5400rpm drives any good?

Not as my main HDD, but I do use a Samsung Spinpoint 5400 rpm HDD as a storage drive.

You'd notice it if you used a 5400 rpm HDD for the OS, though, as the access times are higher, so especially with things like booting the OS it might take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute longer.

These drives run a lot cooler than 7200 rpm ones, so I like to use them for storage drives :)
 
It depends on the drive, as far as reliability and coolness/noise is concerned. In the past I've had had some 5400, 4500 and even 3600 RPM hard drives which run hotter and noisier than the quietest 7200 RPM drives. (That's likely due to the use of inefficient motors in the older drives.)

As for performance, then yes, it will slow things down - somewhat. Most of the current 5400 RPM drives have average random access times that are on a par with those of the slowest 7200 RPM drives.
 
and when it comes to older drives, you also factor in the areal density to the rotational speed
thus a 20GB 5400 isnt nearly as fast as an 80GB HDD
(assuming they both have a single platter)
there is just that much less data passing under the head at that speed

Id point out that the vast majority of laptops out there employ 5400rpm HDDs as their sole HDD, but that in a desktop they are generally selected for "storage" duties as mentioned
 
5400rpm drives make for great external drives (quieter, cooler, etc) where performance doesn't really matter. For internal drives, especially as a primary drive, yeah, you are letting a lot go for a current gen system.
 
some of you are talking about 2.5" 5400RPM and others are talking about 3.5" 5400RPM.
 
I was running a Maxtor 5400 in an old rig I made for a relative. After some parts swapping and building several new systems, I had a leftover 7200 Maxtor and I swapped it out for the 5400. The bootup and overall speed of the comp increased dramatically, so as a primary drive it ain't what's happening, but very applicable for a storage drive.
 
perplex said:
some of you are talking about 2.5" 5400RPM and others are talking about 3.5" 5400RPM.

Doesn't matter, performance is similar.
 
5400RPM drives have not had the the enormous reasearch and development efforts poured into them that flagship 7200RPM drives have. Idle noise is virtually non existant on the majority of 7200RPM drives, many run quite cool, and they have significant performance advantages. Also, intense competition has driven the price on 7200RPM drives to a mere pitance above the price of 5400RPM drives.

I think Maxtor still makes some 5400RPM MaxLine IIs, and Samsung still makes some as well. I don't know if anyone else even makes 5400RPM desktop drives anymore.
 
changing a bit.
thanks all.

i am not going to buy a 5400, i was thinking about it because i thought if i got one maybe it wouldn't get too hot and fail like my previous 7200 drives.

what about 10k drives as primary main drive, for data&os?

i kind like having one drive.
 
Wesley1357 said:
i am not going to buy a 5400, i was thinking about it because i thought if i got one maybe it wouldn't get too hot and fail like my previous 7200 drives.
I've got two 7200 rpm HDDs and the aforementioned 5400 rpm HDD in my main system. While the former two run between 5 - 10C warmer than the latter, they stay well below 40C.

Mind you, these 7200 rpm HDD are Hitachi HDDs, which do not run that warm. The (120 GB) Maxtor HDD I had in there before would easily surpass 40C.

what about 10k drives as primary main drive, for data&os?

i kind like having one drive.
- 10,000 rpm drives require a constant flow of air over them to keep them from overheating
- they don't have that much capacity (around 70 GB max for WD's 10k rpm drive).

Most people with a 10k rpm drive use 7200/5400 rpm large capacity storage drives.
 
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