How much of a difference does a 7200rpm HD make?

[Pareez]

Hi all,

I'm trying to build a new computer and I'm just wondering how much of a difference does a 7200rpm vs. 5400rpm HD make in a computer?

I'm looking at getting a new computer with an Athlon XP between 1800+ and 2000+; 256 MB DDR-SDRAM 333; MSI GeForce4 Ti 4400 video card; and a SB Audigy X-Gamer. I have a Western Digital 40GB 5400rpm HD that I would still like to use. Will I see a drastic decrease in performance if I don't use a 7200rpm HD? Would it be wiser to use a 7200rpm HD to make the system more balanced? Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks,
Pareez

 

[Arrow]

A 7200RPM drive offers a theoretical 33% improvement over the 5400RPM drives. Now, in reality, this might not be true, but with a system like yours, I'd spend the negligible difference for a 7200RPM drive. Your system would suffer unnecessarily if you got a 5400RPM drive.

Rob
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[nfl2k2]

if you do video capturing it makes a big difference. you wont' loose nearly as many frames as with a 5400

 

[teepo]

i would go with the 7200 because the price increase is not too significant and performance is greatly acceled. i went for a 13 gig 5400 to a 46 gig 7200 and i noticed that installations were about 3/4 the time of what it took on the 5400.

 

[FUNCTOR]

I say definitely go with the 7200 rpm drive.

There are three factors that affect disk access. First, the heads have to move over the correct track on the platter, next the head has to wait until the desired sectors are underneath the head, and finally the head reads the data in the sectors.

Waiting for the desired sectors is the biggest bottleneck. On average, the desired sectors are on the exact opposite of the platter relative to where the heads are. So, on average, you have to wait half tha amount of time it takes the disk to rotate to get to your sectors.

If you are using a 5400 rpm drive, this waiting time would be 11.111 miliseconds, but for a 7200 rpm drive, it would only be 8.333 miliseconds (assuming I havent screwed anything up).

The other two factors are not nearly as important as the rotational speed. They are in the microsecond range, not mili. It may not seem like much of an improvement, but I think you can really notice the difference.

All things must surely have to end...
Functor

 

[kief]

Yes, there is no reason to hose a great system with a 5400 RPM drive! There is good difference between the two. You may even think about one of the Western Digital special edition (8 meg cache) drives as your system would benefit from it a good bit!

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