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5400 or 7200 HD for new MacBook?

M

marekkurlmann

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2007
112
22
I just bought a new MacBook (white, 2.0, SuperDrive refurb for $849). It comes with a 60GB 5400 RPM HD that I'll have to replace. This is my first MacBook, so I have a question:

Should I go with a 5400 RPM HD or a 7200 RPM HD?

Or, in other words, how will a 7200 RPM HD affect battery life on my MacBook, and what will the increase in performance be (versus a 5400 RPM HD)? Which is the better decision, balancing performance and battery life?
 
First of all, are you aware that you need a 2.5" drive? I'm not aware of any 7200 2.5" drives, only 4200 and 5400 (this doesn't mean that they definitely don't exist, I just don't know of any). My MBP came with a 120 GB 5400 which I have since upgraded to a 200 GB 4200, and I haven't noticed any slowdown.
 
You can get 7200rpm 2.5" notebook HDD though they max out at 100gb.

:my bad:

Edited to what I meant.
 
As mentioned, I have a 200 GB in my MBP and previously had 120. I *think* that 200 GB is the current limit.
 
furious said:
You can get 7200rpm 2.5" notebook HDD though they max out at 100gb.
Click to expand...

actually, this isn't true. 7200 rpm hard drives (last i checked) top out at 160 gb. they're a bit pricey, but they're out there. and 5400 rpm drives even max out at 250 gb. owc sells both.
 
furious said:
You can get 7200rpm 2.5" notebook HDD though they max out at 100gb.

:my bad:

Edited to what I meant.
Click to expand...

Nope. You can get up to 160GB 7200RPM 2.5". Admittedlly those just started shipping. Meaning a few more weeks before you see them in stores
 
daneoni said:
Nope. You can get up to 160GB 7200RPM 2.5". Admittedlly those just started shipping. Meaning a few more weeks before you see them in stores
Click to expand...

Before you buy anything, check out the height as well. There are some 2.5" hard disks out there that won't fit into a MacBook because they are too high. Since the 4200 harddisks are disks with extreme data densities (which means the transfer rate is actually higher than 7200RPM disks with lower density), I would suspect that 7200 RPM disks have more platters and are therefore thicker.
 
A 7200rpm hdd will use up more battery life over a 5400rpm by about 4 minutes according to tests.

Check out the Barefeats analysis of 5400 rpm vs 7200rpm in a MBP.

ANALYSIS AND INSIGHTS
The numbers tell us several things:
1. The 7200rpm internal drive is NOT significantly faster than the stock 5400rpm when doing small RANDOM reads and writes. That implies that it won't give you much advantage for booting and normal operations.

2. Internal drives exhibited higher random write rates than external FireWire drives.

3. If you work on audio or video where large blocks are captured or played back, the 7200rpm internal drive of the MacBook has a clear advantage over the stock 5400rpm internal drive.

3. If you plan to connect a fast 3.5 inch 7200rpm hard drive to the FireWire 400 port of the MacBook Pro, you will lose a lot of speed compared to using the FireWire 800 port of the Powerbook G4. Thankfully, I know of at least two companies who will soon release ExpresCard/34 SATA and/or FireWire 800 products that will allow your MacBook Pro to enjoy truly fast external storage.
Click to expand...
 
How much are you moving it around? the faster the HDD platters are moving, the more data can be permanently damaged by movement.

Performance-wise, I really don't think you'll be noticing much of a difference unless you plan to drill the HDD to the core with stuff like >12 channels in GarageBand. I reckon the cost outweighs the benefit of the gained performance.
 
My friend switched his Macbook to a 7200 Hitachi 2.5 (this Hitachi is supposed to be the best notebook drive). I understand it was a HUGE improvement over his old macbook drive (he got the Hitachi).

Review of the various 4200, 5400, 7200 (including the Hitachi) in the Macbook is http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd7.html
 
Bern said:
A 7200rpm hdd will use up more battery life over a 5400rpm by about 4 minutes according to tests.
Click to expand...

Yep. The difference is negligible.

If you know the specific model number, you could always look at the specs on the manufacturer's website. Most should tell you how much current their particular model draws.
 
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