MBP 200GB hard drive ACTUALLY pretty fast!!!

It beats it when the other drives are 80% full. I ordered mine with the 100GB drive for two reasons:

1 - I need the extra speed that the 7200rpm drive offers (when not full).
2 - The money I saved bought me a 250GB external HD w. FW 800.

So for the same price as built-in 200GB, I got 350GB - of course I have to drag that external HD with me if I need it somewhere, but for the stuff I need it for - it's definitely a better deal than having the 200GB built in.

I went with the 200GB because:
1. I need as much space as possible
2. I assume it won't be slower than the 4200rpm in my current laptop

I still hope it's as fast as possible, but this test doesn't tell me much either way.

MovieCutter said:

http://barefeats.com/mbcd7.html

Check it out. It beats the the 5400RPM AND 7200RPM drive in large file reads and writes. Glad I got the 200GB. LOTS of space and decent speed!

Click to expand...

I really went back-and-forth in trying to decide between the 160GB or 200GB! I always need more storage space, since my iTunes and iPhoto files are quite large, but I was afraid of the speed hit I'd take with a 4200rpm drive (which, for the smaller files that I'd typically be using, is still going to be noticeably slower, I think, vs. "large file reads and writes.")

Ultimately, I went for the 160GB, and plan to get a minixpress 825 with another 5400rpm 160GB HD, with FW800/400/USB2 connections - not too large to lug around in my notebook case. At least until we see 3000GB 5400rpm 2.5" HDs - then I'll see how hard the swap process would be to replace my 160GB!

Glad for you that your 200GB will be fast enough! I'm still envious of your extra 40GB!

iBorg

they tested using an external adapter.. that's not exactly proof of anything, regardless of their claims.

MovieCutter said:

http://barefeats.com/mbcd7.html

Check it out. It beats the the 5400RPM AND 7200RPM drive in large file reads and writes. Glad I got the 200GB. LOTS of space and decent speed!

Click to expand...

Good result, but shouldn't really surprise anyone that reading/writing a file 80% of the size of the harddrive means you will have to search for fragments of file many time.

But then again, the 72GB read/write is kind of a pointless test. I mean, other than testing stuff or storing data (which is what a server is for), who on earth will read/write a file over 50 GB?

So is this thread here to tell us that the 200 GB drive is fast enough for you, or is it here to tell us that it's a fast drive.

I hope it's not the latter, because that test certainly doesn't show it.

Kolind said:

It beats it when the other drives are 80% full. I ordered mine with the 100GB drive for two reasons:

1 - I need the extra speed that the 7200rpm drive offers (when not full).
2 - The money I saved bought me a 250GB external HD w. FW 800.

So for the same price as built-in 200GB, I got 350GB - of course I have to drag that external HD with me if I need it somewhere, but for the stuff I need it for - it's definitely a better deal than having the 200GB built in.

Click to expand...

Does the 7200 rpm drive decrease the battery life any?

EXTREME NOTEBOOK STORAGE
One added advantage of having TWO FireWire 800 ports on the miniXpress was illustrated
recently when literally taped two notebook enclosures together to create a "mini RAID" box. By
daisy-chaining the FireWire 800 ports and striping the two drives using Apple's Disk Utility, we
were able to attain almost double our transfer speeds -- using only bus power. Eeeeeha!


FREAKING COOL

XnavxeMiyyep said:

Does the 7200 rpm drive decrease the battery life any?

Click to expand...

I think so, but don't think it's much though. I saw a website somewhere showing the power each of the different HD's needed, and the 7200rpm was the one using the most if I'm not mistaken. It would make sense that the faster it spins, the more power it uses as well.