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The Curious Bag
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RPM stands for revolutions per minute, or how many times the hard drive is able to rotate. The hard drive is the computer component that permanently stores the information on your computer so it is saved even after you shut your computer down.
Types
The most common RPM ratings for consumer hard drives are 5,400 and 7,200, but they can go faster than 12,000 RPM.
Benefits
The more revolutions per minute a hard drive is capable of, the faster your computer will run because it is able to access information on the hard drive faster.
Function
The hard drive keeps the information on a magnetic disc; the information can only be accessed by spinning the disc. The differences in hard drive RPMs will be most noticeable when you are accessing large amounts of data from the hard drive, such as opening several programs at once.
Warning
The faster your hard drive spins, the more energy is required to run it. If you use your laptop on battery power, a hard drive with a higher RPM will run out of battery power first.
Potential
Solid state hard drives have no moving parts, so they are more stable. However, they have not replaced hard drives that rely on RPMs because they are not as large.
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