5400rpm or 7200rpm HDD for laptop

bushmins

bushmins

bushmins

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I have a high spec laptop with a small 160gb 5400rpm HDD. I need something bigger now, should i go for the slower or faster speed? Is the running temp going to be a lot different?
 
Do you need the performance?

If you need the performance, you might want to consider an SSD.
 
It really depends on the drives, unfortunately there aren't very many sites that focus on temperatures and power draw over raw performance.
Silent PC Review has an excellent roundup, but it's horribly out of date.

The very general rule of thumb is that the faster the drive, the hotter it runs, and the more power it draws (Excluding SSDs).

Any reason you can't just get an external drive and save yourself the hassle of cloning or reinstalling your machine?

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I use 5400 RPM drives in one of my machines and have never had any noticable issues with performance.
 
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bushmins said:
I have a high spec laptop with a small 160gb 5400rpm HDD. I need something bigger now, should i go for the slower or faster speed? Is the running temp going to be a lot different?
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I replaced a 60Gbyte HD in a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a 160Gbyte single platter drive. Not a great comparison as the 6000 has an IDE interface and so a 7200 drive was not an option. Anyway the new drive is a little bit quicker and actually runs cooler, though it has no effect on the laptop from the user point of view. The heat from the HD in insignificant compared to the heat from the CPU and GFX.

If you compare the older 5400 sata drives with new ones, the new ones, even 7200 drives, use less power and so should run cooler.

I ran an SSD in a netbook for a while. It was a lot faster but had no influence on battery life. That was an early OCZ one, but the power differences for SSD's are not that great with current tech.
 
Power is not really an problem, the laptop is my desktop replacment. Heat of course is a problem, i like to keep the laptop as cool as possible.

SSD is not an option for me, too expensive for tiny amount of space.
 
i have 2 7200rpm drives in my laptop and heat wise its no different to the 5400rpm
also not noticed battery running down any faster
as said modern drives dont use any more power than the 5400rpm`s
 
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Well there are only really two 7200rpm models, WD Scorpio Black and the Seagate Moments 7200.4 which performs worse than the 5400rpm WD Blues. The 320GB Black is only the slightest bit faster than the 500GB Blue and now there's a 640GB Blue it'll only have quicker access times and nothing else.
 
In my old laptop, I moved from a 5400rpm drive to a 320gb WD Black. I noticed a decent speed increase with the move. Well worth it, and they cost quite a bit more a while back.

You want real pain, use a 4200rpm drive! :eek:
Just opening normal apps is when I noticed the speed difference the most.
You want the 7200rpm! Or an SSD... :D
 
yeh I have installed a 7,200rpm scorpio black in my sis' laptop, no more heat, better performance, the modern ones are are decent upgrade path for any laptop imo
 
Is it me or are the WD Scorpio Black 320GB rarer than rocking horse poo. Managed to source one this evening after days of searching. Seems like they're out of stock nationwide.
 
mike gunnz said:
Is it me or are the WD Scorpio Black 320GB rarer than rocking horse poo. Managed to source one this evening after days of searching. Seems like they're out of stock nationwide.
Click to expand...

Yeh, just my luck i want one and there are none!

I saw one last night, but it was gone by the time i got home. :(
 
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