Thread: 7200 rpm really needed?

Do I really need this to have a 7200rpm hard drive?
The company (PC specialists) have told me that it would be very expensive to put one in a laptop and without significant improvement

Please comment on this and general spec of laptop (need xp as running prem pro 2)

Display
15.4 INCH WIDESCREEN DISPLAY (1280 X 800) + ANTI-GLARE
Processor (CPU)
INTEL® Core 2 Duo T7250 (2 X 2.00GHz) 800MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Operating System
WINDOWS® XP Home (inc. Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
NONE
Memory - Hard Disk
160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5400rpm)
CD/DVD Drive
8x DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Graphics Card
256MB GEFORCE 8600GT + D-SUB + TV-OUT
Sound Card
Realtek ALC268 2 Channel High Definition Audio + SPIDIF OUT
Modem
INTEGRATED 56KBPS V92 MODEM
Network Facilities
Onboard LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G NETWORK CARD (£13)
Firewire & Video Editing1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT


PRICE: £786


Many Thanks for advice in advance


Mark

Its a good spec for video work - who's the company ??

I've used a T7200 laptop with 1Gig of memory and a 5400rpm SATA drive to edit HDV footage in Premiere Pro CS3 and it flies with just a single video track, but is still usable doing 2 camera multicam in HD.

A 5400 drive is fine for capture and basic editing as long as you keep it defragmented. A 7200rpm drive is going to be less trouble, but the best option for video work would be a second internal drive dedicated to video data only, or an external SATA or Firewire drive (USB 2.00 at a pinch), but you'd need mains power for the external drive.

The company are PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK

Thanks for you help, I think you have made my mind up and I will take the plundge and part with my hard earned cash

It will be better if it is a SATA hard drive, SATA is faster than serial.

Originally Posted by GentleGiant

... but you'd need mains power for the external drive.

Only if you want more than 160GB external. There's plenty out there that run on bus power now especially for being carried around with laptops.