320 GB option : 5400 vs. 7200...noise inquiry

[Biko65]

Hello, planning to place an order for a MBP next week, and since it will be used mostly in the bedroom, I was wondering if the noise of the 7200 is significantly louder than the 5400 heard from a distance of 1 meter (er....40 inches?)

And..is the difference in performances between the 5400 and 7200 320GB disks noticeable, since I don't play games, nor video apps...e.g. bootup, fusion, music appz like "Guitar Rig" (this one not in the bedroom of course!! )

Thank you

Andrea

 

[GGJstudios]

Using MRoogle to search the forums before posting will help reduce duplicate threads:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/641182/

 

[UltraNEO*]

The audible noise from it's mechanism of the two drives won't be that significant, definitely not enough to keep a someone awake. At lest, you'll only hear the difference if you place your ear next tot he drive. Though some users on here have reported the faster drive cause more vibrations around the palm rest.

Chances are, unless you're plan to authorise and publish digital media content on a laptop, while on the move, you'll probably won't need the 7200rpm drive. For home uses, I'd go with the biggest drive on offer, giving you more storage space, rather than a faster model that'll consume a little more current, thus draining the battery quicker.

 

[Biko65]

Thank you guys, both posts were really useful.

I definitively will go for a 5400/320GB, then.

Ciao

Andrea

 

[Abstract]

Ah, I like my 320 GB and 7200 rpm Seagate. It doesn't cost much more, isn't any more noisy (IMO), and I believe apps open a bit faster. It's hard to verify this though, since my old 5400 rpm drive was full, while my new 7200 rpm drive was empty. Drives boot faster and open apps quicker when they're empty, so it's not a fair comparison. Still, it's fast.

 

[Phat Ham]

I put a 7200 rpm Seagate in my MBP right after I bought the MBP. It is ever so slightly noisier, but that's not necessarily due to the speed. The OE drive was a Hitachi so it might just be that Seagate drives in general are noisier. The Hitachi was dead quiet. Either way, the only way I can hear the new drive is in a really quiet room. The fans in the MBP make much more noise than the HDD. I don't get any vibration from the drive.

 

[rhyx]

I'm fond of Hitach drives for quiet. WD if you want speed.

 

[Fidgetyrat]

I recently replaced my 5400 RPM 320GB drive with a WD Scorpio Black 7200 RPM 320G drive.

Noise-wise.. they were near identical. There is a very gentle "fan-like" noise on the 7200, but nothing you would notice unless you were a few inches from the machine itself.

Speed-wise, there was a massive increase. My biggest annoyance was the bottleneck on the Unibody when using the 5400. When opening large apps for example, the entire machine basically halts until it is done..

As for actual file transfers, Since both drives were similar in spec and identical in drive capacity, i did a /dev/null timed test and the new 7200 drive was about 40% faster then the old 5400 drive.

I considered it money well spent.