On February 18 2011 14:31 vek wrote:RPM by itself doesn't have a lot to do with speed. You need to take a lot of factors into account like cache size, seek time, interface and how many platters make up the disk.
For example a WD Caviar black at 7200 RPM is slower than a 5400 RPM Samsung Spinpoint.
Spinpoint F4:
Caviar Black:
The reason the F4 is faster is because it only has a single platter with a higher density (as far as I know, I'm not the biggest expert). The Caviar Black has 2 to 4 platters depending on the model. That's not to say the Spinpoint is the best at everything, in random access tests the Caviar Black does a lot better.
I guess my point is that you can't look at one statistic and decide which is better. You need to look at the overall picture and look at a lot of benchmarks to determine the best drive. Also keep in mind that 2 F3s in RAID 0 are as fast as cheap SSDs.
Read more here:
http://www.storagereview.com/samsung_spinpoint_f4_review_hd322gjhttp://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2tb-hdd-7200,2430-2.htmlEdit:
Show nested quote +On February 18 2011 14:21 Kahuna. wrote:Thanks for the replies. Everything else between the machines is identical except for the following:
Machine 1:
$9801.5TB - 5,400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
AMD Phenom II 1055T Six-Core processor - 2.80 GHzMachine 2:
$920Intel Core i5-760 Processor - 4 cores - 2.80 GHz
1TB - 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard driveThe brands of the HDs aren't mentioned if that's what you guys were looking for. Other specs which are the same for both machines include:
8GB DDR3 RAM, video card: AMD Radeon HD 6570.Appreciate all the advice! I'm getting the feeling that I should go for the 7200rpm with 4 cores from the responses... but I'll keep awaiting your replies.
Based on that info I would go for the i5-760 based machine. The i5-760 is a monster of a CPU and an excellent overclocker. I got mine to 4GHz on the stock cooler.
Think of it as an i7 with all the useless stuff (for games) like hyper threading cut out. I'm assuming gaming is what you have planned for this computer.