M
~misfit~
Flightless Bird
A week or two back I mentioned that I routinely replace my laptop HDDs with
7,200 rpm models and I was asked if it made much of a difference. Alas,
t'was a huge post and I checked it when I didn't have time to write an
extensive reply and now it's lost to me...
Yes, I find it makes a big difference. The machine is far more responsive
and startup /shutdown times are quicker. I've been working with T60
ThinkPads recently, most of which come standard with an Hitachi 5,400 rpm
drive. My replacement drive of preference is a Seagate Momentus 7200.4
320GB. This T60 is running XP Pro and actually came with a 100GB Hitachi
7,200 rpm drive. It's a high-spec T60. However swapping to a 7200.4 still
made a noticable difference. Perhaps the 16MB buffer is part of that? I've
also noticed that the HDD temps are about on par with each other.
Anyway, I just swapped another T60 5,400 rpm Hitachi HDD for a Seagate
7200.4 and, as it's running Windows 7 Ultimate I now have some 'hard data'
in the form of Microsoft's 'Windows Experience Index' benchmarks that I can
post.
With the 60GB (in this case) faultless (according to Hard Disk Sentinel)
Hitachi 5,400 rpm HDD fitted and a new install of 7 Ult. the WEI HDD score
was 4.3. I cloned the install onto a 50GB partition on a new 320GB Seagate
Momentus 7200.4 and re-ran the WEI. This time the HDD score was 5.9.
So, up from 4.3 to 5.9, quite a big jump, which bears out my experience of
the improved usability and responsiveness of going to a (Seagate 7200.4 in
particular) 7,200 rpm HDD.
The latest gen SSDs are even better (but not as much when it comes to using
them as the raw data would indicate according to what I've been hearing) but
at the prices and capacities currently available not a realistic option (at
least for me). When I can get a nice 15" T60 with a C2D and FlexView IPS
screen for less than twice what a 128GB SSD would cost me I'd rather buy
another T60 for spares (as they were the zenith of laptop design and
functionality IMO) or whatever than buy an SSD.
Maybe next year, or the year after, when I'm sure my T60s will still be
running fine and doing all that I ask of them. For now going from a 5,400
rpm HDD to a 7,200 rpm [mechanical] HDD remains the most cost-effective and
noticably faster upgrade for a laptop IMO. The 'old' 5,400 rpm units get put
into external enclosures here (or UltraBay adapters) to be used as data
drives where their relative slowness isn't such an issue.
HTH,
--
Shaun.
"When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson.
7,200 rpm models and I was asked if it made much of a difference. Alas,
t'was a huge post and I checked it when I didn't have time to write an
extensive reply and now it's lost to me...
Yes, I find it makes a big difference. The machine is far more responsive
and startup /shutdown times are quicker. I've been working with T60
ThinkPads recently, most of which come standard with an Hitachi 5,400 rpm
drive. My replacement drive of preference is a Seagate Momentus 7200.4
320GB. This T60 is running XP Pro and actually came with a 100GB Hitachi
7,200 rpm drive. It's a high-spec T60. However swapping to a 7200.4 still
made a noticable difference. Perhaps the 16MB buffer is part of that? I've
also noticed that the HDD temps are about on par with each other.
Anyway, I just swapped another T60 5,400 rpm Hitachi HDD for a Seagate
7200.4 and, as it's running Windows 7 Ultimate I now have some 'hard data'
in the form of Microsoft's 'Windows Experience Index' benchmarks that I can
post.
With the 60GB (in this case) faultless (according to Hard Disk Sentinel)
Hitachi 5,400 rpm HDD fitted and a new install of 7 Ult. the WEI HDD score
was 4.3. I cloned the install onto a 50GB partition on a new 320GB Seagate
Momentus 7200.4 and re-ran the WEI. This time the HDD score was 5.9.
So, up from 4.3 to 5.9, quite a big jump, which bears out my experience of
the improved usability and responsiveness of going to a (Seagate 7200.4 in
particular) 7,200 rpm HDD.
The latest gen SSDs are even better (but not as much when it comes to using
them as the raw data would indicate according to what I've been hearing) but
at the prices and capacities currently available not a realistic option (at
least for me). When I can get a nice 15" T60 with a C2D and FlexView IPS
screen for less than twice what a 128GB SSD would cost me I'd rather buy
another T60 for spares (as they were the zenith of laptop design and
functionality IMO) or whatever than buy an SSD.
Maybe next year, or the year after, when I'm sure my T60s will still be
running fine and doing all that I ask of them. For now going from a 5,400
rpm HDD to a 7,200 rpm [mechanical] HDD remains the most cost-effective and
noticably faster upgrade for a laptop IMO. The 'old' 5,400 rpm units get put
into external enclosures here (or UltraBay adapters) to be used as data
drives where their relative slowness isn't such an issue.
HTH,
--
Shaun.
"When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson.