How will a 5400rpm HDD handle streaming worlds in games?

[spongeguar]

So I'm building a new rig, but due to being $400 over budget, and having over 300gb of games, I've been forced to add in a 5400rpm hard drive.

Now I know that in games where the entire map is loaded I will only see a significant difference in loading times, but what about games where the world is streamed?
Most popular example would be World of Warcraft, where entire continents are streamed in with only one loading screen.
Will I be able to run this just fine with a 5400RPM HDD or is it going to stutter like a madman?

 

[virrze]

By how you phrase your words, it seems to me like you've already gotten a first hard drive. Post your specs and we'll see if we can find better deals and get you a 7,200rpm HDD.

 

[spongeguar]

By how you phrase your words, it seems to me like you've already gotten a first hard drive. Post your specs and we'll see if we can find better deals and get you a 7,200rpm HDD.

I've already purchased the 5400rpm because it's all I could fit into my budget (asked on several forums), I just want to know how it will run games.

 

[amnotanoobie]

I've already purchased the 5400rpm because it's all I could fit into my budget (asked on several forums), I just want to know how it will run games.

It would load a bit slower. This would mostly be about the seek times rather than the sequential read rate, as 5400 drives would need a bit more time finding the files. When it finds the files though, it should be pretty okay from there as I couldn't imagine you'd need more than 50~100MB/s to load files (unless we're talking of loading GB files at a time).

 

[np216]

30% hardisk in front run at 100%.. the rest 70% goes like curve down (become slower).. so you can trick your hardisk to put your system data in first place... and your favorite data in first... (try partition your hard disk...) lets say...30% first and 70% second... put your "movie or useless data" on 70%... favorite and system on 30%....

 

[spongeguar]

500GB 7200rpm hdd's are only $50. How much cheaper can it get?

Please don't start with this.
I was $400 over my budget, I was using the last few dollars that I had to buy the HDD.
I want to know how it'll hold up.
If you're going to criticize me on my purchase, then please stay out of my thread.

 

[HansVonOhain]

The only way is to try it out.... I am with zipzoom.

 

[amnotanoobie]

Please don't start with this.
I was $400 over my budget, I was using the last few dollars that I had to buy the HDD.
I want to know how it'll hold up.
If you're going to criticize me on my purchase, then please stay out of my thread.

With a 5400rpm drive, the worst thing you could experience would probably be longer loading times (usually a few seconds more). With streaming worlds, it depends on how the game was made to handle such situations. You might see either choppiness (lag), or a bit of a pause, or maybe even just a loading screen.

It would work, you don't have to worry about anything, it would just load a bit slower.

 

[tveror]

You guys talking about something like that: http://cast7.com