The question is I got a new Dell Inspiron 9300. One of the options was a 60 gig hdd which operates at 7200 rpm's or a 100 gig hdd that operates at 5400 rpm's. I went with the 100 gig hdd. When I play CS Source now it lags a bit and I see this happen when the hdd light comes on.I know for a fact it isnt video or processor related. If I were to get a 7200 rpm firewire hdd would it operate faster than the internal 5400 rpm? I know it does but would the firewire prevent it from operating faster than the 5400 rpm internal hdd?
HDD question
- Thread starter Lovebunny
- Start date
Well, 7400 rpm is of course faster than 5400, however, being an internal device as opposed to external, it will usualy run faster/smoother. As far as firewire goes, im not too familiar with transfer speeds it offers, so see what other people have to say on that. In terms of lag though, there are numerous factors that can lead to that, cpu, memory, internet connection, hosting server, etc. The main things I would look at are make sure you have at least 512 ram, 2ghz cpu, a fast internet connection, and connect to a local (not too distant server). Good luck
Sustained transfer for the 5400rpm drive is somewhere in the area of 20-30MB/s. Sustained transfer for the 7200rpm drive will probably be in the area of 35-50MB/s (50 is unlikely, I'd say it'll be around 40). Firewire, assuming it is operating at full capacity (it wont but firewire runs fairly close, much closer to the max than USB2) can transfer ~47.68MB/s but it will be closer to 40MB/s in practical use.
If you are going to pay for an external drive, why not just buy a new internal 7200rpm instead, and it doesnt have to be big, because you can just get an encasing for the 100giger that is in there. So you got say...a 40internal at 7200, and a 100 at 5400. However, if you opt for the firewire, you SHOULD see an improvement in performance during your games.
