Hi Moo,
there are some significant changes going on in the Harddrive production.
Some years ago, when the HDD had less volume (GB), a 7200 rpm HD was THE only thing for audio recording.
Things are changing now.
There are less and less 7200 HDs with access times under 10ms. Thats because producers like Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital use the so called "Acoustic Mode" for their drives. With the Acoustic Mode on the Write- and Readheads don`t speed up that fast, so they produce less noise. Unfortunately with these producers you can`t turn the Acoustic mode off - it`s on by default (via firmware).

Also the data density is permanently raised by producers, to get more than 1 Terrabyte on the discs. This makes it hard to position the heads of the Disc in a precise way.
That`s why the trend goes to 5400rpm - 5900rpm also with the 3.5 HDDs. Because with lesser rotation speed the reading and writing is more precise / accurate. The access times are then usually between 11ms and 15ms.

Western Digital has a Drive out (WD20-EADS) with 2GB, that has only 9ms access time, due to a special firmware algorythm, and uses the more accurate 5400rpm discs.

Also 5400 discs are lower in noise and produce less heat. If you use your drive via USB then USB is a bottleneck for speed (acces time) anyway.

Until today I only use 7200rpm drives. But when the new 5400 drives with fast acces times are on the market I`ll buy these. They are simply more accurate. And in a recording session I want to rely on my disc. But don`t buy the cheap ones, read the specifiacations.

HTH, Sandra

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