performance boost with new hard drive?

[Skibsted]

I have a 2.33 MBP Intel Core 2 Duo with 3 GB RAM.
I currently have 20 GB left on my internal hard drive and I'm about to get a bigger one (the scorpio from wd).
My question is:
Would I also get a performance boost when I get so much free hard drive space?

Thanks

[alphaod]

Well the data will be more toward the center of the platters which should allow those to be accessed faster.

[Skibsted]

Thanks for the quick reply!
But is that performance improvement only theoretically, barely noticeable or is it something that you'll most definately "feel"?

[The Flashing Fi]

Thanks for the quick reply!
But is that performance improvement only theoretically, barely noticeable or is it something that you'll most definately "feel"?

I doubt you'll see a performance difference that matters. It's mostly something that's theoretical.

[mgacam2]

From what I'v heard there is a pretty decent performance improvement. From first hand experience jumping from my 120 GB hard drive in my 2.2 SR MBP to a 200 gb 7200 rpm hard drive, the computer felt snappier and loaded things quicker. I got the 200 gb drive for free and am currently waiting for the 500 gb spinpoint from samsung that comes out this month. They may have a slower rpm but because of the density it performs better.

[Skibsted]

hmmmm ok,
so now I have 2 contradicting answers... I can see where this is going...
mgacam: don't you think that your speed improvement was due to the fact that you replaced your 5400 hard drive with a 7200?


Thanks guys

[rychencop]

i think you would notice a bigger increase with a speed change more than with a capacity change. 5400 to 7200...you will see a difference. 160Gb to 250Gb i doubt you would notice anything. except the cache might be larger in the 250 which would make it a bit faster in loading.

[tip]

I went from a 100 to a 320. I noticeable performance increase (or decrease), other than the capacity.