rpm>7200

[gooner_47]

May be a stupid question, just a noob 2 the world of silencing - but can you get quiet drives in excess of 7200rpm? i.e 10,000rpm etc

[Edward Ng]

May be a stupid question, just a noob 2 the world of silencing - but can you get quiet drives in excess of 7200rpm? i.e 10,000rpm etc

The only one I can conceive of that may be quiet is one of those Seagate Savvios...

It's so expensive that noone's really considered trying it out as a silent drive option, though. Silence isn't worth $700 for most people...

Particularly considering equal or better acoustics can be achieved at a far lower price point for a minimal sacrifice in performance.

-Ed

[gooner_47]

So is the difference in rpm very noticeable when accessing the drive? I've only ever used 7200, that's why I was curious about increasing speed if possible.

[Edward Ng]

So is the difference in rpm very noticeable when accessing the drive? I've only ever used 7200, that's why I was curious about increasing speed if possible.

Depends on the sort of activities you engage in/what you use your computer for.

-Ed

[Green Shoes]

So is the difference in rpm very noticeable when accessing the drive? I've only ever used 7200, that's why I was curious about increasing speed if possible.

Depends on the sort of activities you engage in/what you use your computer for.

-Ed

Just to expand upon this...

...higher RPMs only give you a huge boost if you're doing something with enormous files; audio and video editing are the main two that come to mind (I use 15K RPM SCSI drives for my music editing). Otherwise you'll notice marginal boosts in the amount of time it takes to load your OS, games, etc. Which is why the others here have said it's just not worth it.

[patricksumner]

I'm running a Seagate Cheetah 15k.3 SCSI drive in a Sonata drive tray.

Antec Sonata, highly modified to breathe better
SS 400 rev 3 pwr supply in separate chamber with fresh air duct
9800 Pro/AC VGA silencer rev 1 on low
Stock Antec fan 5 volted at input
Accustifan output fan with MNT controller (runs near 5V always)
XP2800+ on A7N8X-E deluxe, vcore=1.43V via L11 bridge mods. 166 FSB xp2500 multipler (can't remember the number right now)
SP-97, 92mm fan (can't remember model, but it's very quiet)
CPU duct

I did several mods at the same time I swapped in the SP-97, including the CPU duct, so I can't quantify each change's effects, but I dropped something like 10C @load in my CPU at the same (low) fan settings.

The disk is the limiting noise factor, but the Artic Cooling VGA cooler on low is not at all far behind. I would characterize my system as the "damn quiet." More so even than my old P11 400MHz with no case fan and 5400rpm drive.

Having experienced 15K SCSI responsiveness, I don't think I could go back, unelss it was to the 74GB 10Krpm SATA Raptor. Unless you're stiving for near inaudibility, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Seagate Chettah 15k.3 for someone wanting very high performance to noise. If you're into video editing, you'll love the STR this drive has as well as the very low latency for program load times.

[gooner_47]

Thanks for the responses, my uses would never extend to large video/audio file editing so I think I'll stick with the 7200rpm for the forseeable future

[Straker]

another thing to consider is that 15k RPM drives (and most/all 10k rpm drives too, i believe) only use 2.5" platters, so there goes much of the potential gain in sustained read/write speed.
even with just a 7200rpm drive, about half of the latency is due to head seeks, rather than waiting for the right part of the platter - that (and exploding platters) is why anything faster than 15k is unlikely, at least in anything of any practical use.

high rpm and/or scsi drives certainly have their uses, but most users could do just as well for STR and latency for far cheaper by getting a 300 or 400gb drive and only using the outer half.