Which is Faster: SATA 5400rpm or USB2 7200rpm for Notebook Storage Expansion?

[csopi]

Hi,

I need to expand my storage capacity on my notebook. I'm considering 2 options:

1 TB internal 5400 rpm with sata (or sata2 if my notebook is capable of)

or

2 TB external 7200 rpm with usb 2 (the hdd can do usb 3, but I don't have usb 3 port in my computer)

Can you give me some points regarding speed?

 

[DaleSwanson]

USB2 can do 480 Mbit/s, while SATA1 can do 1500 Mbit/s (SATA2 being double). As for the speed of the 7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm, this will depend on the drive. I recommend you search for the model number and find some reviews for actual numbers. A quick check seems to show modern 5400 rpm drives doing about 500 Mbit/s while 7200 rpm drives can do about 1000 Mbit/s. With the USB2 bottle neck that would make the two drives pretty close.

5400 rpm have the advantage of using less power, being quieter, and often lasting longer. If you are using this drive for extra mass storage (movies, music, etc) then you may not notice any difference in speed very much. It will only matter when you transfer data to or from the drive.

 

[csopi]

Thank you for the quick reply.