5400 vs 7200 rpm HDD

[erasetheclouds]

I'm looking to replace the hard drive in my MacBook Pro from early 2008. I'm considering putting in a 7200 RPM for speed but will this decrease my battery life significantly? The battery life is already pretty terrible so I'm not sure if it's worth the boost in speed.

Which brings me to my next question - how much of a speed boost will I really notice?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[miles01110]

It depends on what you use your machine for.

 

[erasetheclouds]

About half the time I'm working from my battery I'm just surfing the internet. About a quarter of the time I'm doing audio recording, and another quarter doing graphic design/photo editing.

 

[DEE9299]

Have you considered an SSD drive?

 

[erasetheclouds]

I have considered an SSD in passing... but the capacity to price ratio isn't going to work for me.

 

[PhilW]

This thread has quite a good discussion on 5400 v 7200:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/830479/