Does hard drive RPM matter all that much?

mikee

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I am thinking of buying a 4TB HDD because my 1.5 TB is getting full. My current HDD is a Seagate ST1500DM003-9YN16G 1500.3 GB or something which is 7200 rpm. This is for files and I have an SSD for my OS and programs. I am thinking of replacing that drive with this drive
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...459-3992b9367a0d&pf_rd_r=3M214RTA2MFJ5Y1274G8

Mostly I have files like music, games, Videos and VMs on this drive. I am wondering if there will be a significant degradation in performance going from 7200rpm to 5900RPM
 
There will be a noticeable difference from what your used to now. Your talking almost a 20% speed loss. I would stick with 7200 drives myself.

Edit: If all your doing is playing media files and such from a 5900 drive, you will have a little lag time from opening the file to actual playing, but I would not put VM stuff or anything heavy like that on them.
 
I would but so far I am not seeing too many 7200rpm hard drives over 2TB. On amazon as soon as I select the 4TB option the models available are 5400-5900 RPM. Do you have any suggestions?
 
wow the price sure shoots up for the extra speed. Might look into the Seagate IronWolf one. It says that's a NAS drive and I intend to use it in my desktop. Is that going to give me any issues?
 
You're looking at the older model. THe speed doesn't matter that much for files that mostly will just sit there. I wouldn't put VMs on a drive like this unless they don't get much use and aren't rebooted very often. The 4TB regular Ironwolf is 99 and 5900RPM. It's a NAS drive so it'll be able to handle more abuse than a regular desktop drive. Also, a slower spinning drive that isn't thrashed constantly will produce less heat than a 7200RPM drive. THe 256MB cache makes up for a lot of the speed loss.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Iron...7200+rpm&qid=1561431027&s=gateway&sr=8-9&th=1
 
For a desktop you definitely want a 7200 rpm drive for the added performance boost. On a laptop, the slower turning drive will use less power so will be less load on the battery which might be a good compromise. However, with the cost of an SSDs dropping, I'd opt for an SSD in a laptop over a 5400 or 5900 rpm spinner.
 
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The 4TB regular Ironwolf is 99 and 5900RPM. It's a NAS drive so it'll be able to handle more abuse than a regular desktop drive. Also, a slower spinning drive that isn't thrashed constantly will produce less heat than a 7200RPM drive. THe 256MB cache makes up for a lot of the speed loss.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Iron...7200+rpm&qid=1561431027&s=gateway&sr=8-9&th=1

All their 5900rpm drives are 64MB cache only unfortunately

However, with the cost of an SSDs dropping, I'd opt for an SSD in a laptop over a 5400 or 5900 rpm spinner.

~$500 for a qvo 4TB is a little different from $90 for a 4TB spinner though :p
 
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