How many RPM does my HDD have?

[Tonsgaard]

I googled the model number, but I get different results, some saying 5400 RPM and some saying 7200 RPM.

So my question is: How many RPM does this HDD have?

Picture related:

 

[kbrady1979]

Green drives are advertised as Intellipower, not 5400/5900/7200RPM. Most likely they are either 5400 or 5900RPM but there is no way to know short of using scientific equipment to measure the frequency of the drive.

 

[Tonsgaard]

Well that sucks, since I want to use a harddisk with 7200+ RPM.

Thanks anyways

 

[kbrady1979]

That HDD is more for storage instead of the Operating System. You'd be better off with an SSD if you want better performance for your OS drive.

 

[Tonsgaard]

Yeah but I don't have the budget for a SSD as of right now, so I was hoping this would be a 7200 RPM HDD so I could use it as a temporary replacement for a SSD.

 

[kbrady1979]

Gotcha. Sorry to say it's not though........most people generally assume Green drives are "variable speed" and they are between 5400 and 5900 RPM, but they are a fixed speed. More than likely they are 5900RPM hard drives.

 

[alphanumeric]

If its a 3.5 inch form factor drive its likely a 7200 RPM drive. If its a 2.5 inch form factor drive its likely a 5400 RPM drive. Desktop 3.5 inch drives are usually 7200 RPM drives while laptop 2.5 inch drives are 5400 RPM drives. Green is a power saving version, go Black for more performance.

 

[Tonsgaard]

I see. Thanks a lot for your knowledge, +rep

I went to look at SSD's anyways and I found two fairly cheap 120GB ones, but I am not sure what to look for.
If you had to chose one of these, which one would it be? (They both cost exactly the same in my country)

Kingston: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB review | Disk drives (hdd & ssd) Reviews | TechRadar
Samsung: Specs - Solid State Drives MZ-7TE120 | Samsung Memory & Storage

 

[alphanumeric]

It depends on what speed your SATA port is. The Kingston drive is SATA 600, if you only have SATA 300 (SATA II) its overkill.
I have a Crucial M4 128GB SSD and a Crucial M4 256GB SSD in my ASUS K75DE Laptop. I have no complaints, the price was right and the customer reviews were good.

 

[kbrady1979]

These days form factor doesn't really play a part in drive speed. His particular HDD is advertised as Intellispeed, which is generally regarded as low power/low speed mostly for data storage.

It doesn't make a difference as far as performance whether he has SATA II or SATA III ports. It doesn't affect Random 4K Read/Write speeds or Access times. Also, if he upgrades his system in the next few years and has SATA III ports, the SSD is ready to go. A SATA II SSD or one running at SATA II speed is a world faster than any hard drive made.

I would go with the Samsung EVO for sure.

 

[Tonsgaard]

Found a comparison tool and compared the two: AnandTech | Bench - SSD

Looks to me like the Samsung is better overall, although I have no idea what to look for to be honest.

 

[alphanumeric]

Just about any SSD drive is going to get you 5x the speed of a spinner drive. Reliability becomes a factor, read the reviews and go from their, that's what I did.

 

[kbrady1979]

Samsung is THE gold standard in SSD's.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

Green drives are advertised as Intellipower, not 5400/5900/7200RPM. Most likely they are either 5400 or 5900RPM but there is no way to know short of using scientific equipment to measure the frequency of the drive.

WD says: "Rotational Speed 5400-7200 RPM"
Specifications for the 500 GB WD AV Green Power Serial ATA hard drive (WD5000AVCS, WD5000AVVS)

Was this drive pulled from a DVR? WD says: "WD AV Green"

 

[kbrady1979]

Yes, I've seen that, but I guarantee that they don't go up to 7200RPM.

 

[Tonsgaard]

I took the drive from a NAS, I enherited an old computer from a dead family member so I know nothing about it except that.

EDIT: to be more specific I took the drive from a ZyXEL NSA-310.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If its a 3.5 inch form factor drive its likely a 7200 RPM drive. If its a 2.5 inch form factor drive its likely a 5400 RPM drive. Desktop 3.5 inch drives are usually 7200 RPM drives while laptop 2.5 inch drives are 5400 RPM drives. Green is a power saving version, go Black for more performance.

Form factor has little to do with HDD speed. I've seen 5400 rpm 3.5" HDDs and 7200 rpm 2.5" HDDs. In the case of the WD Greens, rotational speed is supposedly 5400-7200 rpm, according to WD, but in actual practice, they probably spend most of their time around 5400 rpm if not spun down by the computer.

The Greens are OK for storage but lousy for the OS.