HDD Performance Poll, How fast is good enough?

[jack NYC]

Concerning HDD upgrades:
It seems as though upgrading the main HDD is a great way to boost performance of an aging Thinkpad.
I would love to hear opinions about 7200 vs 5400 performance. Is the difference really significant? Noise? Heat?
I have an A31p and am looking to get a faster main HDD. I thought that the 7200 wa a no brainer but some on here seem to hint that the difference between the two might not be so significant.
Thanks for any feedback.
jack

[Batuta]

...

[joprodse]

I went from the original 4200rpm to the 5400 and finally the 7200. The different between 4200 and 5400 wasn't that significant, but when the 7K60 was booting upp for the first time I was amazed!
It's quiet and it doesn't get that much hotter than the 5400
This puppy rocks, and really gave my old X30 a major performanceboost! Buy buy buy!

[jack NYC]

exaactly which 7200 did you get?
sounds like just the kind of info I am looking for

[The Weissman]

Here are two truisms in the world of computing:

Fast enough never is.

Big enough never is.

But for laptop hard disks, the 7K60 is fastest--and for that speed, also the biggest. (For now...)

I call the 7K60 Viagra for my laptop. It made the most difference, in terms of performance, of any upgrade I ever did.

Steve

[jack NYC]

Dell is having a really good deal: 7K60 60 gig with free shipping 144.50

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/Prod ... furbished=

[jdhurst]

I have been using the 7200-rpm drive for a long time now. First in my T30, then in my current T41. I would not voluntarily anymore use anything less than a 7200-rpm drive. It makes a significant difference in smoothness and performance in daily use (and did so for both machines). I have five different fully operational computers on this hard drive plus all my documents and still have 25 Gb left over, so I don't have the storage space issues that some people do. ... JD Hurst