5400 vs 7200: worth the price?

[smokey2]

Hello,
Looking at purchasing a low budget Dell Inspiron 17R (6gb memory,500-640gb hard drive, i5 process), but would like an option for a 7200 vs 5400 rpm hard drive. Is it worth paying potentially another 150.00 for a $700-$800 (base price) computer?

 

[nna2]

5400 is slower, i have a 5900, what your main problem is, the first time you open a program/tab ect. your going to encounter a longer load screen than you would with a 7200, but after that long load screen, the 7200 will be no jumpier

and windows may take longer to load... by the money you save running 2000rpm slower, you eat up enough power waiting longer to outmatch your savings

 

[Emperus]

Here's a suggestion, do not buy pre-assembled company junk. They are mostly overpriced. Build it on your own. Its easy and informative. Plus there is the element of fun.

Talking about hard drives, there is a good enough performance difference between a 7200 rpm drive compared to a 5400 rpm drive. The power savings are not significant

 

[Raiddinn]

The Inspirion 17R is a laptop.

It is quite difficult to make a DIY laptop.

All that the OP can do with the Inspirion 17R is buy a 7200 HD on the open market and physically replace the old one.

I think it would be better if the OP just picked a different kind of laptop that had 7200 RPM hard drives in it instead of 5400. I think the better user experience is worth the price.

You can get a lot more than 7200 RPMs if you are willing to go another $150 higher on the base price. Of that I am quite sure.

 

[nna2]

or if you feel like it, you could get the 5400 one, and buy a 7200 or 10k rpm drive later for cheaper XD... and when it comes to building a pc outta parts, if your not careful it can cost you more than its worth

edit, guy above got it first, didnt read all the way through his

 

[Emperus]

The Inspirion 17R is a laptop.

Slipped on that. Sorry to all. Thank you for correcting me.