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5400rpm or 4200rpm

A

ac-mac

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 9, 2007
83
0
England
I have the MacBook CD with the stock 60GB HDD and have been thinking about an upgrade. Recently I have been downloading a lot of TV shows (30GB so far... still have to get Lost season 3, OC, and others) and store it on an external drive.

The largest HDD i could find was a 200GB but that was only 4200rpm, otherwise I would buy a 160GB 5400rpm one. Will it make a big difference, is 4200 considerably slower (the most extensive thing i do is recording in logic express, and i occasionaly use photoshop)??

Thanks, and if anyone can recommend cheap UK stores i will be very greatful.
 
Im not sure, but Im guessing photoshop should be ok, TV shows should be ok too.

but yes, 4200rpm is considerably slower.
 
How old is your macbook? Be careful about voiding the warranty if you're going to replace the HD itself.

The other thing to look at is cache sizes.

I'm not really a hardware person but my 12" pbook's HD died last summer and I replace the stock 40GB 4200 with a 5400 RPM 100GB drive and honestly I don't experience a difference at all. But that might be becuase of older hardware. Dunno.

If you don't watch some of the shows anymore, maybe just back them up and leave them on the external HD? I was abroad last year so I bought several TV shows from iTunes to keep up with shows. But I don't watch them anymore so I just got copied them and left them on an ext HD.
 
A 4200 drive should be absolutely fine for Photoshop. :)
TV shows, sorry don't know but I would think they shouldn't be a problem either. :)

FJ
 
I replaced my MacBook's 120 GB 5400 disk with a 200 GB 4200 one a short while back, and I hardly notice any difference... the system seems a bit snappier (due to more space for the VM) but start up times, both for the OS and large applications, are a bit slower (due to the slower disk). Small read/writes are about the same speed as before, as far as I can tell...

jng said:
How old is your macbook? Be careful about voiding the warranty if you're going to replace the HD itself.
Click to expand...
Unless you actually damage anything, replacing the HD (or RAM) should not voiding the warrant. Apple has DIY articles on both hard drive and RAM installation.
 
Firstly, thanks for the speedy reply this is my first thread i wasnt expecting an answer for another week. lol

jng said:
The other thing to look at is cache sizes.
Click to expand...

The two I am looking at are
160GB
200GB

as for the age of the macbook, i bought it in late 2006 (october maybe?)
 
ac-mac said:
Firstly, thanks for the speedy reply this is my first thread i wasnt expecting an answer for another week. lol



The two I am looking at are
160GB
200GB

as for the age of the macbook, i bought it in late 2006 (october maybe?)
Click to expand...

If you read my thread link and are still unsure ask yourself this:

Do you really need 40GB more on the go or will most of your stuff be on an external?
Do you really need the speed on the go or will most of your work be on an external HD with a higher speed? (7200rpm for example)

It depends on what you need. Do you need the speed in the laptop or the space. Depending on this you buy the HD.

Or you can wait, Hitachi is bringing out 2 new HDs next quarter:
200GB 7200rpm
250GB 5400rpm

Decisions, decisions... :D
 
I thought the macbook's hard drive was user replaceable? Wasn't that one of the neat features the macbook has over the pro model? I think the 4200 drive will be a bit slower, but not INCREDIBLY slower. When I bought my mbp, I really wanted the Core Duo option of 100 GB 7200 rpm drive. I can live with the 120 5400 drive.

Those hitachi options sound worth while for waiting. I'd love a 7200 rpm drive (or faster).

Lost is an amazing show, isn't? Had to throw that in!
 
Diatribe said:
Or you can wait, Hitachi is bringing out 2 new HDs next quarter:
200GB 7200rpm
250GB 5400rpm

Decisions, decisions... :D
Click to expand...

OK.. that looks worth wating for, but does anyone have any idea how much it will cost dont want to be spending £100+
 
These drives tested in a MacBook ...

http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd7.html

The likely explanation of the Toshiba being slow, are probably due to it being the first generations of a new mechanism.

Usually if you find a couple drives about 5-10MB/sec in sustained transfer of each other, pick the drive with the larger cache, larger capacity, and better warranty.

The 5-10MB/sec won't impact you a lot unless you are running low on memory, RAM is one of the major performance boosts for the machine.
 
Diatribe said:
Or you can wait, Hitachi is bringing out 2 new HDs next quarter:
200GB 7200rpm
250GB 5400rpm
Click to expand...

No way! Link? I've been praying they'd have at least 240GB 7200RPM drives by the time I expect to buy an MBP (2008). If the drives you cite will be out *next quarter*, that sounds a lot closer to reality now..

Also, didn't Fujitsu just come out with a 160GB 7200 RPM drive last month? Just in case the OP wanted another option now.
 
brianus said:
No way! Link? I've been praying they'd have at least 240GB 7200RPM drives by the time I expect to buy an MBP (2008). If the drives you cite will be out *next quarter*, that sounds a lot closer to reality now..

Also, didn't Fujitsu just come out with a 160GB 7200 RPM drive last month? Just in case the OP wanted another option now.
Click to expand...

Don't have the link handy right now but I'll look for it.

Either way the 200GB will come out 1H 2007 and the 250GB 2H 2007 according to Hitachi.
 
Ive decided to get the 160GB Hitachi Drive as i need the 5400rpm to take full advantage of my audio interface. maybe sell my MB next year and get a MBP and install one of the new drives
 
Go with the 5400 rpm. It is not a choice based entirely on rpm, but rather the fact that Hitachi Travelstar hard drives are generally much faster overall than competing hard drives even when they boast the same specs. I put a 2.5" 5400 rpm Travelstar hard drive in my G4 Cube and it made noticeable improvements over the 3.5" 5400 rpm Maxtor drive it replaced (made it run even more quietly, too :) ).
 
brianus said:
No way! Link? I've been praying they'd have at least 240GB 7200RPM drives by the time I expect to buy an MBP (2008). If the drives you cite will be out *next quarter*, that sounds a lot closer to reality now..

Also, didn't Fujitsu just come out with a 160GB 7200 RPM drive last month? Just in case the OP wanted another option now.
Click to expand...

Found the link.
 
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