How much noticeable difference is there between 5400 and 7200 rpm hard drives?
 

Is it worth it to spend the extra $120 on a 7200rpm hard drive? I do lots of multitasking with big programs; my options are 5400rpm and 7200rpm. What sort of increase in performance am I likely to get, and how crucial is it for efficiency?
Thanks to anyone who offers their insight.

What "big programs" are you running? Judging by the price of the drive, I'm assuming this is for a laptop.

There is a fairly noticeable hike in performance between the two, but that's only if you are reading and writing to your hard drive constantly. Video editing would suffer with a 5400ROM drive, where as Photoshop wouldn't nearly as much. So, it really depends on the program and how much it writes to the hard drive.

Audio and MIDI sequencing, video editing, Photoshopping, encoding.

Yes.

A lot of it is frequent bouncing to disk/rendering audio files, and occasional exports from Premiere.

Where are you buying this from? A 7200RPM drive shouldn't be nearly as much as $120 more than a 5400RPM drive.

Gateway:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y229/eea76/rpm.jpg

It is worth it. Faster RPM drives offer much lower seek times and you'll really notice an overall improvement in system response. Don't cheap out on hard drives, they are already the slowest component in a computer.

And yes,f you are doing video editing, the 7200 RPM drive is a must.

You should call them and see if you can order it without a hard drive, and then order one from NewEgg or something. $120 more for a 7200RPM drive is way too much.

I have been looking around though.... honestly in my perfunctory searches that's right about where they cost.

They do cost around $120, but they don't cost $120 MORE than an 80 GB 5400 RPM drive would cost.

If you don't buy it with a HD then they can't preload it with your copy of Windows and all the other software they're paid to include, so I doubt they're going to ship it without a HD.

Have you thought of getting an external HD and hooking it up through firewire or USB?

Also, what's your reasoning for getting a laptop when you need it for what seem to be fairly computationally heavy functions? Often people are better off getting a fairly low end laptop to do work on the road with while getting a much nicer desktop for heavy work at about the same price.

I have to agree with RacinReaver.

Having a 7200RPM drive is NOT necessary for a laptop, and in fact, I don't recommend it. Why? Battery life. 7200rpm drives pull much more power than 5400s do and this can be very make or break. If you are doing fairly serious encoding/audio/photo work, than you should be buying a laptop with a firewire port and you should get an external HDD to run the video/audio stuff through. I do this in Final Cut Pro with a MacBookPro and it all works great. I highly recommend this before purchasing a high-dollar, high-capacity 7200rpm 2.5" drive.

A 7200 RPM external drive on Firewire will be much cheaper and you'll get more space. I'd go that route as Dayvon suggested.

Yes, but the external drive will require a power source. If you are using this laptop on the go then the external drive isn't really an option.

If you are using it at home then an external drive is probably your best bet. Although, you may not and probably wont achieve the speed of an internal 7200 RPM with an external one over USB 2.0. It would be somewhat close though.

I will be moving around a lot in the near future, all over downtown Chicago, most likely, and need a portable and powerful machine for work and grad school.

Also, I already own an external harddrive (USB 2.0), so the only choice I have is between a 5400 internal and a 7200 internal. Damn decisions.

I would go 5400rpm. If you are that much on the go, battery life is too important for a difference so minor. I have never noticed "slowness" on my MacBookPro that I would attribute to the 5400rpm HDD. I highly recommend getting a portable HDD as well if you are that mobile. I have a Vantec 2.5" USB2.0 drive enclosure that is very portable, doesn't need an AC adaptor, that I use with Final Cut Studio no problem. In fact, I end up using this more on the go then the home 300GB firewire drive. I think you would be much happier buying one of these 60GB, 80GB, or 100GB with the aforementioned Vantec enclosure for $120, then paying through the nose for a 7200rpm internal.

Hell, buy the laptop with the 5400rpm internal, buy the 7200rpm off newegg and switch them. 2 HDD's for the same price as they would sell one to you :D.

Uh if he is going with the 17 inch LCD I don't think that battery life is all that important to him. Go with the 7200 RPM drive, you know you want to.

Unless that thing is ultra-freaking-light it's not going to be portable enough that you're going to want to lug it's 17" monitor around everywhere. Those guys can get pretty freaking hefty.