RPM question

[Gee Wally]

IF 2 hd were 500GB in size. One of them RPM's is listed as 7200 RPM 16MB Cache and the other is listed as 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache, would I even notice the difference in RPM? Please let me know.

thanks

 

[S0ULphIRE]

the RPM on the hdd's give you a basic idea of how fast the drive can read/write. I'm assuming with the 2nd hdd that the 5400 is the lowest speed it'll ever run at, while the highest speed is 7200 (which is pretty standard). Iuno, seems kinda a weird thing to have to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

So to answer your question, taking the above as true, I think you wouldn't notice anything. The drive would idle at 5400 RPM, then when you wrote to the drive it'd speed up to 7200 RPM.
That's just a best guess tho, I've never seen a hdd with two speeds on it.

 

[Luke]

That's just a best guess tho, I've never seen a hdd with two speeds on it.

Neither have i, maybe it means the speed varies with use, if your using it more, it may be faster. Perhaps the top speed it can achieve is 7200rpm and the lowest it will ever run at is 5400 rpm...

 

[Gee Wally]

Here is a write up:

Tech ARP - Western Digital 500 GB Caviar GP Hard Drive Review

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

WD has recently been releasing hard drives that will go to a higher RPM depending on usage. Honestly, most people that benchmark drives shows that it either offers no performance over a regular drive, or it slightly decreases performance. IMO, I wouldn't want a multiplater drive doing that...