7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm? Noise vs Speed?

[greg-in-boston]

I am planning to buy a new T60, to replace my 3-year old T40,
and and considering 7200 rpm disk to do some heavy duty
data analysis. However, I was concerned about noise level.

Is 7200 rpm much noisier than 5400 rpm? I currently have
5400 rpm disk and don't notice the noise.

[BudC]

I don't pretend to be an expert but I bought a T60 with the 7,200 RPM drive and I can't say I've ever heard it.

If my experience means anything, then I wouldn't think noise is a consideration.

[marlinspike]

I don't find noise to be an issue. Mine came with the 5400 and after one boot up I put in a 7200. When I did that, I had no "wow that's louder" epiphany. If it does bug you, assuming you get a Hitachi drive, you can always make a feature tools bootable CD from the Hitachi website and adjust it to a quiet mode. You'll lose a bit of speed, but in that mode it really is quiet.

[iatacs19]

the 7200rpm hdd is louder than the 5400rpm, but like the above poster mentioned, if you get a Hitachi and use the IBM/Hitachi feature tool to change the AAM settings it can be much quieter. you do loose seek speed though, so it might just make sense to go with the 5400rpm one to begin with.

[hoya]

I would go with either 120gb or 160gb 5400rpm or 100gb 7200rpm. performance is close on those, though the 7200 is still faster.

[masterus]

Hi

I use T43 with Hitachi 7200rpm 80GB and IMO the noise is smaller than in 5400rpm HDDs - That I saw after comparing two TPs

Regards

[greg-in-boston]

Thank you all ! As a consultant, I do heavy-duty computation that requires 7200 rpm only occasionally, so I went with T60p with 5400 rpm for now, with 2 GB Ram (more than enough for regular business activities and Vista upgrade), and if I find that I really need faster disk, I can always use an external disk.

[wallybear]

For what it's worth to this discussion, I've made the swap to a 7200 from the stock 5400. The 7200 is slightly louder but is notably faster in WinXP.

Now, as for Vista, I've tried the RC1 version on both the 7200 and 5400 drives. For Vista, I strongly recommend the 7200 as it's "Windows Performance Rating" is 3.2 vs. 2.8 for the 5400. The faster HDD makes Vista notably faster, too, just like XP.

As a side note, adding a USB flash drive (512MB to 2MB) to Vista and dedicating it to the ReadyBoost feature makes Vista quite a bit faster on the T60 (2623-D6U) with 1MB of RAM. When Vista ships, I plan to install 2MB (don't really need it until then and hoping prices will drop after Christmas). The more RAM you have, the less the ReadyBoost will help. ReadyBoost caches the swap file in a "write-through" mode (so you don't have to worry about losing any data if you pull out the USB drive while running) thus making up for the "slow" hard disk in many situations. A neat, useful feature I think.

One more thing. The X1300 works fine with Vista's Aero interface mode. I get snappy, quick, smooth video. And Vista properly reports a total of 312MB of RAM "available" to the X1300 (64 built-in and 256 that can be borrowed by HyperMemory). The video Performance Rating for the X1300 in my machine was 3.4. The CPU was 3.8. The overall rating is the lowest of all the ratings (in my case, the hard disk drive when running on the 5400).

Oh, sorry, one more thing. The RAM usage in Vista is interesting. It uses RAM completely differently than XP. When up and running with OneCare and Defender installed, the Task Manager reports that only 412MB of RAM is in use. And, when I run the beta of Virtual PC 2007 (with either Win2000 or Win98) running, Vista does some magic to make more RAM available than WinXP can running the same thing. So, for those who think Vista will be less usable on a 1MB machine than XP is, I say "let's hold off deciding until we can test the shipping version".

That's all. Hope this info helps someone....

[Aramitz]

I am planning to buy a new T60, to replace my 3-year old T40,
and and considering 7200 rpm disk to do some heavy duty
data analysis. However, I was concerned about noise level.

Is 7200 rpm much noisier than 5400 rpm? I currently have
5400 rpm disk and don't notice the noise.

I've a Hitachi 7K60 since March 2004 and I don't hear it at all

[Kel Ghu]

I'd recommend 7200 to everyone... The hard disk is by far the biggest bottleneck in a PC. Useless to have a fast CPU if you spend half of your time waiting on the hard drive. Anyway, we all always wait on the HD... Even with a 7200... But the difference with a 5400 is very noticeable.

[tomh009]

As a side note, adding a USB flash drive (512MB to 2MB) to Vista and dedicating it to the ReadyBoost feature makes Vista quite a bit faster on the T60 (2623-D6U) with 1MB of RAM. When Vista ships, I plan to install 2MB (don't really need it until then and hoping prices will drop after Christmas). The more RAM you have, the less the ReadyBoost will help. ReadyBoost caches the swap file in a "write-through" mode (so you don't have to worry about losing any data if you pull out the USB drive while running) thus making up for the "slow" hard disk in many situations. A neat, useful feature I think.

A really clever solution here would be to use an internal CF card for ReadyBoost so that you don't always have a USB drive sticking out. The T60 doesn't have a CF or SD slot, but you could still use one using a CardBus or ExpressCard adapter. A bit more expensive, but a nice internal solution, I think.

[sw-rick]

I would be more concerned about the high frequency noise of the cooling fan when it increases its rotation speed, than the differences in noise from these two hard drives.

This thing is by far the most annoying "feature" of the T60, and I am currently looking into having it replaced.

Rick

[pharao111]

sounds interessting bcs i'm thinking aswell to swap my harddrive, but don't the 7200rpm one's drain more battery??

[tomh009]

sounds interessting bcs i'm thinking aswell to swap my harddrive, but don't the 7200rpm one's drain more battery??

The difference in power consumption is insignificant, really.

[Eugene.P]

Except the noise,7200rpm HDD makes more heat than 5400rpm HDD.

[pharao111]

interessting, and good to know that the power drain is not that big... bcs i thought that with an increase of 50% speed the battery would be used heavier.. but i believe you

[Aramitz]

interessting, and good to know that the power drain is not that big... bcs i thought that with an increase of 50% speed the battery would be used heavier.. but i believe you

Neither noise nor more consumption for the 7K60
A really must have

[agarza]

Having a 7200rpm HDD drive is really a blessing, the loading times, specially on games reduce dramatically. I would never use a 5400rpm drive

[meditate2001]

i am also thinking about upgrading. but i am also very concernd about noise...afaik there are only 2 drives on the market with 7200:

Seagate ST-980825AS (Momentus 7200.1 SATA, Serial ATA)

and

Hitachis Travelstar 5K100 and the newer 7k100 which should be faster than the older one.

Seagate give 5 Years of warrenty, which is a major plus in my opinion.


I couldnt find data for the noise level of both drives, i mean i found db and bels which is different, so i cant compare really. any1 has both and can say which is quiter ?

greetings

------------------


Noise: for the 7k100:
Geräuschentwicklung: 27 dB

Übertragungsrate Laufwerk 100 MBps (extern) / 64.8 MBps (intern)
Positionierungszeit 10 ms (Durchschnittlich) / 18 ms (Max)


Seagate:
ACOUSTICS (bels)
fluid bearing (typ/max-quiet/max-perf) _2.5//3.1

POWER MANAGEMENT (Watts):
ACTIVE _______________2.6
IDLE _________________0.95
STANDBY (typ/max) ____0.28/

AVERAGE ACCESS (ms seek/read/write) ______/10.5/12.5
SINGLE TRACK SEEK (ms seek/read/write) ___/1.5/2.0
MAX FULL SEEK (ms seek/read/write) _______/22/24

INTERNAL TRANSFER RATE (Mbits/sec) _______up to 539
SUSTAINED TRANSFER RATE (Mbytes/sec) _____up to 45.8
EXTERNAL TRANSFER RATE (Mbytes/sec) ______up to 150

[tomh009]

i am also thinking about upgrading. but i am also very concernd about noise...afaik there are only 2 drives on the market with 7200:

Seagate ST-980825AS (Momentus 7200.1 SATA, Serial ATA)

and

Hitachis Travelstar 5K100 and the newer 7k100 which should be faster than the older one.

1 Bel = 10 deciBel -- the usual metric prefix.

Hitachi has all the specs online.

7K100 (7200 rpm):
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7 ... 100_ov.htm

5K100 (5400 rpm):
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/5 ... 100_ov.htm

[iatacs19]

with the Hitachi you will at least be able to adjust the AAM, Seagate drives cannot use AAM because they were sued a few years back.

So, the Hitachi you can customize the noise parameters more to your liking whereas with the Seagate you are stuck with whatever you get.

[wallybear]

As a side note, adding a USB flash drive (512MB to 2MB) to Vista and dedicating it to the ReadyBoost feature makes Vista quite a bit faster on the T60 (2623-D6U) with 1MB of RAM. When Vista ships, I plan to install 2MB (don't really need it until then and hoping prices will drop after Christmas). The more RAM you have, the less the ReadyBoost will help. ReadyBoost caches the swap file in a "write-through" mode (so you don't have to worry about losing any data if you pull out the USB drive while running) thus making up for the "slow" hard disk in many situations. A neat, useful feature I think.

A really clever solution here would be to use an internal CF card for ReadyBoost so that you don't always have a USB drive sticking out. The T60 doesn't have a CF or SD slot, but you could still use one using a CardBus or ExpressCard adapter. A bit more expensive, but a nice internal solution, I think.

I have, in fact, tried a CF card in a CardBus adapter. It was a 2GB Kingston model. Vista reported that it did not qualify for ReadyBoost. I don't know if it was the CF card or the adapter...I'd really like to find a combination that would work for the reasons you mentioned (no sticking out of the USB drive).

If I manage to get a setup working, I'll post it here. I plan to try a 1GB SD card in a different adapter (borrow from a friend).

[tomh009]

A really clever solution here would be to use an internal CF card for ReadyBoost so that you don't always have a USB drive sticking out. The T60 doesn't have a CF or SD slot, but you could still use one using a CardBus or ExpressCard adapter. A bit more expensive, but a nice internal solution, I think.

I have, in fact, tried a CF card in a CardBus adapter. It was a 2GB Kingston model. Vista reported that it did not qualify for ReadyBoost. I don't know if it was the CF card or the adapter...I'd really like to find a combination that would work for the reasons you mentioned (no sticking out of the USB drive).

If I manage to get a setup working, I'll post it here. I plan to try a 1GB SD card in a different adapter (borrow from a friend).

Which CardBus adapter do you have? And what speed card? Did it complain about the performance or something else?

I have a Delkin CardBus 32 adapter, and a bunch of high-speed CF cards ... just not running Vista quite yet. Maybe I'll find the time to upgrade over Christmas holidays, though.

[gunston]

well,
5400rpm HD is still an ideal one for me before moving to 7200rpm hd

[nxman]

My Seagate 7200 rpm hard drive is silent

[blackpath]

I recently upgrade to a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 in my Thinkpad R32. The old drive was a 4200rpm. The new drive is actually much quieter, although I can sense its vibration slightly when my wrist is pressed on the machine--but its not at a level that it is annoying.

[gunston]

I recently upgrade to a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 in my Thinkpad R32. The old drive was a 4200rpm. The new drive is actually much quieter, although I can sense its vibration slightly when my wrist is pressed on the machine--but its not at a level that it is annoying.

wow!!!
migrating from 4200rpm to 7200rpm, you will feel the speed improved drastically!!!

[dfumento]

100 GB 7200 is the way to go. I can detect speed increase, but not noise, battery, or vibration differences. I ordered my new unit with the 100 GB 7200.

[brentpresley]

The newer 7200RPM drives from both hitachi and seagate use fluid bearing motors. Most 5400RPM drives do not.

For this reason, with the current generation of 7200RPM drives, there is MINIMAL differences in power consumption, sound, and heat compared to 5400RPM drives.

I have used, bought, and sold HUNDREDS of laptop drives. I can say that from both personal use and benchmarking that absolutely nothing compares in terms of speed to 7200RPM drives. Even the oldest 7k60 Gen 1 hitachi drives still perform better than todays 120 and 160GB 5400RPM drives.

As someone who builds and sells a lot of laptops, this it the FIRST upgrade I put in all my personal machines. A 7200RPM HD is worth at LEAST two speed bumps on the processor scale. Besides, what good is all that CPU power if you can't feed it something from the drive.


Just my 0.02.


PS - even though Seagate makes a good drive, nothing touches the Hitachi 7K100 in speed. And the differences in sound are BARELY noticeable when the drives are sitting bare on the table running. You certainly can't hear them once they are installed.

[richarddd]

Is the 7k100 noticeably faster than the 5k120? Will both be faster than my current 7k60?

The higher density of a 120gb drive should make up for at least some of the rotational speed advantage of the 100gb.