The Truth About Hard Drive RPM (Rotations Per Minute)

[Wandering Flame]

I recently read this: How higher RPM hard drives rip you off | George Ou | ZDNet.com

This is what I found after doing a quick google search on Hard Drive RPM when I was customizing a Dell laptop that I was interested in buying....

My question is, is what that guy's saying is true? Or even to a degree? Like would I have any less storage space with a higher RPM than a lower one?

Is there ANY disadvantages to having a higher RPM other than slightly having to pay more?

Thanks.

 

[pparks1]

Is there ANY disadvantages to having a higher RPM other than slightly having to pay more?

Heat, noise, case vibrations.

 

[madtownidiot]

If you ignore the obvious slant of the article and pay attention, the useful information that can be gleaned from it is that a boost in performance can be gained by having a smaller partition for the OS and games, and a 2nd partition for media and larger files, something I've already found to be true on the laptop in my specs. On a 500GB HDD, the 1st partition is 80GB and contains windows 7 and all my programs and games, the 2nd partition is 40 GB for windows XP and some older apps that don't work as well in 7, the 3rd partition (247 GB) is for media and is 80% full, plus there is a logical partition which I use for linux

 

[cclloyd9785]

So does this mean that i should just get the 5400 RPM seagate momentus instead of the 7200. It will be 500 GB, and i planned on partitioning it into prolly a 100, 20, 200, and the rest.

 

[madtownidiot]

The 7200 rpm drive is significantly faster, but the 5400 rpm drive will last longer. I believe there has been a history of premature failure with the seagate momentus 7200.4 drives, although I'm using one and and haven't had any sign of problems. It is very fast.. cold startup on my machine is roughly 32 seconds, 17 seconds to desktop.

 

[JonM33]

I recently read this: How higher RPM hard drives rip you off | George Ou | ZDNet.com

This is what I found after doing a quick google search on Hard Drive RPM when I was customizing a Dell laptop that I was interested in buying....

My question is, is what that guy's saying is true? Or even to a degree? Like would I have any less storage space with a higher RPM than a lower one?

Is there ANY disadvantages to having a higher RPM other than slightly having to pay more?

Thanks.

He's an idiot. He's comparing enterprise level drives to desktop drives and tosses a lot of numbers at you.

 

[madtownidiot]

He's an idiot. He's comparing enterprise level drives to desktop drives and tosses a lot of numbers at you.

Kind of what I was trying to say, but more subtly

 

[JonM33]

The 7200 rpm drive is significantly faster, but the 5400 rpm drive will last longer. I believe there has been a history of premature failure with the seagate momentus 7200.4 drives, although I'm using one and and haven't had any sign of problems. It is very fast.. cold startup on my machine is roughly 32 seconds, 17 seconds to desktop.

5400RPM will last longer in a laptop and also use less power, which is a major concern in a laptop. It should also run cooler.

 

[madtownidiot]

5400RPM will last longer in a laptop and also use less power, which is a major concern in a laptop. It should also run cooler.

Another good point. Some laptops don't get rid of heat very efficiently, and probably shouldn't have a 7200 rpm installed, even though it would work. I got rid of a Compaq 6930p for that reason. As the article listed by OP could have stated if it's author hadn't been such a jacka**, you can get better performance from a HDD by partitioning the OS and programs separately from all idle data, such as media files. If you try it, you will notice a significant decrease in start up/shutdown times and increased overall responsiveness of your computer with a 60GB OS partition vs letting windows scatter its system files all over an entire 500GB HDD

 

[JonM33]

Another good point. Some laptops don't get rid of heat very efficiently, and probably shouldn't have a 7200 rpm installed, even though it would work. I got rid of a Compaq 6930p for that reason. As the article listed by OP could have stated if it's author hadn't been such a jacka**, you can get better performance from a HDD by partitioning the OS and programs separately from all idle data, such as media files. If you try it, you will notice a significant decrease in start up/shutdown times and increased overall responsiveness of your computer with a 60GB OS partition vs letting windows scatter its system files all over an entire 500GB HDD

Good point there. My main drive is a 1TB Samsung F1 but my OS/application partition is only 300GB in size. The last thing I want is for OS/application files to be spread over 1TB of space.

 

[Wandering Flame]

I am not that familiar with partitioning. Anyway, I'll stick with 5400 RPM and 500 GB since 500 GB only comes with 5400 RPM anyway. My laptop lasting shorter because of higher RPM doesn't sound great to me.

 

[madtownidiot]

I am not that familiar with partitioning. Anyway, I'll stick with 5400 RPM and 500 GB since 500 GB only comes with 5400 RPM anyway. My laptop lasting shorter because of higher RPM doesn't sound great to me.

Western digital and Seagate both make 7200 rpm 500GB HDDs for laptops. I'm willing to trade the shorter life for the performance boost since it is not much of a chore for me to replace a $90 HDD. It's a matter of personal preference.

 

[Wandering Flame]

I was talking about Dell computers, specifically Dell laptops.

 

[madtownidiot]

That's because the average dell would catch on fire if they tried to use the hardware I have in my laptop

 

[chrysalis]

I done exactly what that article said.

My old drive was a 36gig raptor. On paper it has superior access time to my new drive.
My new drive is a 640 gig WD black cavalier.

I made my C: partition the first 100gig of space. That 100gig partition at the start of the drive outperforms the raptor easily and is also 3x the size so fragmentation will be much less. As a bonus I get 500 gig of storage space on the 2nd partition.