Hard drive RPM important?

[Central]

Hi, I really like this laptop: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Sony_Vaio_FE11H_Core_Duo_Laptop_VGN-FE11H/version.asp

As you can see, it has some really decent specs, especially for the price. However, the 4200RPM hard drive worries me. I know that the vast majority of laptops have a 5400 or 7200RPM hard drive - will this sluggish 4200RPM hard drive give me a noticably lower performance or will it hardly affect my computer work at all?

What I will use my laptop for is: Listening to music, watching movies, browsing the internet, as well as more demanding tasks such as moderate to heavy Photoshopping, as well as a bit of casual video encoding. I will also want to leave the option open for games - for example I'd like Doom 3 to run at 800x600 or even 1024x768 resolution at a comfortable frame rate - at least 20FPS, but this is not necessary. I will probably be playing the Sims 2, though, so I'd like to have a decent frame rate with a big lot and lots of objects and polygons on the screen.

Anyway, back to my original question . Would a 4200RPM hard drive, opposed to a 5400 or 7200RPM hard drive offer significantly slower performance or will it be negligible?

Thank you very much .

 

[vaderpro]

You would notice a difference. I would really recommend getting one with 7200 rpms.

 

[Vybuni]

The 4200RPM drives are really slow. You should get the fastest you can get. 7200RPM are really good for laptops, especially if you don't have too much RAM.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

You'll notice a pretty big difference. A 4200rpm hard drive is rather archaic. Those are old school. I thought 5400 was the slowest they still made. Get the fastest one you can get, and a 10K rpm is a bonus.

Ryan

 

[waynejkruse10]

i doubt that laptop hard drives would even exist in 10k rpm varieties.

4200rpm will really not be fun. Try to at leasr get 5400rpm or 7200rpm. Most laptop drives you can easily get in a 7200rpm version.

 

[Overdriven6]

7200 all the way man, personally 4200 would drive me nuts, and is almost half as fast as 7200. By getting 7200, youll also ensure that your computer is somewhat un obsolete for a while.