Speed difference between 5400 and 7200 hard drive

[NJRonbo]

I just ordred a T60 a few days ago and one of the
biggest mistakes I made was not upgrading to a 7200
hard drive.

My current Toshiba notebook has a 5400 hard drive.
It also only has 512mb ram installed. It's very slow
booting up and when installing programs, it takes a
rather long time.

The T60 I ordered comes with a 5400 SATA 100GB
drive standard but I have 2GB ram installed. Would I
have seen a significant speed increase with a 7200 drive?

How I wish I made that upgrade prior to order.

Thanks!

[kskim91]

There is a speed difference. You can just buy a 7200 drive (probably cheaper than upgrading?) and use the 5400 as a nice external drive in a 2.5 case.

[NJRonbo]

I bought a T60 on Friday.

Today the price dropped via special WEB pricing.

I called LENOVO to complain. They were kind enough
to credit me $318, the difference in sale price.

In turn, I purchased the faster 7200 1 GB SATA drive.

I'll have to install it myself, but I am guessing (and hoping)
that it is fairly simple to do.

KS,

What would be the best way to encase the 5200 drive
I am taking out and wiring it to the notebook as an external
storage device? Do they sell cases and USB hookup to turn
an internal notebook drive into an external one?

[kskim91]

Hmm... it looks that right now there is no external case for 2.5in sata, only for the 3.5in drives. You could wait until they come out or you could buy a ultrabay slim sata hdd caddy and put it in your ultrabay.

[NJRonbo]

KS,

I know so little about this stuff, so I really have to bother
you here a little more, if you don't mind.

Could you recommend a specific model -- even going as
far as providing a weblink to product.

Also, an explanation please...

Will this allow me to plug the spare 100GB SATA drive into
the thinkpad so it can be used as an external drive?

I take it that the HD plugs into the caddy and the caddy plugs
into the thinkpad via USB?

[serpico]

I just ordred a T60 a few days ago and one of the
biggest mistakes I made was not upgrading to a 7200
hard drive.
<snip>
How I wish I made that upgrade prior to order.

If it hasn't shipped yet, why not just cancel and order a model with the 7200rpm drive? I can't imagine that's a problem for Lenovo since there's likely a long list of orders placed for the model you originally requested.

Of course, depending on the model, it may set you back in the queue, but it could also speed up your shipping time.

[bg4533]

I got my 2007-63U last week with 5400RPM HD and am dissapointed. I just ended up ordering a 100GB Seagate 7200.1 from Newegg. I will probably try to sell the drive that came with the Thinkpad.

I have a number of computers at home and the 2 main ones I use are both have 10,000RPM Western Digital Raptors. Both of these are significantly less powerful than my new T60, but feel they feel so much snappier. The weaker of the machines is an Athlon XP 1700+ with 512MB RAM and despite the speed it feels much quicker than the T60.

[serpico]

I got my 2007-63U last week with 5400RPM HD and am dissapointed. I just ended up ordering a 100GB Seagate 7200.1 from Newegg. I will probably try to sell the drive that came with the Thinkpad.

I have a number of computers at home and the 2 main ones I use are both have 10,000RPM Western Digital Raptors. Both of these are significantly less powerful than my new T60, but feel they feel so much snappier. The weaker of the machines is an Athlon XP 1700+ with 512MB RAM and despite the speed it feels much quicker than the T60.

Until I bought a T60, I was using a 5yr old desktop. The only upgrades I made in 5 years were memory and a 7200rpm drive. Though it's a slow machine, the drive made it much more bearable, which is why I forked out the extra loot for the 68U with 7200rpm drive.

And no complaints about hdd noise from me. Of course, my ears have become accustomed to 2 7200rpm desktop drives and a howling cpu fan.

[wpwood3]

Go HERE to see the tested differences.

[hoya]

here is an even better review:

http://www.laptoplogic.com/reviews/detail.php?id=92

[donking!]

The question of 5400rpm vs 7200 rpm drives has been debated at length on other threads. People really should research the specific drives they're interested in. The speed differences aren't always that much. Spindle speed is only one factor, data density is also important. No single drive is "the fastest." It depends on what one uses it for.

See these threads which debate the point and list quite a few hard drive reviews. There are more threads on this topic too, if one searches around.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=21623
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20802
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20569

[rcrooks]

What are the battery and heat issues like for the 7200 vs 5400 RPMs???

[donking!]

I haven't read up on that so much. But I think the 7200rpm drives are supposed to not really draw any more power than the 5400rpm drives. Don't know about heat. If you look at the articles on Tom's Hardware and Storage Review, they probably comment on those factors. Their reviews tend to be very thorough.

[AssPenny]

Honestly, its just a misserable 1800rpm.

sorry, couldnt resist.

[jagged]

Not sure about performance gain from a 7200RPM HD.

Some friends adviced me to stay away from 4200RPM HD's but I didn't know the difference before. But now, I can tell why cuz despite having a Centrino 1.86 processor, I don't find my HP DV1000 much faster than my older Toshiba Centrino 1.6 Ghz notebook.