Results of upgrading the HD of an old system

For those with or who know people with computers which are getting on a bit, it is worth swapping out the hard disk for a new model (and ghosting over). I just upgraded my uncles 20GB 5400RPM drive for a new 40GB 7200RPM and it made a big difference.

Fujitsu 20GB 5400RPM 512k Cache


Samsung 40GB 7200RPM 2MB Cache


A nice improvement on overall performance I think you'll agree (and quieter too). I would say if you have a system which is 4-5 years old, its worth adding a bit more ram and ghosting a new hard disk in and it keeps it going without hassle for another few years It only cost £25.

Interesting, but expected, When I upgraded from a 5400 to a 7200 about 6 years ago there was a similar performance increase (OK not 50meg a sec, but much quicker)

However, does anyone have any info on expected performance increase from upgrading EIDE ATA 133 drives (80 / 160 gig Seagate 7200.9) to a 500G SATAII connector.

I'm planning on buying a SATA card and adding in a couple of drives, would performance be the same?

Also, I have a couple of SCSI LVD 9 gig Seagate 7200K cheetahs here, Would they be worth installing the OS onto as RAID 0?