5400 or 7400 HDD for Final Cut Studio?

[ron1]

Im buying a new Macbook Pro (15" 2.0 GHz) and I'm just wondering if its worth the extra £68 to upgrade to a faster hard drive? It doesn't seem like much but I'm a bit strapped for cash.

I will be using it for a lot of editing in final cut pro and colour.

I'm also buying a G-Raid 500GB/7200 external hard drive as my main scratch disk with FW800. So I was wondering if you think its worth the extra for the internal hard drive? Will I notice any difference at all when I'm editing using the external hard drive?

 

[Nein01]

You definitely want the 7200 as a scratch disc. I don't think you will really tell much difference as long as you're editing on that external. However, when I ordered mine the 750g 5400 was the same price as the 500g 7200; there was no cost to upgrade. I know there was last year but this year is different, so you might as well put your system on a 7200 as well unless you really need those extra gigs.

 

[ron1]

You definitely want the 7200 as a scratch disc. I don't think you will really tell much difference as long as you're editing on that external. However, when I ordered mine the 750g 5400 was the same price as the 500g 7200; there was no cost to upgrade. I know there was last year but this year is different, so you might as well put your system on a 7200 as well unless you really need those extra gigs.

Yea, that options only on the higher end 15" Macbook Pro, I'm getting the cheaper one so it costs me £68 more to upgrade the same 500gb hard drive :/ And since I'm buying the external hard drive at £160 I don't know if its worth it...

 

[Koning]

It's probably best to go with the stock harddrive and change it yourself. It's cheaper and since it won't void warranty it's not a problem. it's also not a very complicated job to do...

 

[ron1]

It's probably best to go with the stock harddrive and change it yourself. It's cheaper and since it won't void warranty it's not a problem. it's also not a very complicated job to do...

Oh thanks, thats true. I'm completely clueless when it comes to things like that though. Could you sent me some links, what hardrives are cheap and reliable?

 

[KPOM]

Yea, that options only on the higher end 15" Macbook Pro, I'm getting the cheaper one so it costs me £68 more to upgrade the same 500gb hard drive :/ And since I'm buying the external hard drive at £160 I don't know if its worth it...

I know you said you are on a budget, but might it make sense to get a third-party 128GB or 256GB SSD as your boot drive and a FireWire enclosure so you can use your stock drive as your external drive? The SSD would be significantly faster than the 7200rpm drive.

 

[Mac-key]

Oh thanks, thats true. I'm completely clueless when it comes to things like that though. Could you sent me some links, what hardrives are cheap and reliable?

Check here ron - not only does OWC have great products, BUT they got tons of video tutorials that give you a step-by-step look at how to change out your HD.