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7200 RPM HD in MB = vibrations

pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Original poster
I'm posting this as an FYI for those who are considering upgrading the hard drive in their MacBooks to a 7200 RPM hard drive. I installed a Seagate 200GB 7200 RPM hard drive in my MacBook last night. Today, I finally noticed that it causes both sides of the front palm areas (beside the touch pad) to vibrate slightly. I never noticed this before with the original 5400 RPM drive which was also a Seagate. It's very slight, but definitely noticeable.
 
I installed a Hitachi 200GB 7200rpm (HTS722020K9SA00) in my late 2007 2.2GHz whitebook. And maybe, maybe I do feel some very very tiny vibrations. But it could also be the fan (or my fridge/anything creating vibrations). And by far not annoying, and only on the left side. And that's illogical... Must be a vibe in my head 😉

By the way, I installed the new drive shortly after purchase of the laptop so I cannot tell the difference.

Did you tighten the screws of the HD casing enough?
 
Yes, I tightened the screws enough. I've done these hard drive upgrades quite a few times. This is the first time I'm using a 7200 RPM hard drive in my own machine, though... I know it's the drive because I never felt these vibrations with the old 5400 RPM drive. Again, I agree with you that it's extremely slight, but definitely present.
 
Cave Man said:
I'm not entirely clear why anyone would want to install a 7200 rpm drive in a MB(P) anyway...
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Me either. Although it's possible that this may give some speed benefit (on slower Windows laptops, I have seen this make a significant difference), on a modern laptop (particularly a OSX-driven machine, which uses the drive differently), it's unlikely that the benefit of a faster-spinning hard drive would be as dramatic.
 
DannySmurf said:
Me either. Although it's possible that this may give some speed benefit (on slower Windows laptops, I have seen this make a significant difference), on a modern laptop (particularly a OSX-driven machine, which uses the drive differently), it's unlikely that the benefit of a faster-spinning hard drive would be as dramatic.
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You guys talk like all mac people are so smart, please

click you way over to the macbook pro forum and you'll find post after post of people explaining why you need a 7200 RPM drive.
 
bought a new 7200 rpm western digital HDD for my macbook and i have not noticed any vibrations of any kind, although im usually not doing a lot of things that take the hard drive constantly.
 
sealab2021 said:
You guys talk like all mac people are so smart, please

click you way over to the macbook pro forum and you'll find post after post of people explaining why you need a 7200 RPM drive.
Click to expand...

Yes, well most people who espouse the benefits of a 7200 RPM drive are usually talking out of their arses. Why? Because the spin speed of the drive is usually NOT the only indicator of a drive's speed, or of its speed relative to another drive.

Will a 7200RPM drive speed up a Mac? Like everything to do with technology, the answer is "it depends." It depends on the drive it's replacing (and the mean seek time of the new drive in relation to the old one); it depends on the interface the drive is attached to (a SATA drive will show much smaller gains than an IDE drive, and USB probably doesn't matter); it depends on the computer it's going into and the operating system/file system it's going to be used with; it depends on what the computer is used for: a machine used for primarily email and web surfing probably won't show a significant difference, while a video editing machine probably will.

Just because a lot of people say that it's a good upgrade doesn't mean that it actually is. A blanket yes or no answer usually means that someone hasn't bothered to do their homework before answering, or that they assume just because they did an upgrade, and saw (or possibly imagined) a boost, everyone will see the same result.
 
I installed a 7200 Hitachi in my Penrym Macbook and its silent, cool with a very tiny vibration (you have to really feel for it, to feel it). Its perfect to be honest.

If you look at the bench marks, 7200 is nearly always faster (with exception if it nearly full and you are comparing it to a half empty, much bigger sized 5400rpm drive).

From real world tests, people tend to say they get noticeable differences when they install a 7200rpm drive on whatever tasks they find they are doing. I have so far (including web surfing and email, everything opens faster, documents are available faster). The reason is, it actually is a good upgrade, not just because people say so. Benchmarks blabla bla (have a look at barefeats.com) - But often real world tests are more important, because it is really about how you feel about it, because it is going to be you who is noticing it or not.

So the above post is wrong....
 
Regardless of whether your MacBook has a 5400RPM or a 7200RPM HDD you will still have some slight vibration. I just got mine this past Thursday and I can notice some with the stock 160GB 5400RPM drive. I have to really concentrate to notice it though.
 
fewture said:
I If you look at the bench marks, 7200 is nearly always faster (with exception if it nearly full and you are comparing it to a half empty, much bigger sized 5400rpm drive).

So the above post is wrong....
Click to expand...

Go ahead, keep trying to convince yourself that all that money you spent was worth it.
 
fewture said:
If you look at the bench marks, 7200 is nearly always faster (with exception if it nearly full and you are comparing it to a half empty, much bigger sized 5400rpm drive).

So the above post is wrong....
Click to expand...

Erm... well dude, if your benchmarks show that 7200 RPM drives are only "nearly" always faster than 5400 RPM drives, then I'd say that my post about speed increases depending on several factors is actually correct, since if I was wrong (as you claim) and the spin speed was the only determining factor, then the 7200 RPM drives would not be "nearly" always faster, they would ALWAYS be faster. 🙂

"Real world" tests, as you call them, are probably more important, but they are quite a bit less scientific, and far more biased (including your own, I think), since someone who just put down a couple hundred dollars on a new drive they think is faster WANTS the new drive to be faster, and is likely to see a performance increase, whether such an increase exists or not. That's basic psychology. So if you just want to feel good, and don't care whether your computer will actually be faster, then a 7200 RPM drive is certainly a good upgrade for you.

Are 7200 RPM drives faster? Maybe. It depends. Given that (as the Tom's Hardware chart posted by Cave Man shows), it is possible to have a 4200 RPM drive that is actually significantly faster than several 7200 RPM drives, I'd say that not only is the spin speed not the only factor in the speed of the drive, it's not even the most important factor. The opinion of anyone who gives a yes or no to this question, without further information, is worthless. They don't know what they're talking about.
 
7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm? What difference does it make when the data transfer rates are the same? If they are both 3G/s who cares how fast it's spinning? The 7200 uses more power, generates more heat, and causes the laptop to work harder to stay cool. Is that worth the small tiny boost in speed that might be gained by a 7200 rpm drive? I think not. Looking at the benchmarks for 7200 vs 5400, I don't see anything to write home about. There are so many more factors that determine whether one drive is faster than another. (cache anyone?)
 
The Seagate Momentus is known to be more noisy than the Hitachi. For more info on the drives in general, go on over to to www.storagereviews.com and see their comparo.

One thing that's stood out re: Hitachi 7K200 Travelstar is that that particular drive is said to be more dependable than the other brands, regardless of speed. I can't remember where I read that tidbit but it was some sort of authority on the subject...
 
krye said:
7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm? What difference does it make when the data transfer rates are the same? If they are both 3G/s who cares how fast it's spinning? The 7200 uses more power, generates more heat, and causes the laptop to work harder to stay cool. Is that worth the small tiny boost in speed that might be gained by a 7200 rpm drive? I think not. Looking at the benchmarks for 7200 vs 5400, I don't see anything to write home about. There are so many more factors that determine whether one drive is faster than another. (cache anyone?)
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Who sai the tranfer rates are the same? The bandwidth is the same, but the transfer rates are not. What where you thinking?? And for power consumption:

From Barefeats: "Many of you have asked if the 7K notebook drives will drain your battery faster or make your laptop run hotter. Here's a shocker: the 5K WD Scorpio averages 2.5 watts for read/write functions. The Hitachi 7K200 uses only 2.3 watts. When it comes to "active idle," the 5K WD drive requires twice as much power as the 7K Hitachi (2.0 vs 1.0 watts). In other words, the 7K Hitachi 200G notebook drive will have a lower impact on your MacBook Pro's battery life (and generate less heat) compared to the 5K WD 250G drive."
 
Yesterday, I had a friend's MacBook here and noticed the same vibration in her computer even though she only has a stock 5400RPM drive. Maybe I was just extra aware of it after the upgrade...
 
electricity sensation, not a hard drive vibration (proof included)

pastrychef said:
Yesterday, I had a friend's MacBook here and noticed the same vibration in her computer even though she only has a stock 5400RPM drive. Maybe I was just extra aware of it after the upgrade...
Click to expand...

Indeed, this has nothing to do with hard drive speed. It's something related to electricity.

You can make th following experience. Sit in front of you power mac pro, and put the hands beside the touchpad. Depending if your operating on battery or plugged onto the wall you'll feel a different sensation by sligthly touching the metal surface.

Now have somebody else touching slightly your foot or your neck. If the MBP is not operating on battery, he/she will feel the same sensation on the surface of your skin.

I'm trying to find on the net other people who made the same discovery... And i'd like to be sure this electricity cannot cause any harm...
 
fewture said:
I installed a 7200 Hitachi in my Penrym Macbook and its silent, cool with a very tiny vibration (you have to really feel for it, to feel it). Its perfect to be honest.

If you look at the bench marks, 7200 is nearly always faster (with exception if it nearly full and you are comparing it to a half empty, much bigger sized 5400rpm drive).

From real world tests, people tend to say they get noticeable differences when they install a 7200rpm drive on whatever tasks they find they are doing. I have so far (including web surfing and email, everything opens faster, documents are available faster). The reason is, it actually is a good upgrade, not just because people say so. Benchmarks blabla bla (have a look at barefeats.com) - But often real world tests are more important, because it is really about how you feel about it, because it is going to be you who is noticing it or not.

So the above post is wrong....
Click to expand...

Hi Newbie here but not a Newbie to the IT industry. I work for a Storage Consulting firm specializing in enterprise configurations - This comment is spot bang on the money. It is all about the total situation that has to be taken into account. Application usage is just as important as the performance of the drive (and I'm talking about like for like comparison here, (7200 v 7200 or some ) seek-time, interface etc etc).

P.S.
Hope this helps as I'm a Windows convert and will be calling on you guys to help me no doubt soon on OS X issues (all part of the fun of learning a new toy)

Regards
Shogo
 
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