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How Important is RPM for Hard Drives

Looking to purchase another 2tb SATA drive for music storage. I'm seeing 7200 rpm drives that are maybe a bit noisier and run a bit warmer than 5400 rpm drives that are cooler but slower. The 7200 drive (Hitachi) may be a tad more reliable than the 5400 Western Digital or Seagate - not sure. I do plenty of backup anyway.

Thing is, with over 1.5 Tb of music, I imagine seek times can be somewhat slow. Once a music file is found, there ae no skips or pauses with itunes. Does the rotation speed matter much for seek times on such a large music library, or is the rpm more an issue for writing/reading higher bandwidth information than music?

Thanks, Peter
peter_s
mlsstl
1,435 posts
 
I recently replaced a WD "Green" 1.5 TB drive (essentially 5400 RPM) in my music server with a 1.5 TB 7200 RPM Seagate.

There is no difference in music playback, nor in selecting music to play.

The only difference I've found is the 7200 RPM drive backs up much faster and it is also faster if one re-indexes the library. (A Squeezeboxserver wipe & rescan is about 75 minutes on the 7200 RPM versus over 2 hours on the 5400 RPM drive.)

Both of the latter items are only maintenance issues done in the background and do not interfere with the playback. My music server is in a different room so drive noise is not an issue.
nickjn
111 posts
 
The higher the RPM on a hard drive, the faster the data will be accessed...but the faster the hdd, the hotter it is.
You'll need some cooling for it. :)

If you have a 5400 or 7200 rpm hdd, it wont affect music playback.
peter_s OP
1,335 posts
 
Thanks. Got the 5400 green drive. I don't mind waiting longer for the backup to occur!
Post removed 
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Classic,
which RAID are you reff'ing?
Raid 0,1 / 0+1? I'd agree.
RAID 5 with a 5 disk array should be able to reconstruct a dead disk, on the fly, with few interruptions. Hot Swapable? A must.

I thought RAID was a goner? Staging a comeback? Any ESATA arrays?

Off Site may be the long term / secure answer.
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