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5,400rpm or 7,200rpm

K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
I'm looking at a new MacBook Pro, and having never looked at buying one BTO, I've never had the chance to choose the speed of my drive. I remember reading somewhere that the 5,400rpm drive outperforms the 7,200rpm in some situations for a drive of the same capacity.

Is it worth getting the faster drive? What disadvantages does it provide when the drive is getting close to being full?
 
get the 7200 its worth it. i hate waiting while i install and transfer files plus your notebook will more distinct that others.
 
I went from 5400rpm to 7200. I will now always look to getting the faster drive.
 
If you're buying a MacBook Pro then get the stock drive on the 2.4GHz or the 250gb 7200rpm drive on the 2.53GHz (cheaper). Then buy yourself a Seagate Momentus 7200rpm 320gb drive and a cheap SATA external hard drive caddy from somewhere. Then put the Seagate in the MacBook/Pro and the the hard drive that came with it into an external case.

Example:

I've ordered a 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro. I'd rather have the added speed of a 7200rpm drive. Instead of paying the extra £35.01 for the upgrade via Apple, I instead saved myself £34.99 by getting the 250gb SATA drive. I've ordered a Seagate Momentus 7200rpm 320gb drive from Dabs for £61.94 shipped and I've bought a cheap SATA 2.5" external hard drive case for £5.98. So not only have I saved £2.08 for getting the 320gb 7200rpm drive from Apple, I've also got an external 250gb 7200rpm drive.

This Seagate drive was *very* highly rated by Tom's Hardware. In fact, it measured a lower idle power than most 5400rpm drives.

The drives have a few days lead time from most UK suppliers but since the lead time on the MacBook Pros is 7 days until shipment, it shouldn't really be a problem.
 
I took the 7200 but I'm scared that it will heat more and eat more battery. Does somebody know which HD Apple uses in their MBP ?

Tex
 
The 5400RPM drive cannot be faster than the 7200RPM if they are both the same capacity. Only if the 5400RPM drive was of bigger capacity, that it could be any faster.
 
ggjstudios said:
There are dozens of threads with the information you're asking for. If you search the forums, you'll find lots of answers to common questions like this.
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to be an ass but I feel like I see more posts from you policing these forums than answering questions and giving useful information.
 
If I could get a stock configuration with the 7200 I would (it's very difficult exchanging a BTO if there is a problem with the machine). So I got the 2.53GHz/320GB 5400rpm instead and planned to get the Hitachi 7K320. But after using it for a day and comparing benchmarks to my previous 2.6GHz/200GB 7200rpm configuration, it's about the same speed. So I'm not sure it's worth it to get the 7200rpm drive. I may just wait for a 256GB SSD and get that when they are available.
 
alphaod said:
The 5400RPM drive cannot be faster than the 7200RPM if they are both the same capacity. Only if the 5400RPM drive was of bigger capacity, that it could be any faster.
Click to expand...

Ahh.

So a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive could potentially be quicker than a 250GB 7,200rpm?

How about when the usage gets close to 90% - is there any advantage to which one?

Spanky Deluxe - thanks for that idea. Might be something I'll consider, because I could do with another portable external hard drive. Plus, considering how easy it is to change the hard drive in the new Pro's.
 
Kilamite said:
Ahh.

So a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive could potentially be quicker than a 250GB 7,200rpm?

How about when the usage gets close to 90% - is there any advantage to which one?

Spanky Deluxe - thanks for that idea. Might be something I'll consider, because I could do with another portable external hard drive. Plus, considering how easy it is to change the hard drive in the new Pro's.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I would never have suggested this with the previous MacBook Pros but with these (imo) its a no brainer. I always like to reinstall OS X on a new Mac anyway so as to choose not to install some of the gumpf so all this method does is delay me by about two minutes in getting my mac up and running.

In regards to hard drive speeds, well on drives using an identical manufacture process (say perpendicular hard drive technology) with an equal number of drive platters then a larger drive would tend to be faster (assuming the physical space used is the same) since there are more bits written per area space, so for each revolution the drive can read more data. I'd guess that you wouldn't notice such a difference as much with short burst reads (i.e. lots of small files) but you would notice it with large continuous amounts of data (moving a large video file for example).
Its for this same reason that a 7200 rpm laptop drive can not be as fast as a 7200 rpm desktop drive. The desktop drive can spin a larger amount of area in that time. Generally speaking, the fastest (non ssd) laptop drive will be the largest one with the highest rpm.
 
I just orderd my MBP, After several failed attempts at getting it on a 36 month loan my mum finally realised how much she loved me and how much I needed that new MBP she got it on her credit card :D Anyway on the phone to the sales rep, he offered me the 7200 rpm upgrade for free!!! I think its because I am a student but I thought that was fantastic! So chuffed.

So he said it was going to take 3 weeks :( but at least Im getting one, which only a few hours ago looked very unlikely. Mums are great

[Edit] sorry bout the waffle, Summing up I got the 7200rpm upgrade for free!!!
 
Tex-Twil said:
are you sure about this ?
Click to expand...

I think what he means is that they don't accept returned CTO'd MacBooks - so you can't just pay the restocking fee to get it back. If its faulty, however, its covered under Applecare and they'd fix it just like any standard laptop. Also, if you're laptop's failed in the first two weeks then they'll normally swap it for a new one instead of getting it repaired for you, I don't think they usually do this with a CTO'd laptop since they won't have any identical spec in stock.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
I think what he means is that they don't accept returned CTO'd MacBooks - so you can't just pay the restocking fee to get it back. If its faulty, however, its covered under Applecare and they'd fix it just like any standard laptop. Also, if you're laptop's failed in the first two weeks then they'll normally swap it for a new one instead of getting it repaired for you, I don't think they usually do this with a CTO'd laptop since they won't have any identical spec in stock.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I mean. If it fails right away, you can't swap it for a different machine, you need to send it for repair. I did once get a CTO machine replaced, but I had to send the old machine in and wait for a new one to be built (two week delay). I've since decided to only get a configuration I can get in a store unless there is some strong need to get a configuration only available via CTO.
 
jmwein said:
I'm not trying to be an ass but I feel like I see more posts from you policing these forums than answering questions and giving useful information.
Click to expand...

If you'd spend less time criticizing those of us who are helping and more time paying attention, you'd click the links I provided and see I did the OP a favor by giving them a link to a search engine, as well as a link to search results that directly relate to their question. In other words, I gave them not one, but hundreds of answers to their question and I also gave them a tool for finding answers in the future.
 
ggjstudios said:
If you'd spend less time criticizing those of us who are helping and more time paying attention, you'd click the links I provided and see I did the OP a favor by giving them a link to a search engine, as well as a link to search results that directly relate to their question. In other words, I gave them not one, but hundreds of answers to their question and I also gave them a tool for finding answers in the future.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out those threads - I did read up on them. However, I was more curious as to speed difference with regards to how much space is left on a 5,400rpm and 7,200rpm drive.

Found out a lot from the threads you linked though - thanks.
 
Kilamite said:
So a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive could potentially be quicker than a 250GB 7,200rpm?

How about when the usage gets close to 90% - is there any advantage to which one?
Click to expand...

A 500GB 5400RPM will be faster than a 320GB 5400RPM, but possibly not as fast as the 320GB 7200RPM. The 500GB may be faster than or comparable to a 200GB 7200RPM. The bigger capacity compensates for slower spindle, with areal density, but it can only compensate so much.

Also, the more you fill, the slow it gets, since the read head has to travel more to access the same info. Also the angular velocity is lower as you move outward of a spinning platter.
 
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