HD: 5400 or 7200?

[Kaczor]

Ok, here is the question...

I am debating whether to get a 7200 or a 5400rpm drive. Noise is a big issue here, I gotta be able to sleep in the same room as that thing.
So just how much more noise does a 7200rpm drive generate? And how much of a performance increase are we looking at compared to a 5400rpm?

Opinions?

 

[Grendel99]

Most 7200 RPM HD's (Maxtor/IBM) are nearly silent. And you will notice a performance increase over a 5400 RPM HD. It's only like a few bucks more anyways, I would get the 7200.

 

[Biggs]

Definitely go for the 7200 from eother Maxtor or IBM. AFAIK, these two manufacturers have special software that lessens your drive's performance a teensy weensy bit to allow it to run more silently(i.e. Acoustic Management software that can be downloaded from their respective websites). Believe me, with the 7200, you'll get more performance like faster load times and higher sustained transfer rates.

 

[Kaczor]

Cool, thanks for the tips guys.
Now I just gotta get me a deal on a drive somewhere...

 

[jamarno]

At the very most, the 1/3 faster spin rate will give 1/3 more speed, but in real life the improvement will be only about half as much, and if you're upgrading from an old drive you'll likely notice much better performance regardless of the RPM of the new drive. Most 7200 RPM drives still have heat problems with their electronics when mounted horizontally.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Kaczor, The 7200 RPM drive is the only way to go. That is one place where you can notice the difference. The only noisy drive I heard in the past year has been a Quantum. Gateway put one in my Step-father's system. When I heard it I was P!ssed! :| He is 84 years old and wears a hearing aide, so he didn't notice it. If I had been there within a month of him taking delivery I would have raised cain with Gateway had them replace the drive.

 

[broadwayblue]

would a there be any reason to go with a 7200 over a 5400 if the only files to be stored on it were mp3's?

 

[RanDum72]

I recently got another Maxtor 5400rpm 40gig drive as backup to my original 40gig 7200rpm Maxtor. Well, before, I could say that the 7200rpm drive is near silent but I could still hear it reading and writing, try doing SIS sandra drive benchmarks and and you could definitely hear it. The 5400, on the otherhand, is completely silent; I couldn't even hear it even when its doing disk intensive stuff.

 

[GregMal]

When one reads the forums, everyone says get a 7200 RPM and UMDA 100.
When one reads the experts, such as StorageReview, they say that
each harddrive is different. Some very well built 5400/umda 66
drives will outperform 7200/umda 100.
Read the review of the WD600AB at storagereview.com........
Greg