Is 5400rpm or USB 2.0 the bottleneck?

[crashwg]

I'm thinking about swapping out the 3.5" 7200rpm drive attached to my Wii via USB 2.0 for a smaller (physically) 2.5" drive for a nicer look and also to remove the second power supply that I have to use with the 3.5" but I'm wondering what consequence it will come with.

So I go searching the interwebs for the definitive answer but I came up short.  Finding some sort of chart that shows real-world transfer rates between 7200rpm, 5400rpm and USB2.0 seems next to impossible so I tried to look up the specifications for each of the components only to be confused by the jargon of seek times and latencies and whatnot.

Now I'm here, where no matter what the question there's someone with an answer! 

The question I guess is, if all other aspects of two HDDs were the same, what kind of differences would I expect to see between 5400 and 7200 rpm spindle speeds if both drives were connected with a SATA-USB2.0 adapter?  In addition to that question I guess I should ask the same question with the added caveat of: the connection is to a Wii and I'm using USB Loader GX.  The former being a general technology question while the latter specifically toward those who might have tried both options and might have come to a conclusion of their own.

[ChadTower]

I don't have the transfer rate numbers but I guarantee you you'll never notice the difference in this use case.  The only perceptible difference for spindle speed in a home use is heat and failure rates in small nonventilated casings.  In an "occasional use" case like external Wii storage it won't make any difference whatsoever.  That's more a concern for heavy drive killers like a Tivo.

If it does help, your perceived bottleneck is USB, not the drive spindle speed, by a great margin.

IMO you're way overthinking this.  Grab a decent compatible drive, plug it in, and be happy.  I also think you're taking a larger risk by going to a USB powered drive than you are thinking about drive speeds.  The USB controller in the Wii is cheap.  I don't trust it as the power supply for a hard drive.

[kizer]

Personally I wouldn't depend on a device to power your drive. I would go with an extrally powered USB that has its on AC adapter if you are going to have a remote drive.

Unless I'm mistaken a USB drive is only capable of moving 480Mbps Hard drives are capable of moving data faster, but the bottle neck would be the USB. For instance a Sata drive could move 3Gbs however adapting it through the USB your not going to get that speed. 5400 vs 7200 in my opinion you would get a faster seek time with the 7200 drive, but they also run a little warmer. If you want speed you need to go with flash, but it also has its limatations with read/write wear.