Question 1

How does the 7.2K RPM speed affect the performance of this hard drive compared to a 5.4K RPM drive?

Accepted Answer

Depends on what you are doing.  It is possible to feel the speed difference between 5400 and 7.2K  and for some things it is very obvious.  For others it makes no difference.  The same no matter what drive , 5400 is slower access.

Question 2

Can this 1TB hard drive be used as a primary boot drive, or is it better suited for additional storage?

Accepted Answer

I've been running them  in Dell servers since 2010 on the onboard RAID controller (6ir)  They are  fine for storage or boot.  On one server we have a different SAS 10000RPM as the boot drive. On the others this drive does all.  I do not recall specifically although I think they are not normal SATA connectors.  May be wrong.  Have not looked for 5 years and getting ready to replace as that is a long life.

Question 3

What are the specific dimensions of the Dell Wd 1TB 7.2K RPM 3.5 INCH Hard Drive, and will it fit into a standard desktop case?

Accepted Answer

drive sizes are standardized.  The only variation would be thickness.  These are as big as they come.  They are not thin.   I think ours are server drives and require special connectors I have not looked at them lately.

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