would even think that the 2.5 inch drive would be even faster because of the shorter distance the readhead has to go to get to the data on the platter. So if 2.5 inch drives are faster and if capacity is not an issue, should I just install 2.5 inch drives in my desktop to get the performance boost and with less power consumption?

 

[chyort]

your best bet is to look at benchmarks on the drive... in theory yes the 2.5 will have better performance because the heads dont have to move as far... But not all drives are made equal, so its hard to say 2.5 is always going to be better.

if your after performance, and dont care about price per gb, or size... check out the velociraptor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136260&Tpk=velociraptor

 

[aevm]

+1

 

[chookman]

+1 for the velociraptor...

Although i dont think the theory is correct about the 2.5 being faster... although i also dont know why... hope someone expands on it.

 

[royalcrown]

how about that a 3.5 inch drive has a larger diameter and the same density across the platter, so the outside "inch of the platter has a far higher throughput !

OP you really need to learn throughput, vs seek time and decide what you mean by "faster" to get an accurate answer. In general, more throughput helps with large files like mpeg 2, while better seek times matter more to small files.

As far as data transfer speeds...no, the 300 in sata 300 refers to the speed that the buffer can communicate with your mb...once that tiny buffer is empty, or full, info has to be written to or retrieved from the platters, all things being equal, for the first third of the drive or so, a larger disk will give you better performance because of that larger circumference....

Also don't forget...even if the drive is a bit faster , due to firmware or some such, your giving up a lot of room.

 

[chookman]

how about that a 3.5 inch drive has a larger diameter and the same density across the platter, so the outside "inch of the platter has a far higher throughput !

Get out of my head royalcrown

 

[cjl]

The 3.5" drives tend to be faster all around, mostly due to the power constraints that notebook drives tend to be under. The exceptions are 2.5" drives that are designed for non-notebook applications, like the Velociraptor.

 

[moboking]

The 3.5" drives tend to be faster all around, mostly due to the power constraints that notebook drives tend to be under. The exceptions are 2.5" drives that are designed for non-notebook applications, like the Velociraptor.

What is the power comsumption of this Velociraptor drive? I plan to put in two of these drives in a box that has only 250W of powersupply. It's an Atom bord so the cpu powerconsumption is not bad from the CPU. My worry is the drives and an 120mm fan.

 

[cjl]

You're running an Atom and want to run a velociraptor? That seems like a slightly unbalanced system to me, though you should definitely have adequate power. The velociraptor uses a fairly normal amount of power for a desktop drive, it just uses far more than almost any notebook drive.