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Which one of these laptop harddrives is the best?

W

WillMak

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
957
0
My measely 80 gig macbook harddrive is feeling cramped and I want to upgrade but don't know anything about harddrive quality. Which one would you get if you were in my shoes?

5400 options:

1) $100 toshiba 320 gig 5400rpm
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Toshiba/MK3252GSX/
or
2) $65 Hitachi 320 gig 5400 rpm
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A56417/

Or got with 7200 drives instead:

1) $100 seagate 200 gig 7200rpm
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST9200420ASG/
or
2) $70 Hitachi 200 gig 7200rpm
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A50940/

As you can see my budget is 100 or less and I would order the hitachi in a heartbeat but the cheaper prices make me weary....also the decision to get more space versus speed...PLEASE HELP! I have never bought a laptop harddrive before.

Actually, maybe I shouldn't limit myself with these two. For 100 dollars which one would you guys pick from owc?
http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Se....5+hard+drive&Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Price|0&N=6892
 
W

WillMak

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
957
0
jmann4489 said:
I would pick one of the 5400rpm drives. Because the 7200rpm drives are more money for the amount of space you get, and I bet you won't even notice the difference between the two speed-wise.
Click to expand...

Does the brand matter? I want to to buy the hitachi one because f the rebate making it so very cheap.
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
WillMak said:
Does the brand matter? I want to to buy the hitachi one because f the rebate making it so very cheap.
Click to expand...

I don't think the brand makes much difference; whatever brand you choose, you will find people who used it and are very happy, and others who used it and were unlucky. In the end, backup is essential.

5400/7200 rpm: Remember that smaller disks are slower if everything else is equal, so the 200GB 7200 rpm won't get you any real speed advantage compared to 320GB 5400 rpm. Only 320GB 7200 rpm would actually be faster.
 
sushi

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
I say go for the capacity over speed.

In fact, I just did this with a Samsung 500GB HD (5400). Love the space. Don't notice a speed difference -- for what I do anyway.

My next upgrade will be to 1TB when those drives become available for MBP models.
 
C

CTJoyce

macrumors member
Sep 27, 2008
39
0
Seagate Momentus 5400.4 250GB!

Seriously I have been running one of these in all my PC laptops and suggesting them to all my friends with Intel based macs. Google it, read the reviews. Its got almost got the performance of 7200RPM drives and the power savings of a well designed 5400RPM

Cheers
Cameron
 
F

fewture

macrumors regular
Jun 8, 2006
165
0
The WD Scorpio Blue 5400rpm beats the Hitachi 200gb 7200 in some tests and is equal in others

http://www.barefeats.com/note01.html

These WD note books drives have good reputation.

I am picking up the WD Scorpio Black 7200 rpm 320gb soon (or wait for a new 7200rpm 500gb drive by Seagate/WD etc when they come out
 
M

misterredman

Cancelled
Oct 3, 2007
723
0
It depends on what you need more: speed or space. You may want to check some of the speed testing on review site too if that's what matter the most. Sometimes bigger drive are actually faster than smaller drive with the same RPM.

I got a 320GB WD scorpio and it was much faster than the 100GB drive I had before, despite both being 5400rpm.
 
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