Advice needed - Laptop hard drive

[El Corazon]

I guess it depends on how much space you need. There are 100gig 7200rpm drives now. If you need larger storage, especially for large datasets, you can split the load between a 100gig fast drive and a larger slower drive (or external drive). I never regret the dual 100gig 7200rpms I use... though the desktop processor keeps my coffee warm (not meant in a good way), but it is still one of the few that run my software... so no choice yet. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

[Shog9 0]

S. Senthil Kumar wrote:

Is the speed difference noticeable when writing code?

If you're using VS2005, yes. The extra speed makes swap file access much less noticeable.

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[Ravi Bhavnani]

Senthil, without a doubt go with the 7200 rpm drive, even at the expense of less RAM or a slower CPU. /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Music | Articles | Freeware | Trips ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

[J Dunlap]

Definitely 7200RPM, unless you can't afford a 7200RPM drive that has enough space for what you know you'll need to put on it.

[Richard Andrew x64]

Shog9 wrote:

If you're using VS2005, yes.

If he's using VS2005, he'll want a 10,000 rpm SCSI drive!! :laugh:

[Anders Molin]

Why not 2x 15k rpm and RAID 0 ;) (I have that, and I never see the VS2005 splashscreen for more than a fraction of a second) - Anders -- modified at 2:15 Monday 20th March, 2006

[Jeremy Falcon]

S. Senthil Kumar wrote:

Is the speed difference noticeable when writing code?

It'll affect the entire system, not just coding. Jeremy Falcon

[Jeremy Falcon]

Anders Molin wrote:

Why not 2x 15k rpm and RAID 0

Money would be a good reason. :) Would be nice though. Jeremy Falcon

[TadejK]

I have a HP Compaq nx6125 1.8ghz turion + 5400rpm 80gb disk.. and I would happily trade the drive for a 7200rpm 60gb disk :) Why? Cause I often notice I have to wait for stuff to happen.. but the CPU is below 10%, while the disk is just grinding! Regards, Tadej

[Johnny]

There's a performance evaluation of 2.5" drives over at The Tech Report. A lot of the time the difference between 5400 and 7200 is very small, although in others it is large. What is surprising is that the hard drive manufacturer is often more important than the speed - the Seagate 5400 beats the Hitachi 7200 in a lot of tests. So, I guess have a look at the results and weigh up whether the extra storage is worth the performance difference.