posted
I'm looking to replace a hard drive on my Sony Vaio laptop because I'm running out of room. I'm looking at the Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 80GB hard drive with 5,400 rpms and 12m/s transfer rate. I'm curious because my dad told me that it's not how fast a disk spins but how fast it can transfer data. Is this true? Also, does anyone know why this drive is being called the best?
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
I've heard the same thing about HD spin rates. Don't know much else, though.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Well ultimately (and ideally) transfer rate is the measure of the drive's effectiveness w/r/t 'speed'. If it spun at 30 rpm, but was able to read and write 600MB per second to and from the disk it wouldn't much matter how fast it was turning, would it? It's just that media density being what it is and that being pretty much uniform on most new drives, generally speaking the faster the drive spins the plattens, the faster it can read and write data. Keep an eye out for 'burst' and 'sustained' transfer rates. It can be a very important difference.
Are you doing video or something that you need to move around that much data that quickly?
-------------------- "Nah. The 9th chevron is for changing the ringtone from "grindy-grindy chonk-chonk" to the theme tune to dallas." -Reverend42
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
No, I just want it so I can play games. That and for the hell of it.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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[ June 04, 2003, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: Fleet-Admiral Michael T. Colorge ]
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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