What is a 7200rpm hard drive? Which is better, 7200 or 5400 hard drive?

Hard drive is a device for storing data, this is something almost everyone knows. Based on the structure of the hard drive, we know that in the middle of the hard drive is attached a rotating motor that moves the magnetic disk surface to support reading and writing data. The rotation speed of this motor affects the speed of Windows startup, data copying speed. When buying a hard drive, you will see this index called rpm. However, not everyone knows this RPM index.

So what is a 7200rpm hard drive?

To find out exactly about this information, let's review a little about the structure of the hard drive. The HDD hard drive is a traditional hard drive that operates based on the most commonly used physical principles today to store data. In terms of structure, the HDD hard drive includes a magnetically coated circular disk that is combined with a rotating motor and a data reader to read and write data. You can imagine the operating principle of the hard drive similar to the old record players. In addition to that main part, the HDD hard drive also includes an electronic circuit board to control the rotation speed and the reading/writing position of the reader to help users access the exact location of the data.

Back to the rpm index, this is an abbreviation of the English phrase 'Revolutions per minute' translated into Vietnamese meaning the number of revolutions per minute. So if you see a hard drive with the parameter 7200rpm, it means that this is an HDD hard drive with a rotation speed of 7200 revolutions per minute.

Which hard drive is better 7200 or 5400?

Unlike SSD drives, HDD hard drives operate on mechanical principles. Therefore, hard drives with higher rotation speeds will have better data copying speeds. The higher the rotation speed, the faster the hard drive will operate. However, the more it rotates, the greater the wear and tear on the hard drive, and therefore the life of the hard drive will also decrease.

To compare 7200 and 5400 hard drives, we see that 7200rpm hard drives will have advantages in performance and speed. So if you want programs and software to work faster, you should choose 7200rpm hard drives.

In contrast, 5200 rpm hard drives are slightly slower but have the advantages of low power consumption, low operating noise, low operating temperature, and longer life.

Micah Soto

Update 16 January 2025