I am aware that this is probably a common question, yet I did not find the right search terms to use.
I have to buy a new hard drive. I figured out that the equation consists of: connector standard, rpm and density.
My question is: Will I experience the benefits of 7200 rpm over 5400 or will SATA2 limit the speeds below the capabilities of the drive? I'm looking for a 3.5" 500 gb drive.
Second question: Is data density same for all hard drives with 3.5" platters, holding 500 gb ? If not, is there any way I can tell one from another?
The drive will be used for everyday multitasking and gaming – not so much large file transfers.
Hard Drive – Is 7200rpm Through SATA 2 Worth It?
hard driverpm
Best Answer
The SATA-II (3.0 Gbit/sec) interface tops out around 270MB per second.
Top speed for current average consumer harddrives is about half that.
Top speed of 15000 RPM SAS enterprise drives is nearly 200 MB/sec. Still way below SATA-II throughput.
So no, SATA-II does not impose a limit to either 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM drives.
1 TB drives are only a fraction more expensive than 500 GB drives.
No, increased density means fewer platters are needed for the same capacity. So producers usually use the highest available density to cut down on cost. This means a typical more modern drive will have higher density platters, resulting in better performance and lower production costs.
Read the drives manual (usually found on-line).
HDD only have two advantages over SSDs: Larger capacity (at a identical price), and decent large file performance. Since the latter is not important to you, consider a SSD. Performance on those is noticeably better.