Quick question about laptop hard drive speeds

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

I'm kind of a newb when it comes to laptops. I was wondering: Do all laptops use 5400-rpm (or 4200-rpm) hard drives, or are there some that use 7200-rpm drives?

If there are any that use 7200-rpm drives, do you know of any particular brands/models off the top of your head? I have a friend looking to buy a new laptop, and I'd like to steer him towards one with a 7200-rpm drive if there is such a thing.

Thanks.

 

[Vageetasjn]

I know that select Thinkpad models use 7200-RPM hard drives (usually more common in the -p models), but I'm sure other brands must use them as well. What is your friend intending to do with the laptop -- game, edit video, etc?

 

[moretoys]

You may be best off starting with the needs for things like portability, battery life, screen size, game play before getting into hard drive speed. That can always be upgraded later, but the others may not be as easily changed without replacement.
Just my opinion of course. The 7200 drives are very much a price premium and from what I understand would be for those with deep pockets vs performance benefit.
Didn't answer what you asked, but Dell seems popular and have fairly flexable configurations (like the 9300)

 

[roguerower]

Currently the only 7200 drive for sale widespread is the Hitachi 60gb. Other than that, pickings are slim. Seagate paper-launched there 7200 rpm drives back in June, but we're not gonna start seeing them till late August, if then. Currently I have a Toshiba 40gb 5400 rpm drive in. However I just recieved a Seagate 5400.2 100gb that should fly. Go to fbrdphreak's webpage for the in depth review. So in review:

Q. 1)Most come equipped w/ 5400/4200rpm drives, but most can be upgraded when u buy them to the ONE 7200 rpm drive available.

Q. 2) Hitachi 60gbList of hitachi drives

 

[Tostada]

7200 RPM hard drives are pretty hard to come by, and the price of them is pretty high. I think it's a great upgrade, though, because it's certainly the biggest bottleneck for non-gaming use on a laptop. The slow hard drive is what makes a laptop feel slow. Remember that a 7200 RPM laptop drive still isn't quite as fast as a 7200 RPM desktop drive -- laptop drives transfer slower because the platters have 1/4 the capacity and can't read as much per rotation.

The hard drive and memory are the only easy things to upgrade on a laptop, so there's no real reason to force yourself to buy one of the few laptops that offer 7200 RPM drives.

The new Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 drives are just now becoming available, and I don't know of any laptops that come with them. They are similar to the original 7K60 line, but they have slightly higher transfer rate and significantly lower power usage, along with higher capacity. If you want performance, just get the laptop you want with the cheapest hard drive you can and then go buy a 7K100 and upgrade it yourself.

ZZF has the 7K100 listed, but not in stock anymore:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100524-2

Not sure what the difference is between the 7K100 and the E7K100...

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks, all. You've told me exactly what I wanted to know.

 

[fbrdphreak]

7200RPM drives are not hard to come by You can get a 60GB Hitachi 7K60 pretty easily, just be prepared to pay for it.

RPM Guide: http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/guides/35/1/1/

That should answer your questions about performance differences between 4200RPM-->5400RPM-->7200RPM.
The new higher density 5400RPM drives from Seagate (5400.2 and eventually 5400.3 models) offer better read performance and higher capacities (up to 120GB) and of course there are the previously mentioned 100GB 7200RPM drives. These are forthcoming, sometime in August (OH WAIT, its been August for like a whole week now) so maybe even as late as September. We'll see.....