7200 RPM Performance

This Hitachi model looks like a 5400 RPM model, correct? One thing I like about my stock Seagate, I guess, is that it is soooo quiet, no thrashing, no rattles, don't even hear it. Maybe I'll leave it alone, but to get a little more speed and space it looks like the Hitachi may be the way to go.

 

Yes that's a 5400rpm drive. But because it has 250GB on two platters, it performs closer to WD3200BEKT, which only has 160GB on two platters.

The single platter 5K500.b 250GB would be a good choice for a netbook. Single platter drives tend to make less noise, heat and vibration than double platter drives.

 

Ok, thats kind of what I was picking up through you wise sages through this thread. Due to the small size of netbooks, single platter maybe better to go. Hitachi 5k500b 250gb single platter HDD. I'll do some searching on that. Any places you guys recommend. I usually just look on ebay.

 

Ok, I found a Hitachi Travelstar 5k500.b single platter 250gb hd on Nextag for $53.74. It appears the speed is 5400 as is my Seagate, but looks like the seek time is 12ms compared to the specs I put up with my seagate at 26ms on HDTune. My question, is it going to be worth the hassle to pick up this HDD to see some gain in performance? I mean will I notice a gain? One last thing is it the RPM that determines the drive being single platter or dual platter, or is it the size? Thanks again.

 

It is the size. The current generation of 2.5" hard drives can squeeze up to 250GB onto a single platter. Manufacturers can offer 500GB variants by using two platters.

 

I appreciate knowing that. So really there is not a big difference other than some more size in the Hitachi 5400 that is 250gb and my stock Seagate which is 160gb. Would you all agree to that?

 

No the Hitachi is quite a lot faster than your Seagate. Check the HDTune score here: http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42799

Typical moments when you notice a faster HDD:
- booting or hibernating your system
- starting applications
- virus scan
- copying files
- multi tasking

But if your system now boots in 40 seconds, with the Hitach it may be 33 seconds... Is it really worth it?

I replaced the 160GB/5400rpm in my NC10 with a 7200rpm WD. Was it really worth it? Not really for my usage patterns. Here's my review where you can see the performance impact:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=379623&highlight=WD1600BEKT

 

After a lot of looking and thinking today on the ideas, I decided to get the WD 5400 500GB SATA HDD. I figure its a little bit better than my Seagate, quiet, low on power consumption and gives me nothing but space for video files and such. I keep saying I won't use this as my primary laptop as I have about 3 laptops and 8 desktops in my house (we have 7 kids) but I find myself using it, or it just seems to always be in my hands. Is this a good enough choice? I am assuming next, that I'll need to get Norton Ghost and create an image on an external hard drive?

1 "Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD5000BEVT"

Thanks again, I learned a lot about hard drives today in general.

 

The WD5000BEVT is a very good drive. It's marginally faster than the Hitachi 5K500.b.

But the Hitachi 5K500.b uses slightly less power (in real life, I'm not talking about specifications. let me know if you need the link). Also the WD500BEVT has had some reports of noise, while the Hitachi 5K500.b doesn't. That's not to say that some WD5000BEVTs can not be quiet.

 

Well the Hard Drive is on its way, should be here before the weekend. Over the weekend or first of next week, I'll make sure to post, assuming I get the ghosting done and the hard drive installed correctly, on how the drive seems. I'll tell you what though, I wish I would have done this when I did the RAM upgrade, I'm dreading going back in there again. Its just enough to make you a little nervous.

 

It's all good experience. In the unfortunate event of a future hard drive failure you will be less worried about tackling it. I have done 4 AA1 RAM upgrades now and am almost fearless!

 

I did get the WD 5400 rpm 500gb hard drive and it installed easily. I would recommend the upgrade. I did a fresh install of XP after backing up my files and such. The hard drive is quiet and seems more responsive. I took longer getting my files versus a USB boot, but either way I got there and am pleased with it. This with the RAM update and eboostr for my SD card and tweaking XP really makes a difference.

 

Really, I am surprised to listen it. :roll: