Upgrading HDD but decreasing rpm

Question

I bought a HP desktop computer (pre-built) last year, wich had a 256GB SSD that has Windows installed on it, along with a 1TB standard HDD, that is 7200rpm.

However, im now running out of space on the 1TB HDD, so im considering replacing it with a higher capacity HDD. I found a few choices of different brands(WD,seagate..), but all of them are all 5400rpm instead of my actual 7200rpm.

So my question is, would downgrading to a 5400rpm really makes a noticeable difference in speed? Does it affect read and write speed of the HDD?

I mainly use my actual 7200rpm HDD to put files-or big programs and few big PC games- on it. I would say my main use of it is to backup files, or put files that dont fit in the SSD on it. I sometimes play those big games that are installed on the 7200rpm HDD, but not that often. Im guessing in the case of playing a game, theres probably a big difference in term of speed between the 7200 and 5400rpm?

Should I still try finding and paying more to buy a 7200rpm, or should the 5400rpm be fine, considering my use of it?

In case it might help for my question, my cpu is an Intel Core i5-8400 along with 12GB of RAM

Thank you

Answer 1

A 7200rpm hard drive will be faster then a 5400 rpm drive, but only incrementally (compared to an SSD which is at least an order of magnitude faster). In reality a 7200rpm 2.5" disk is probably not worth a premium over a 5400 disk as its still a hard drive and still has sucky iops - you are unlikely to see more then a 15% improvement in load times for games and the like.

There are also confounding factors which could lead to a 5400RPM drive being faster - things like cache size and number of drive platters.

Some creative thoughts -

SSD prices - especially larger ones - have decreased dramatically in price recently, especially when on special. - you can pick up a 2tb SSD for a little over US$215. If speed and/or reliability is important, its worthwhile upgrading to SSD. (or maybe keep the 1TB HDD and upgrade the 250 ssd to 1TB, but thats less bang for buck)

Another consideration may be to partition your 2tb hdd into 2 parts. The one partition (using the outer tracks) will be significantly faster then the other (which uses the inner tracks, so less data read for the same rotation). In this way you could probably get close to 7200RPM speed for some data. (This is somewhat akin to "short stroking", which might be worth googling if the concept is of interest)

Lastly, have you considered an sshd (which combines a 5400rpm hdd with SSD cache). If you have a common usage pattern, this could way outperform a 7200RPM hdd for not-a-lot of money.