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Hard Drive Speed .. need help!

M

machiker

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2005
23
0
I'm trying to decide between a new Powerbook 1.67 Ghz, and the previous generation model the 1.5 Ghz.

The speed upgrade dosen't matter to me, and my only concern is the hard drive speed. The 1.5 has a 4200 rpm internal hard drive, while the 1.67 has a 5400 rpm internal drive.

I'll be using it mainly for internet, office tasks, and occasionally recording (my main studio computer is a G5). And I'll obviously also be using an external firewire drive for all audio.

Will the 4200 rpm drive give me problems? If it's only running the OS and the application does it matter?

The 1.5 model is about $450 less that's why I'm considering it.

Thanks.
 
M

mms

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2003
784
0
CA
The 4200 isn't that slow that it's not usable. Of course there's a difference between that and the 5400, but for internet and office tasks, it really shouldn't make a substantial enough difference to warrant paying an extra couple hundred bucks. Starting up is probably the only part where you'll see major improvements but again, I personally don't think it would be worth the money. That's not to mention that the faster the drive, the more battery power it will eat up while on the go.
 
P

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
mms said:
The 4200 isn't that slow that it's not usable. Of course there's a difference between that and the 5400, but for internet and office tasks, it really shouldn't make a substantial enough difference to warrant paying an extra couple hundred bucks. Starting up is probably the only part where you'll see major improvements but again, I personally don't think it would be worth the money. That's not to mention that the faster the drive, the more battery power it will eat up while on the go.
Click to expand...

not neccissarrly, the drive would hve to spin less so it would probably be about equal battery life
 
gekko513

gekko513

macrumors 603
Oct 16, 2003
6,301
1
As long as you have enough RAM so that the disk doesn't have to swap memory a lot, you should be fine.
 
M

machiker

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2005
23
0
Thanks for the input.

Another question. If I replace the 4200 rpm drive with a 5400 rpm (or even 7200 rpm) internal drive myself, does this void the warrenty on the Powerbook?
 
Mechcozmo

Mechcozmo

macrumors 603
Jul 17, 2004
5,215
2
machiker said:
Thanks for the input.

Another question. If I replace the 4200 rpm drive with a 5400 rpm (or even 7200 rpm) internal drive myself, does this void the warrenty on the Powerbook?
Click to expand...


If you pay Apple, then it doesn't. If you do it yourself, kiss the warranty good-bye.
 
M

machiker

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2005
23
0
OK,

let's say I stay with the internal 4200 rpm drive, and record all audio to an external firewire 800 drive. Will the slower internal drive be a problem? All it will be doing is running the OS and Digital Performer. All read/write of digital audio will be done on the external drive.
 
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