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750GB at 7200 RPM or 1TB at 5400 RPM?

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DrJames

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 5, 2012
44
1
Which would you choose for a college student?

Any opinions on this?

(Future college student having a difficult time deciding which HDD to get in a Macbook Pro.)
 
I would go with 1TB if I were in college. It will give you more space to run Boot Camp for Windows. There's a good chance you'll need Windows during school.
 
HighTopFade said:
I would go with 1TB if I were in college. It will give you more space to run Boot Camp for Windows. There's a good chance you'll need Windows during school.
Click to expand...

who would need that much space for windows??? I doubt anybody would use more than 100Gb for a Windows partition or parallels install! I use only a few gigs for XP.

Definitely go for the 7200rpm!
 
DrJames said:
Which would you choose for a college student?

Any opinions on this?

(Future college student having a difficult time deciding which HDD to get in a Macbook Pro.)
Click to expand...
Either one will be fine. It strictly depends on how much storage you need.
Tibits said:
7200rpm. Faster is better...
Click to expand...
There's more to performance than rotation speed. Higher density also contributes to speed. Some 5400 drives perform better than some 7200 drives, due to having higher density. You should compare specific drives, rather than make broad generalizations, which are frequently inaccurate.
 
I have one MBP with a 5400rpm 500GB drive, and one of the new ones with the 750GB drive at 7200. The 7200 blows away the 5400 using Blackmagic Disk Test. The machine is, overall, much more responsive. These are Apple installed drives; you may see different results with other drives.
 
Beachguy said:
I have one MBP with a 5400rpm 500GB drive, and one of the new ones with the 750GB drive at 7200. The 7200 blows away the 5400 using Blackmagic Disk Test.
Click to expand...
That's because the 7200 has a faster rotation speed AND a higher density than the 5400 drive. If the 5400 drive was 750GB and the 7200 was 500GB, you would have different results.
 
Queen6 said:
1TB greater density of data, so is likely to be as fast, if not faster than the 750Mb
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that's what I've been hoping 'cause my current 500GB 7200Rpm is almost full and I've been wanting to re rip all my music to lossless which will take up another 100GB so 750GB will be a little tight for me

as long as I can be sure the 2 should give similar performance (both hopefully better than my current drive as both have higher data density) I can get the space I need and be happy
 
To be honest with you, HDD is the last thing I look at when I buy a new computer. Your best bet is to upgrade it with an SSD so you can realize the difference between two:) + You can always buy an external if you exceed your limits. No biggie.
 
I have a 500Gb Momentus XT and I feel the difference although if you are in school you may not perceive the difference between a 7200 and a 5400 rpm drive except for startups and when some apps launch. The Seagate Momentus XT is a SSD/HDD hybrid drive and I've seen a small but noticeable speed increase against a 750Gb 5400rpm drive.

But as many have said before it depends on how much space you require. I also have Bootcamp installed and in a 60Gb partition which is enough for school work.
 
IMHO, get the 1TB for storage, and buy an SSD for OSX/apps. You'll have to move your optical drive to an external enclosure, but for most people it's not a big deal. An SSD is WAY faster than the fastest rotational drive.
 
what's with all the people suggesting SSD's we all know how fast they are, but they don't offer the storage or the price point yet so for some people they are still out of the question
 
PAPO said:
that's what I've been hoping 'cause my current 500GB 7200Rpm is almost full and I've been wanting to re rip all my music to lossless which will take up another 100GB so 750GB will be a little tight for me

as long as I can be sure the 2 should give similar performance (both hopefully better than my current drive as both have higher data density) I can get the space I need and be happy
Click to expand...

The difference in performance will be minimal at best in real world use, i would just go with the 1Tb drive, if you are going to have a mechanical drive on board larger is always better, higher data density will offset the lower RPM pretty much equalising read-times, and likely faster in some scenarios; larger the difference in capacity the more probability that the 1Tb drive will out perform the 7.5K drive.

In your case the 1Tb drive will likely be faster, have less vibration, run quieter and consume less power.
 
Queen6 said:
The difference in performance will be minimal at best in real world use, i would just go with the 1Tb drive, if you are going to have a mechanical drive on board larger is always better, higher data density will offset the lower RPM pretty much equalising read-times, and likely faster in some scenarios; larger the difference in capacity the more probability that the 1Tb drive will out perform the 7.5K drive.

In your case the 1Tb drive will likely be faster, have less vibration, run quieter and consume less power.
Click to expand...

thanks for that, it also means they should both be faster than my current 500GB 7.2k it's just I'm still new to the data density vs rotational speed aspect, I understand the theory, I still haven't gotten used to how much effect... effects things
 
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