220-1101 Question 238
Single answerSpindle speedsA small design office uses two desktop workstations for large photo and video file storage. One workstation has a 5400 RPM SATA hard drive, and the other has a 7200 RPM SATA hard drive. A technician is asked why the 7200 RPM system feels faster when opening large project files, even though both drives have the same capacity and interface. Which explanation best answers the user's question?
- A
The 7200 RPM drive can reduce rotational latency, which can improve how quickly data is accessed compared to a 5400 RPM drive.
- B
The 7200 RPM drive has more CPU cores available for file processing, which improves application load times.
- C
The 7200 RPM drive increases available system RAM, allowing larger files to open faster.
- D
The 7200 RPM drive uses a different file system that is inherently faster than a 5400 RPM drive.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests applied understanding of spindle speed in traditional HDDs. In CompTIA A+ Core 1, candidates are expected to recognize that higher spindle speeds, such as 7200 RPM versus 5400 RPM, generally provide better performance because the drive's platters rotate faster, reducing rotational latency and often improving data throughput. This is relevant when comparing otherwise similar magnetic hard drives in real support scenarios. Best practice when explaining this to users is to distinguish spindle speed from unrelated performance factors such as CPU, RAM, and file system choice. Manufacturer documentation from HDD vendors commonly lists RPM as a key performance specification for magnetic drives, alongside cache size and interface type.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Spindle speed refers to how fast the platters inside a traditional hard disk drive rotate. A 7200 RPM drive spins faster than a 5400 RPM drive, which typically lowers rotational latency and can improve overall read/write performance. In a real-world scenario, this often makes the system feel more responsive when opening large files or loading applications, assuming other factors are similar.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Hard drives do not have CPU cores that accelerate file processing in the way a system processor does. A user might choose this option by confusing storage performance with CPU performance, but spindle speed affects disk access time, not processor core count.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Spindle speed has no effect on the amount of installed system memory. Someone might pick this because faster systems often also have more RAM, but RPM is strictly a storage hardware characteristic of mechanical drives.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Spindle speed does not determine the file system in use. File systems such as NTFS, exFAT, or others are configured by the operating system or administrator, not by whether a drive spins at 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM. A faster spindle speed may improve performance, but it does not change the file system.