External hard drives 7200 RPM in the test

You go on a search for the right hard drive, there are a number of values ​​that are usually conveyed very prominently. This includes certain key data such as the storage capacity, the size - and the number of revolutions.

There are basically two broad categories into which the hard drives can be divided, namely those with 5400 RPM and those with 7200 RPM. There are of course a few exceptions to this, above all some faster rotating disks, but the majority of all classic hard disks rotate 5400 or 7200 times a minute.

In the overview on this page we have listed all the hard drives that we have in our hard drive test have examined and achieve the 7200 RPM - in the following overview text we want to look at the Advantages and disadvantages this faster speed and at the end also give a recommendation for whom a hard disk with 7200 RPM is suitable.

#	Preview	Products
1		LaCie Rugged 2TB...	Mobile hard drive; In the iconic rugged design in orange; Minimum... USB 3.0: up to 4x faster than USB 2.1 Shockproof, fall protection up to 1.2m, pressure-resistant with a drive-over weight...	Buy now "
2		HURRICANE GD35612...	Fast and safe: The external hard drive 3,5 inches of Hurricane... Maximum compatibility: Hurricane's external HDD is compatible... Robust and stylish: Stable hard drive housing optimally protects the...	Buy now "
3		Silicon Power Sp...	Operating temperature: 5°C - 55°C	Buy now "
4		WD_BLACK D10 Game...	WD_BLACK Game Drives – the game savers! Play and Backup PS4... HDD hard drive broadcast your games with up to 250... Thanks to the two 7,5 watt USB Type-A ports, you can charge your...	Buy now "
5		avolusion hddgear (8...	Built-in (8TB, capacity hard drive, 7200RPM, 64MB cache compatible with Playstation 4, PS4 Slim, PS4 Slim Pro PS4 file system pre-formatted, expand PS4 hard drive storage space...	Buy now "
6		Seagate FireCuda...	WITH LED LIGHTING Configurable RGB LED lighting for... COOL DESIGN Bold and sophisticated design to complement... HIGH STORAGE CAPACITY Up to 1TB of storage for the ultimate...	Buy now "
7		Avoluxion HDDGear...	External gaming hard drive with 8 TB capacity USB 3.0 You can play PS4 games directly from the extended USB storage... Compatible with PS5 game console, expand the storage space of the...	Buy now "
8		Freecom Tough Drive,...	HIGH SPEED: The external hard drive from Freecom convinces... HIGH CAPACITY: With the Tough Drive hard drive you have enough ... EXTREMELY BREAK-PROOF: With its internal anti-shock mechanism and the ...	Buy now "
9		Avolusion HDDGear...	Integrated hard drive with 4 TB capacity Compatible with PlayStation 4, PS4 Slim, PS4 Slim Pro PS4 file system preformatted, expand the...	Buy now "
10		Fantom Drives 18TB...	fd gforce 3 offers a reliable storage solution for the... Available from 500GB to 18TB, fd gforce 3 offers incredible... The Gforce 3 family is made of stable and robust aluminum...	Buy now "
11		Verbatim Store...	HIGH SPEED: Verbatim's external hard drive convinces... EXTREMELY SECURE thanks to the integrated code access - only authorized... CONNECTION & COMPATIBILITY: The USB-C connection makes the hard drive ...	Buy now "
12		Fantom Drives 22TB...	Fantom Drives The external hard drive Gforce 3 Professional is for... 7.200 RPM hard drives deliver 33% faster performance than... Hard aluminum provides protection for drives and at the same time serves...	Buy now "
13		Verbatim Store 'n'...	The powerful 6TB storage with SuperSpeed ​​interface offers... High-speed data transfer via USB 3.0 SuperSpeed... Reliable data backup with pre-installed Nero...	Buy now "
14		G Technology G Drive...	Hard drives with high-speed connectors for demanding... High-speed ports: eSATA, FireWire 800 (FireWire 400... Oxford 934 chipset	Buy now "
15		SanDisk PROFESSIONAL...	With ultra-fast data transfers of up to 270 MB/s when reading... For demanding workloads and valuable content, you can choose... The stackable anodized aluminum housing of the...	Buy now "
16		IBM 120GB Internal...		Buy now "
17		Fantom Drives 14 TB...	Fantom Drives Gforce 3 Professional external hard drive is designed for... 7200 RPM hard drives experience 33% faster performance than... Hard body aluminum provides protection for drives and serves...	Buy now "
18		Transcend...	Durable, shock and non-slip silicone housing with ... Data backup at the push of a button (auto backup) LED status light indicates operation and data transfer, power supply...	Buy now "
19		Seagate Expansion ...	User-friendly desktop hard drive - just power supply and ... Fast file transfers with USB 3.0 Drag and drop file storage with no setup	Buy now "

What does 7200 RPM mean?

Attentive readers have just noticed that this is about the turnswho have a hard drive delivers in the minute – because inside a classic hard disk, a disc revolves that resembles a CD, on which the data is stored.

This disc has tracks on which a read and write head travels, allowing the individual bits to be written to and read from the disc – this is how data is stored and retrieved.

Two values ​​now depend on the speed: on the one hand, the speed at which the disk reads and writes data and, on the other hand, the access time.

The latter is explained very simply: In order for the reading head to be able to call up a file, it first has to go to the starting point of the same, which is somewhere on the disk - the faster it rotates now, the faster the right point will be under the reading head and the shorter it will be is the access time.

Speed, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated.

Higher rpm, more speed?

In principle, of course, one would think that one 7200RPM external hard drive is faster than a model with 5400 RPM - but you can't say that across the board, because the speed also depends on another important factor:

the bit density

Basically, this says how many bits can be found on a track - and the more there are, the more data can of course be provided in one revolution.

A disk can therefore have a high speed - if the bit density is too low, it will still not reach top speed. On the other hand, a disk with a lower speed but higher bit density may offer faster read and write speeds.

Ultimately, this means that a 7200 RPM external hard drive is only faster than a 5400 RPM drive if the bit density is the same or at least not significantly lower - because only then does it show its great advantage in addition to the lower access time.

7200 RPM does not only have advantages

Cyber ​​Monday

WD Elements Portable External Hard Drive 1 TB (portable storage, USB 3.0 interface, plug and play, formatted for Windows) Black

• The WD Elements external hard drive with USB 3.0 offers a high ...
• The external hard drive allows you to enjoy a full length HD movie ...
• Boost the performance of your PC. You don't need files anymore...

69,00 EUR −10,10 EUR

Buy now "

Now let's assume that the bit density of two hard drives is the same and the model with RPM 7200 accordingly offers a better overall performance than the disk with 5400 RPM - then there are still a few points that should be considered and that speak against a high speed:

• Volume. Higher RPM also means higher noise levels – which is why 7200 RPM records are often noticeably louder than their 5400 RPM counterparts.
• heat development. More speed, more heat - a very simple calculation. Therefore, 7200 RPM sometimes means that an additional fan has to be installed, which is of course louder again and also affects the next point.
• Power consumption. A higher speed alone consumes more electricity. If there is also a fan, a faster rotating disk can quickly consume many times the power.
• Price. Plates with a higher speed are often correspondingly more expensive - which can of course also be a disadvantage.

Who needs 7200RPM?

Even if the picture looks negative overall so far, it's not at all - especially not anymore today, where factors such as volume or heat development are increasingly decreasing, so that modern external hard drives with 7200 RPM do not necessarily need a fan.

are at the end Records with 7200 RPM It is therefore suitable for all those who value fast access time - because when it comes to reading speed, you should not underestimate the bit density factor and therefore pay attention to the real speeds in tests.