5400RPM drive OK for media server?

There's more to drive performance than rotation speed. Some 5400 rpm drives are faster than some 7200 rpm drives, due to higher density. 5400 should be fine for streaming movies and music.

GGJstudios said:

There's more to drive performance than rotation speed. Some 5400 rpm drives are faster than some 7200 rpm drives, due to higher density. 5400 should be fine for streaming movies and music.

Click to expand...

I have all 5400 rpm hdd in my NAS with zero problems

The 5400 rpm drive in my MacBook Pro 2009 only reaches 55 MB/s read/write, while newer drives can get up to 80 MB/s, so rpm is not everything.

You tend to find with media servers that its rarely the hard disc speed thats the issue, as the throughput needed for even a full HD movie is much less than the read/write speed of the drive its on. Issues are more likely to arise from network bandwidth.

my brand new Mac Mini arrived yesterday (with a 5400rpm drive) it performs no slower with media server type work than my old 2009 iMac with a 7200rpm drive.

Paul Josaph said:

is that really so ?

Click to expand...

Average access time will be slower on the 5400rpm drive, because once the heads locate the right track it needs to wait for the sector to come on 'round, which is a longer wait when the platter spins more slowly.

So the net result is that 7200 rpm drives will usually perform better for non-sequential data transfers (i.e. small chunks of data scattered all over the drive), but they won't necessarily perform better for sequential transfers, which is a function of data density and rotation speed. A newer 5400 drive with very high data density will have more bits per second going under the head than a 7200 rpm drive with much lower data density.

Paul Josaph said:

is that really so ?

Click to expand...

Yes, it really is. When Slower Is Actually Faster

The speed of my 2012 mini's HD tests nearly twice as fast as my 2010 mini's.


Mike

Yes.

I've used 5400 RPM drives without any problems at all.

GGJstudios said:

Yes, it really is. When Slower Is Actually Faster

Click to expand...

As long as your files are not fragmented.


Regardless, any 5400rpm will do just fine for a media center. I serve content off my NAS which uses 5400rpm drives. They run a lot cooler than 7200rpm.

Tinmania said:

The speed of my 2012 mini's HD tests nearly twice as fast as my 2010 mini's.

Click to expand...

It's also 6gb SATA vs 3gb SATA so that's not unexpected. And the 2010 is Core 2 Duo with a much slower bus.

Imho the downside of any spinning HD in a media server is that you either have the HDD spinning 24/7 (wear and power consumption) or have to wait for the media server until the HDD spun up from energy saving mode.

Personal perception of the "spin up waiting time" plays a big role here, though it's something to keep in mind.