Difference between an I3 7200 RPM and I5 5400 RPM

I have a question. I know a 7200 RPM SATA hard drive is supposedly faster than a 5400 RPM SATA hard drive. And an I5-430 is faster than a I3-330m.

But is an I5-430 with 5400 RPM hard drive worth $100 more than an I3-330 with a 7200 RPM? Or in other words, is the performance improvement of the I5 to the I3 negated if the Hard drive speed is slower? Just curious.

Well...I already bought the I3-330M but I just saw this I-5 for only $100 more and also with a 10-key numeric keypad. So I had some buyers remorse. But then I saw the hard drive was 5400rpm so I was wondering if I still made a good choice.

Most of the I5s I had been seeing were about $200 more and not worth it.

Yes it is because a 7200 RPM HDD is just slightly more expensive compared to a 5400 RPM HDD.

smarteyeball said:

Good question - unfortunately it's hard to say - yes the 5400rpm drive will slow you down a little with th i5 430, but personally I'd paid the extra $100 for a superior chip.


Besides, a laptop/netbook HDD is far easier to replace than a CPU.

Ok so tell me is an I-5 really that much better than an I-3? Can you give me a real-world example where I will be doing something and wishing "Man I could've used an I-5 right now"