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Replacing HD - 5400 vs 7200?

T

Tawcan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 14, 2008
13
0
I have a Rev. E 15" MBP with the stock 250GB 5400 rpm HD. I'm getting close on running out of HD space so I'm looking to get a bigger HD. Is it a good idea to replace it with a 7200 rpm HD? Is the speed improvement significant? My MBP is my primary computer, I do a lot of general internet surfing as well as a lot of photo editing (I'm a photographer). I did some quick search and it looks like some HD's have bad vibrations? Does a 7200 HD drain out much more battery than a 5400 one?

I did a quick search at a local computer store and found the following, which one would be best to get?

1.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=53767&vpn=0A72335&manufacture=Hitachi

2.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35410&vpn=ST9500420AS&manufacture=Seagate

3.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35411&vpn=ST9500420ASG&manufacture=Seagate

4.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=54203&vpn=WD5000BEKT&manufacture=Western Digital WD

5. (1TB 5400 rpm)
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=51373&vpn=WD10TPVT&manufacture=Western Digital WD

Thanks! :)
 
a hybrid drive is only faster for the most-used files.

for standard mechanical drives, get capacity first, speed second...in other words, a 1TB drive.
 
Photo loading and editing.... do you travel with the laptop? Do you edit "on the go" if you answer yes to these questions then I would seriously look into a SSD. The load times of your images into whatever you use (LR, AP, or PS) will be very very fast. Your time to save the files if you do bulk edits and save them all at once will also take very very little time. If you move the laptop around a lot because you can't sit still when editing (like me haha) then the SSD will not be "parking" itself as there are no moving parts.

Now SSD's are significantly more per/GB so getting something like a 512GB would be just crazy expensive, So if I was you I would look into a smaller SSD to edit and save to temporarily (as well as run all your apps, make it the boot disk) and then toss a 750GB 5400rpm drive in the dvd drive bay.

Thats just me personally, back when I took photos everyday that would be my dream set up but since then I have moved to graphic design more and dont really need a ton of storage space and I will have a 320GB portable enclosure and the 2TB that doesn't move. Thats why I went with a 120GB SSD from OCZ. There are lots of good brands out there and while it is a little more expensive, I feel for you would be worth it in the long run.

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the replies so far.

I usually edit pics at home so not particularly looking into a SSD right now (does it even have the same form factor as 2.5" HD?).

I have close to 150GB worth of images from this year, that's after deleting the bad ones so needless to say 250GB isn't large enough for me. I do have 2x 1TB external which I use for backup unfortunately using them as storage and pulling files only when I need to edit doesn't work for my work flow.
 
Yes it has the same form factor, either 3.5" for desktops and 2.5" for laptops.

In your case I would go with something like the Momentus XT hybrid drive. You'll get 7200rpm speeds and sometimes get SSD speeds (like when you open your favorite editing programs). For you its mostly about space, but I would also keep speed in mind.
 
Just get a high capacity 7200rpm disk. The high rotation speed and high aerial density should give you much improved speeds over your stock 250 drive. Hybrid drives are not that big of an improvement over normal drives, and more complicated, it's just more things to go wrong, in my opinion..
 
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