Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,

I just like to know if anyone has switch their default 5400rpm SATA drive to a 7200rpm and see a significant performance gain (in boot up time, video encoding, *gaming*)? If so, can anyone share their experience?

In addition, will an upgrade of RAM from 1GB to 2GB (2 * 1GB for dual channel) gives me a better "performance per dollar" ratio?

Thanks in advance.

What are using your T60 for?

I just ordered 2 1GB sticks for my T60 because I am running virtual machines on it and I need as much RAM as I can get.

As for the hard drive speed - I do not think that you will notice enought of a performance gain to justify the cost, but I have not tried it myself.

I've always upgraded to 7200 and have always found the improvement in overall snappiness very noticeable.... and then I purchased an X41T..... whose 4200 drive redefines the meaning of glacial. I no longer use it, it was so slow. I've learned that 7200 is mandatory, at least for me. I mostly do engineering and media transcoding

Thanks for everyone's quick replies.

I think I will go for a 7200 drive upgrade.

However, I have one more question, is the battery life significantly lowered by the 7200 drive too?

ronli_84 wrote: Is the battery life significantly lowered by the 7200 drive too?

Nope. I haven't noticed any change in battery life.

Have not swapped upgraded to a 7200 rpm in my t60 "yet" (soon as brent get some I will) but did on my other two T series and there is a definate performance increase and like RonS said no detraction from battery life, no heat problems, just "snappier" which is nice.

I've tried T60's with 1GB, 1.5GB, and 2GB RAM configurations and I would say that 1.5GB should be the minimum especially since Windows startup programs consume alot of memory.

I think 2GB (2x1GB) setup however is the most practical setup for mid-high to high end laptops nowadays as 2GB RAM sticks cost too much.

ronli_84 wrote:Thanks for everyone's quick replies.

I think I will go for a 7200 drive upgrade.

However, I have one more question, is the battery life significantly lowered by the 7200 drive too?

I've switched from 5400 to 7200 RPM drives on an X32 and a G4 Apple PowerBook and noticed overall decrease in battery life of at most 10 minutes on a full charge (4-5 hour batteries).

Likewise I noticed decreases in boot times and application launch, but like the runtime, the improvements weren't particularly dramatic. The powerBook, for example, went from a 1:40 to a 1:28 boot time in OS X. Clearly an improvement, but nothing to get excited about. The improvement would likely be more significant in applications that did a lot of reading and writing to the disk such as PhotoShop, but for routine use it was only barely noticeable.

But isn't 7200rpm louder and hotter? I'm sure that 7200rpm is definately hotter, but i'm not sure it is louder. My7200 60gb in T43 was hotter but quieter than my current 5400 80gb. Both were Hitachi.

The 7200RPM drives probably do average a bit louder and hotter, but the differences aren't drastic. The 12" powerBook is well known for transmitting hard drive heat straight through the aluminum case and into the user's hand, but it didn't feel any worse after the drive upgrade.

Actually the 1.8" 4200 RPM drive in my current X41 gives off more heat through the palmrest I'm used to with 5400 or 7200 RPM 2.5" drives.

ronli_84 wrote:I just like to know if anyone has switch their default 5400rpm SATA drive to a 7200rpm and see a significant performance gain

I have done this upgrade on my T60. While there is some noticeable difference, I would not do it again. The amount of speed increase is just not that significant. I think in some cases on this forum the reports of dramatic differences are human nature after one makes a decision and wants to be right.

I upgrade to 7200rpm drives on both my T41 and T60, and I would do it again. The machines boot up much faster and starting up application is also sped up. Not sure how much of an increase but after all, the drive is the bottleneck in the computer, so anything is an improvement.

The performance is a measurable quantity. There are a number of benchmarks on the net. I will perform benchmark tests on my T60 when the 7200 RPM drive arrives. here is a nice review http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... -7200.html

archer6,

I think in some cases on this forum the reports of dramatic differences are human nature after one makes a decision and wants to be right

Basically your saying everyones answer is subjective, except yours?
I noticed an increase in performance from my t30/t42. To me even a slight increase is worth the money, maybe not to someone else. If there were no "real" increase in performance why would anyone purchase or recommend a 7200rpm hard drive?

To me it's kind of like the mortorcycles I've owned, custom exaust could add 5 horsepower, tweaked out carbs another 10, polished heads 5, and on and on. Same with a computer, just adding a small boost here and there will help the overall performance.

Kyocera wrote: Basically your saying everyones answer is subjective, except yours?

I believe my response was taken out of context, and perhaps it was a bit generalized on my part. I simply meant that my personal experience with this upgrade was not as dramatic as some here had expressed. Nor was I suggesting that I was the utlimate expert, or for that matter being critical of others viewpoints, although after further review I can see how my post could have been read that way.

Kyocera wrote:I noticed an increase in performance from my t30/t42. To me even a slight increase is worth the money, maybe not to someone else. If there were no "real" increase in performance why would anyone purchase or recommend a 7200rpm hard drive?

I agree, and it's obvious to me that this (7200rpm drive) is important enough to be included in the T60p models.

I ask myself... just what was I thinking when I authored that post....

archer6,

Nor was I suggesting that I was the utlimate expert, or for that matter being critical of others viewpoints, although after further review I can see how my post could have been read that way.

Your definately an expert, i read your posts.

I ask myself... just what was I thinking when I authored that post

Been there, done that.

I am upgrading to 2 GB of RAM tomorrow and I will post how much of a difference it made going from 1 GB.

Now that this thread has evolved so have my views on upgrading to a 7200.

This is what I am going to do! I am going to upgrade to a 7200, and buy the ultrabay hard drive adapter to put the old hard drive in. That will boost my performance and give me ~200 GB in my T60!

Thank you thinkpad community for opening my eyes!

how much does the adapter costs?

I do not own a T60 yet, but I am interested the performance discussion. I am wondering to what sense we are discussing about the performance.

I think RPM upgrade definately will boost performance. But that only happens when an application communicate with the hd a lot. For a lot of applications that are either CPU or memory intensive, people may not notice any difference. But in real world, how many applications are communication-intensive?

irfan wrote:how much does the adapter costs?

It costs $50.

Part number: 40Y8725
Link:
http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... lCurrId=73

thnx a lot

I upgraded my 5400 drive to a 7200 in my Z60T. I did benchmarks before and after and as expected there was about a 23% increase in read and write speeds. The overall benchmark did not go up much tho when you factor in all the other tests. Yes, it did give my laptop a bit more zip, and now I have a 2nd drive to make backups to, so it was worth it for me. BTW it is a Hitachi SATA drive. I do notice just a bit more vibration but not enough to be concerned. I only mention it since the 5400 drive was usually silent.

Wow I had forgotten that this topic was still here.

Thanks for letting us know your experiences. I am still planning on upgrading to the 7200 drive and buying the enclosure.

Right now I am holding out because as a college student, $ = not around

For decent harddisk-reviews (also mobile ones) visit www.storagereview.com
They have the best harddisk reviews and they review them al in the same way, so one can easily compare the results.
Forgot to mention: They also measure the actual Power usage, so you can easily see what a change of harddrive will do to your battery life.

markgreene wrote:Right now I am holding out because as a college student, $ = not around

Don't worry, prices of hard drives are dropping rapidly. You will be able to afford one really soon. I am waiting for the 120GB 5400rpm notebook HDD's to drop below $80 (including shipping) on Newegg.com, and I bet the wait won't last for very long.