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Plus, now that SSDs are readily available in many laptops, you have an entirely new option to look at.
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In this case, the hiker is the 5,400RPM drive, and the sprinter is the 7,200RPM drive.Īreal density has pretty much been topped out in HDDs, so you can worry less about it when buying a drive. The hiker takes longer to make a trip but will deliver more boxes at the endpoint. There is also a hiker who can carry way more boxes thanks to a large backpack and careful packing. The sprinter must make several quick trips back and forth between the starting point and the end point. Think of it like this: you have a sprinter who can carry two boxes at a time, one under each arm. An HDD with a higher TPI and a higher BPI is preferred.
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There are tracks per inch (TPI) as well as bits per inch (BPI). Without getting too technical, there are two parts that make up areal density. Areal density, which is how close together the bits of data can be jammed together on a platter, also plays a role, albeit significantly diminished thanks to advancing technology. The higher RPM drive spins faster, but there is another factor to consider. Great! You want a fast hard drive, so you'll go with the 7,200 RPM model. The spindle speed, which signifies how fast the physical platters inside rotate and is measured in revolutions per minute (RPM), will often be either 5,400 RPM or 7,200R PM. HDDs have a physical platter that is read while it spins, so you should also see a listed speed. When shopping for a new laptop, you'll likely see a hard drive advertised as either an HDD or an SSD, and you'll see a storage size, usually measured in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB).
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