5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm?

Ok so I have the lacie rugged 5400rpm drive which I thought was 7200 when I bought it but oh well. But I noticed when I do a aja system test I still get like 50mb/sec read / write. Isn't that good enough for video, nevermind the speed?

Yes, and maybe… no.
For video streams requiring a sustained data transfer rate of less than 50Mb per second, you’re good to go.  For video streams requiring more than 50Mb per second, you’re not good to go.
For reference:
DV-NTSC requires about 3.6Mb/sec.
HDV 1080i60 a little less than 3.6Mb/sec.
HDV 1080i60 AIC requires about 9.8Mb/sec.
The rotational speed (4,800RPM, 5,400RPM, 7,200RPM,10,000RPM) is a secondary issue. It’s sustained data transfer rate that counts.  However, if you were to start working with image sequences rather than movie files, you’d definitely want a drive with a faster rotational speed.
Matrox has a pretty good chart that quickly compares data rate requirements based on both megabits and megabytes here: http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/mac/mxo2/design/storage/
You’re good to edit anything that falls under 50Mb per second (I’d set a limit of 45Mb/sec. to allow some overhead).
-Warren

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