title: Is calculating an MD5 hash less CPU intensive than SHA family functions?
body: <p>Is calculating an MD5 hash less CPU intensive than SHA-1 or SHA-2 on "standard" laptop x86 hardware? I'm interested in general information, not specific to a certain chip.</p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE:</strong>
  In my case, I'm interested in calculating the hash of a file. If file-size matters, let's assume its 300K.</p>