200GB HDD on MBP?

[mikehokie]

Just wondering which internal drive is the best for the SR MBP. Was looking at the 160 GB at 5,400 RPM and then looked at the 200 GB at 4,200. While the RPM for the 200 GB is VERY low, how would that translate when working with a program such as Final Cut Express or gaming with Civilization 4. It's only a 40 GB difference, but 40 GB is alot and having a 200 GB HDD inside my MBP is very tempting. Is 4,200 RPM really that slow? Not using Final Cut Studio 2 btw so I'm not using intensive compositing programs like Motion.

Thanks

Mike

 

[WannaGoMac]

Just wondering which internal drive is the best for the SR MBP. Was looking at the 160 GB at 5,400 RPM and then looked at the 200 GB at 4,200. While the RPM for the 200 GB is VERY low, how would that translate when working with a program such as Final Cut Express or gaming with Civilization 4. It's only a 40 GB difference, but 40 GB is alot and having a 200 GB HDD inside my MBP is very tempting. Is 4,200 RPM really that slow? Not using Final Cut Studio 2 btw so I'm not using intensive compositing programs like Motion.

Thanks

Mike

I have a 4200 HDD in an IBM ultraportable. It is awful how much slower it is and I wish it had a 5400RPM drive. With that said, if you max the memory the 4200 rpms aren't bad once everything is loaded etc.

Get the 5400 rpm internal and a nice 500 or 750gb external drive.

 

[xfiftyfour]

hm, I thought I'd read that because of the new technology introduced in order to get 200gb of space onto a laptop drive (actually started with the 160s), that the 4200 rpm drives were essentially just as fast as the older 5400 ones? No?

 

[FleurDuMal]

Just wondering which internal drive is the best for the SR MBP. Was looking at the 160 GB at 5,400 RPM and then looked at the 200 GB at 4,200. While the RPM for the 200 GB is VERY low, how would that translate when working with a program such as Final Cut Express or gaming with Civilization 4. It's only a 40 GB difference, but 40 GB is alot and having a 200 GB HDD inside my MBP is very tempting. Is 4,200 RPM really that slow? Not using Final Cut Studio 2 btw so I'm not using intensive compositing programs like Motion.

Thanks

Mike

Everyone will give you a different answer. Which probably means there is no definititve answer.

AFAIK, the only time you would notice a slower hard drive is either when you are launching an application from the hard drive, and if you are using files which are too large to be kept on the RAM. Personally I think I could live with an extra couple of seconds launching an application if it means I can ditch having to plug in an external hard drive every time I want to use my laptop. And I don't think I ever deal with files that are bigger than 2GB, if I do, then I can upgrade to 4GB of RAM.