Notebook HDD - 7200 vs. 5400 RPM - noticeable difference?

[xfile]

Hi,

Am going to upgrade a larger HDD for the notebook, and my question is - will
7200 RPM really outperform 5400 RPM with a "noticeable" difference?

The price between the two are "noticeable" but wondering about their
performance would be the same?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[lomaca]

Hi,

Am going to upgrade a larger HDD for the notebook, and my question is
will
7200 RPM really outperform 5400 RPM with a "noticeable" difference?

The price between the two are "noticeable" but wondering about their
performance would be the same?

Many thanks in advance.

Depends!
If you have to access a large database and have a small installe
memory, so that the HD is being read almost constantly, then it is som
improvement.
I still would recommend buying more memory than a faster HD, if yo
are upgrading to a larger HD anyway, and the price difference is great
then I would still say get the slower HD AND more memory

 

[xfile]

Hi,

Thanks for your kind reply.

(1) I've got 1 GB memory, and it should be fine(?), and

(2) I do not access a "large" database, except that I have a large amount of
files (that's why need more space) in the HDD.

So for my case, 5400 RPM should be fine as well?

Is it true that Serial ATA for notebook (as opposed to desktop) also does
not provide much of "noticeable" differences?

Thanks again.

 

[DL]

Even Sata on a desktop will not neccessarily show any obvious improvements.
Like most things it depends on the apps you are using

 

[lomaca]

Hi,

Thanks for your kind reply.

(1) I've got 1 GB memory, and it should be fine(?), and

(2) I do not access a "large" database, except that I have a large
amount of
files (that's why need more space) in the HDD.

So for my case, 5400 RPM should be fine as well?

Is it true that Serial ATA for notebook (as opposed to desktop) also
does
not provide much of "noticeable" differences?

Thanks again.

1Gb of memory is all you need, unless doing video work but I would not
do that on a laptop.
Just get the 5400 HD it will do fine.
Good luck with your projects!

 

[John O]

(1) I've got 1 GB memory, and it should be fine(?), and

Should be, depends on the apps you run and how many at once.

(2) I do not access a "large" database, except that I have a large amount
of files (that's why need more space) in the HDD.

So for my case, 5400 RPM should be fine as well?

Probably, and it won't drain the battery as fast as a 7200 or get as hot.
You can probably measure the performance diff between the two, but
'noticable' is subjective. If they made 10k rpm drives for notebooks, then
were talking noticable speed, as well as a major amount of heat and no
battery life, too.

Is it true that Serial ATA for notebook (as opposed to desktop) also does
not provide much of "noticeable" differences?

Right. SATA has a *potential* for major speed improvements, but the
bottleneck is (and will remain) the time required to get the data under the
read/write heads.

-John O

 

[John R Weiss]

Am going to upgrade a larger HDD for the notebook, and my question is - will
7200 RPM really outperform 5400 RPM with a "noticeable" difference?

I know that going from a 4200 to a 5600 RPM HD on my old HP laptop changed it
from rreeaallllyy ssllooww to a nice machine. Given a reasonable CPU and
front-side bus speed, I suspect the change from 5600 to 7200 would be similar.

HD access is likely to be the choke point in an older/cheaper laptop for
anything except dial-up web browsing.

 

[xfile]

Very well true and thanks

Even Sata on a desktop will not neccessarily show any obvious
improvements.
Like most things it depends on the apps you are using

 

[xfile]

Thank you!!!

1Gb of memory is all you need, unless doing video work but I would not
do that on a laptop.
Just get the 5400 HD it will do fine.
Good luck with your projects!

 

[xfile]

Hi,

Thanks and I forgot the effect of "heat" and battery time as both are
important factors for notebook as opposed to desktop.

Thanks again for reminding me that.

 

[xfile]

Hi,

Thanks and I've done some researches on the net and the result seems to be
the same for from 4200 to 5600, it is a major improvements, while further
increase may not so "noticeable" at least for most users.

 

[aus]

Hi, you will notice a decent speeding up in general. I put a Seagate
high availability 7200 notebook drive (the one designed for 24x7 use)
into my IBM and it made all the difference but I'm coming from 4200.

People often don't realise the difference a step up in platter speed
makes - specially for booting and program loads - depends if this is
important. But do note that it is a tad more noisy - so if this bothers
you try and check it out in person first.


similar drive:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article278-page1.html