Hard Drive RPM in a lappy...

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

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Joined
19 Oct 2002
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hey peeps...

i'm getting a new laptop soon and the two laptops im umming and arring over have different speed drives...

the first one has 100GB 5400rpm and (the next one up in the series incidentally) has 160GB but a slower 4200rpm speed...

now, everything about the higher spec lappy is lurvly except this drop in hdd speed... just wanted to ask if its going to be a big issue? the laptops main uses will be for work which will include a lot of design work, mainly illustrator and photoshop style applications...

cheers for any advice :)
 
I think that if you will be using the laptop a lot then you will notice the difference in speed, what else is different between the laptops? A hard drive is one of the slowest components in a modern PC so getting the fastest one you can afford makes a lot of sense normally, maybe ask to change the one on the higher spec laptop for a 5400rpm model?
 
semi-pro waster said:
I think that if you will be using the laptop a lot then you will notice the difference in speed, what else is different between the laptops? A hard drive is one of the slowest components in a modern PC so getting the fastest one you can afford makes a lot of sense normally, maybe ask to change the one on the higher spec laptop for a 5400rpm model?
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naah the specs are rigid, i'm looking at the Sony VAIO FE21H & FE21M... the only other difference between the two is the M (which is the higher spec one with the bigger but slower HDD) comes with a 128MB GeForce 7600 GO whereas the lower model has a 256MB GeForce 7400 GO...

their spec setups are a bit weird aint they :confused:

which one would you go for? (recommend me a totally different laptop if you want but i am going with sony cuz of the superb physical design and build quality... shallow i know but you pay harldly any more than toshiba or acer's offering for example...)
 
basically, let me put the question like this, cuz this is what it comes down to...

i am going to be doing mainly work and maybe the odd game, so which do i go for:

• 100GB @ 5400 & GeForce 256MB 7400 GO

• 160GB @ 4200 & GeForce 128MB 7600 GO

i.e. if i will notice hardly any difference between the HDD speeds but a big difference betweed the video cards, then the latter is the one to go for, but it may be vice verca in reality...
 
Ok I don't know too much about the respective graphics cards but I'd say if the primary use is work then I'd go with the more basic model because of the faster hard drive. You might have to lower a couple of settings in games but I think it will be more pleasant for normal use.
 
go for the 7600 go lappy. reason is the gfx card is next to impossible to upgrade. but the hard drive you can change very easily.

Do what i did. my lappy came with a 40 gig 4200rpm drive i upgraded the drive to a 60gig 5400rpm drive. i saw an instant speed boost. and what i did with the old laptop 4200rpm drives was i put it into an external usb caddy which cost me £5.82p inc vat from my local pc parts shop.

do the same thing with your lappy. also these days you can get 7200rpm lappy drives so you can upgrade to a higher speed easily.

also take into account that the difference in speed between the 2 drives your getting is not going to be as big as it sounds since the slower drive has a larger capacity which in turn means it has more denser platters so it can pull off more data per rotation. so in reality the divverence can be at most up to 15-20% quicker for the 5400rpm drive when accessing lots of small files.


so i conclude ge the lappy with the best gfx card you can afford. you will look back at this post by me and slap yourself if you go for the slower gfx card lappy.
 
sounds like good advice... but the guy on the phone at the sony centre said the HDDs are not upgradeable :( - is he talking out of his ring?

also, will upgrading from a 4200rpm 160GB to a 7200rpm 60GB decrease my battery life by a noticable amount since the battery life is one of the main selling points for me?
 
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I upgraded my laptop from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive and the battery life wasn't noticeably affected. The speed increase, however, was pretty huge. I wouldn't want to use a lappy with a 4200rpm drive personally.
 
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