External hard drives 5400 RPM in the test
If you are looking for an (external) hard drive, you will quickly come across the unit “RPM”, which very often goes with the values 5400 and 7200 - but what exactly does that mean?
Very easily: Of course, RPM stands for nothing other than "Rounds Per Minute", i.e. the revolutions that a hard disk creates per minute - inside mechanical hard disks there is a write whose tracks the read head recognizes and then outputs the data.
In the overview below, we have listed all the external hard drives that we have tested that can be used with a speed of 5400RPM turn - in the following text we want to first deal with what speaks for and against 5400 RPM.
So if you're looking for an external hard drive, you'll soon find out why 5400 RPM isn't a bad choice in many cases.
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Which factors does the speed influence?
At first glance, one would of course intuitively say that more revolutions also result in higher speed - but of course it's not that simple in practice.
Because other factors also have an influence on the speed, including one that is particularly important, namely the bit density - i.e. the number of bits that the read head "flies over" during one revolution.
The higher the bit density, the lower the speed has to be to achieve the same performance - with twice the bit density, you would only need half the speed to provide the same amount of data.
That's why RPM alone isn't a measure of disk speed—at least, not alone.
So does the slow speed not have any disadvantages?
Yes, of course it has, otherwise there wouldn't be any faster disks - but the disadvantages are within reasonable limits for most users.
First of all, there is the access time, i.e. the time it takes for the read head to reach the right place on the disc - the faster the disc rotates, the faster it can, of course, reach any place on the disc. The access time is therefore slower at lower speeds.
And then of course there is one more point: If two hard disks with different speeds have the same bit density, the disk with the higher speed is of course faster.
What are the advantages of a slower speed?
With the information given so far, one naturally asks oneself why not simply manufacture hard disks with high speeds and high bit densities - after all, the speed would then be the highest after all?
That's right - still have it Hard drives with 5400 RPM a number of advantages not to be neglected:
- Lower volume. Anything that rotates more slowly is also quieter – logically. A hard drive with 5400 RPM is therefore usually quieter than one with RPM 7200 or even faster rotating models.
- Less heat development. Hard drives with 5400 RPM stay relatively cool, which means that they can usually be operated without a fan - and that's even quieter and saves electricity.
- Less power consumption. Regardless of the fan, a slower speed requires less power - and that reduces power consumption.
- Cheaper price. In many cases, a 5400 RPM external hard drive is cheaper than the same model with 7200 RPM - and that is of course also an important point.
The slower speed that external hard drives with 5400 RPM bring with them also has advantages - and so it is once again a decision that depends on individual needs.
Who are external hard drives with 5400 RPM suitable for?
If you summarize all the information, it becomes clear that the speed alone does not determine the speed - if you want to achieve top speed, you also need a high bit density, otherwise one can 5400RPM hard drive just as fast or even faster if their bit density is correspondingly higher.
In the end, 5400 RPM hard drives are sufficiently fast for most users and offer some of the advantages that we have just listed - and at a mostly lower price.
For the average user, a RPM 5400 So it's the better alternative to 7200 RPM - only those who value particularly fast values in terms of access times can't avoid the highest possible speed if they don't want to use an SSD.
