Thread: 7200 vs. 5400 RPM laptop hard drive?

Is the speed that noticeable?

Bought a Toshiba 500gb 5400 RPM 8MB buffer hard drive for $80. Installed it into my laptop and it's been working fine.

Also ordered a Western Digital 320gb 7200 RPM 16MB buffer HD for $70.

Should I go with the "faster" one instead? Been trying to research this online and am getting mixed reviews.

Yes it is faster. However do you need more disk space or the fastest performing computer possible? That should determine which drive you'll want to keep.

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Yes it is faster. However do you need more disk space or the fastest performing computer possible? That should determine which drive you'll want to keep.

Well, my old hard drive was 160gb, so double that should be plenty. Though 500 is even better. Just wondering how much faster the 7200 is.

Originally Posted by borinka99

Well, my old hard drive was 160gb, so double that should be plenty. Though 500 is even better. Just wondering how much faster the 7200 is.

how much faster? very noticeable!! I bought a 7200 RPM drive for my laptop and the difference is night and day.