Mavericks 10.9.2 on a 5200RPM Drive

Obviously, its going to be slower since read/write operations will be that much slower then an SSD. The over all system will feel more sluggish because of this as the OS needs to pull pieces of itself from the drive.

MarcusCarpenter said:

I know this obviously, but why is Mavericks slower on a standard HDD than Mountain Lion and Lion ?

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I'd assume because there's more components on the drive then memory.

MarcusCarpenter said:

I know this obviously, but why is Mavericks slower on a standard HDD than Mountain Lion and Lion ?

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It's probably optimised for SSD's.

Apple tends to ensure their latest software works best on the very latest technology. It's the same for iOS. iOS works best on the A7 CPU and is noticeably slower and less efficient on older iOS devices.

MarcusCarpenter said:

Hmm everything seems snappy and fast once the OS has loaded, Damn i hate standard Disks, i wonder what other peoples experience is, it could be that i may have a failing Drive.

Just a quick question, is 600MB/s RW the fastest i could go on a 3gb/s sata interface ?

Cheers

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I don't think the drive is bad....you've just come from an SSD to a conventional platter based physical mechanical drive...the drop in speed is perfectly normal and to be expected..the closest thing I have to a standard HDD is the hybrid fusion unit 3 TB in my iMac, but it puts the most frequently used files on the blade so boot and app opening times are similar to an SSD. My rMBP has a 500GB SSD in it. I guess if I were in your position I'd consider a new SSD you are always going to notice the difference.