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"Hard Drive Speed - 5400RPM or 7200RPM?"

Hi there,

I have a 6GB HDD thats been overflowing for some time now so its time to splash out on that hard earned cash and get a new HDD. I've got my eye on SR's 40GB HDDs for £99. The only thing is that they are 5400RPM. Is this easily fast enough for games, mp3s and programs? Would a faster HDD improve game speed? I've thought about the more expensive 7200RPM HDDs but I hear these, although faster, create more noise and heat up a lot quicker thus reducing life time of the HDD.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi there,

I have a 6GB HDD thats been overflowing for some time now so its time to splash out on that hard earned cash and get a new HDD. I've got my eye on SR's 40GB HDDs for £99. The only thing is that they are 5400RPM. Is this easily fast enough for games, mp3s and programs? Would a faster HDD improve game speed? I've thought about the more expensive 7200RPM HDDs but I hear these, although faster, create more noise and heat up a lot quicker thus reducing life time of the HDD.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'll reply properly when I finish this ice-cream and have 2 hands to type..

Ok =)

The only advantage of a higher RPM is faster seek time - if you have fragmented files, or lots of small ones to copy, then you will notice a difference. As most files on your PC do fragment during use, it would be a useful upgrade if you could afford it, and you should notice a difference - having said that, I've used both (only a 5400 in here) without noticing a huge difference, but it would probably be more evident with prolonged use.

I've seen 7200rpm 40gb drives for £110 or so, have a look around (sorry SR, I get hardware from elsewhere, I wont advertise anywhere here..)

I also have 7200 RPM drives and there is a little difference, the speed of the drive determines exactly what reaper said, but there is also a massive difference in the drive if it is to be set-up on a UDMA 100 controller.

There is one thing you want a "faster" hard drive for and thats for using midi, or trying to record or play detailed music, if you are considering recording or making your own music with it (i know you mentioned mp3s) then you should go for the 72000 if not the normal one should be fine

I will mainly be using it for playing games, dvds and playing mp3s. I wouldn't be recording or creating my own mp3s, just ones I've downloaded.

Buying a 7400rpm HDD for MP3 playback is jst stupid. Your PC should be able to keep up and then some. I have a 5400rpm drive and I play high quality MP3 files and midi constantly. You should look at the mb/sec access speed instead.

How much RAM have you got? more RAM increased speed dramatically, much more than a 7400rpm HDD. It's also much faster as well.

The best thing to do to increase hard disk speed is either buy an ATA 100 motherboard or controller card alloing with an ATA 100 disk. The other option is SCSI, expensive but nice, very nice.

This is so very true, when you look at Nero burning ROM software and test the drive speeds, my UDMA 100 drive comes up something like 4-8 Meg (very inconsistent I know) but my Seagate Cheetah 9 Gig 10,000RPM SCSI (not showing off in the slightest) drive in my network server hits over 20 Meg every time. It is conected to an Tekram 2930 card with it's own bios. And it flies compared to the machine in my room which has a UDMA 100 Abit KA7-100 motherboard and a 30Gb Maxtor Diamondmax drive.

Not showing off or anything Bonus?