What Hard Drive to buy?

[copiman]

I need to buy a laptop hard drive. So far, this is what I think, not what I know. To get good performance from a hard drive there are 3 things to look at: RPM high, seek speed low, and latency low.

My question is are there limitations as to these factors as well as storage space when upgrading the hard drive? In other words, does the mother board specs or OS play into it?

 

[BikerEcho]

The only limitation is transfer speed. If your laptop only has SATA2, then a high performance SATA3 SSD will not perform to it's fullest ability.

The most important speed factor when buying a HDD (not SSD) is the RPM. The factors you mention helps gaining speed, but 2 harddrives that both are of quality brands and both spins at 7200RPM are gonna perform somewhat similar.

 

[copiman]

Thanks BikerEcho. I going to get 7200RPM verses the 5400RPM that is in it now.

 

[BikerEcho]

that's definitely gonna speed it up. One reason why laptops usually feels slower then equal stationary computers is because laptops usually use a 5400RPM harddrive. so files are gonna open slower.. specially startup time are noticeable slower.

 

[copiman]

As always, thank you for helping. Sure do learn a lot on this site which helps because I am a student learning networks and computers.