Do most desktops (intel i3,i5,i7) use a standard hard disc 7200 rpm drives

[layhoma]

I purchased a economical HP dual core Intel Pentium 4 years ago that uses a hard disc at 7200 RPM. Today I just upgraded to an HP i5 quad also equipped with the same old hard disc at 7200 RPM. ( after checking both specs)

Here is the trick question everyone's been asking: In theory my new PC should run more than twice as fast BUT since both share the same rotational rate of HD, my i5's speed is impeded and therefore, in practice my new PC will not run twice as fast.

Can anyone shed some light on this logic? I felt like I'd been duped into buying my new HP i5 out of tech ignorance.

 

[cb600fshornet]

The i5 will be substantially quicker than the old Pentium chip you had before. In terms of processing power, your PC is a lot more powerful.

It's a combination of things, your PC should run faster than it did before, but if you're after quicker boot speeds, applications to load up really quickly, you should get a solid state hard drive (SSD). You haven't wasted your money as you can keep the old hard drive for storage and buy an SSD to fit into the PC as well.

Having a low spec CPU will also lead the PC into taking longer to boot up, as will having insufficient RAM, there will always be a bottleneck in the PC.

 

[Celery]

Just because you have quad core doesn't mean it'll run twice as fast over the dual core. You may have higher clock speed that'll make a difference. Most of the time the programs are running single threaded and on multitasking will the other cores kick in.

 

[iPwn]

I purchased a economical HP dual core Intel Pentium 4 years ago that uses a hard disc at 7200 RPM. Today I just upgraded to an HP i5 quad also equipped with the same old hard disc at 7200 RPM. ( after checking both specs)

Here is the trick question everyone's been asking: In theory my new PC should run more than twice as fast BUT since both share the same rotational rate of HD, my i5's speed is impeded and therefore, in practice my new PC will not run twice as fast.

Can anyone shed some light on this logic? I felt like I'd been duped into buying my new HP i5 out of tech ignorance.

I'm the furthest thing from a car guy, so bare with me here...

Imagine the evolution of the work truck. As time goes on, things get bigger, better and more powerful... but those aren't the only changes.
The following is completely for arguments sake... these are not actual specs.

The 1980 Ford F-150 has 150 HP whereas a 2015 model has 300.

Does this automatically mean that it is 'faster'? I'm sure that a mechanic might chime in and say "No, the newer ones weigh more, and they have engine cylinder control and bla bla bla." The increase in available resources doesn't mean much if other changes negatively affect that resources ability to perform.

Similar principles are at play in your PC. Sure, the chip itself is probably a lot faster, but that's not the only bottleneck. How much RAM, RAM speed, BUS speed, Northbridge architecture, Southbridge architecture, hard drive speed, installed programs, temperature.... all these and more play a role in how fast that computer is perceived to be.

Now, a 7200 RPM drive is pretty common place for a spinning disk drive. An SSD will probably make you squirm at how much of a boost it provides, but again, even an SSD might not change much if your PC has other failing bottlenecks.

The best thing would be to disable startup items and remove the bloatware that came with it. That will probably start to show you some of the performance you were promised.