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gfrancetich

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 27, 2009
22
0
Will I really notice a difference between a 5400rpm drive and a 7200rpm one? I'm not going to be using my laptop for anything that demanding, but are 7200 drives really that much faster? Is it worth 80 bucks?
 
me 2

Id like to know to.
I'm currently using a PC but I'm looking to step over to mac (wohoo :D) and have a 5400 rpm HD and id love to know if its worth putting it in my 15 inch mbp.
A benchmark would be perfect but any advise is as good.

Kristalghost
 
Will I really notice a difference between a 5400rpm drive and a 7200rpm one? I'm not going to be using my laptop for anything that demanding, but are 7200 drives really that much faster? Is it worth 80 bucks?

you would just notice a bit more "oomph" when opening tasks, copying and etc. if you have the cash - then sure invest in it. i would say its noticeable.
 
It really *IS* noticeable difference, because HD is the biggest bottleneck of the whole system. I've been preaching this since june 2003 when first 7200rpm laptop hard drives became available.

And no, it does not draw more current nor does it run any hotter. In fact, it runs cooler because it does less work and more idling.
 
Thanks guys. So my 13" MBP should be arriving tomorrow or friday. Do I need to do anything before I swap the drives out? I know that I'll need to reinstall leopard, but are there any other steps before I switch them?
 
Thanks guys. So my 13" MBP should be arriving tomorrow or friday. Do I need to do anything before I swap the drives out? I know that I'll need to reinstall leopard, but are there any other steps before I switch them?

You should have gotten ssd , you would have notice the diffrence by alot
 
Thanks guys. So my 13" MBP should be arriving tomorrow or friday. Do I need to do anything before I swap the drives out? I know that I'll need to reinstall leopard, but are there any other steps before I switch them?

Just be sure to format the disk properly with Disk Utility during Leopard installation. Otherwise, you're all set. Enjoy the new hard drive!
 
It really *IS* noticeable difference, because HD is the biggest bottleneck of the whole system. I've been preaching this since june 2003 when first 7200rpm laptop hard drives became available.

And no, it does not draw more current nor does it run any hotter. In fact, it runs cooler because it does less work and more idling.

Cool. I'm glad I "downgraded" my 2.8Ghz MBP to the 320GB 7200RPM drive.
 
it is noticable from the stock drive yeah.
but ive read few reviews and Scorpio Black is not even that faster compared to Scorpio Blue.. few mbps.
 
just spent the last hour reading up on this topic ( there are about 5 million threads on this same topic)

comes down to scorpio blue 5400 vs seagate 7200.4 and i am more lost than before my research..

which to get?
 
just on a side note, battery life hasnt shortened even noticable with Scorpio Black in my unibody!
it probably has a little, but not by much at all. as i said, unnoticable.. :)
 
Ugh, seems they have a shortage of 7200 RPM drives.

I placed my order for a MBP 17" w/ 7200 drive on Monday, it still says 5-7 business days before shipping, estimated delivery 23-26 June.

If I go in and try to configure a MBP online it says 24 hrs by default.
If I upgrade the processor or RAM it says 1-3 business days.
If I upgrade to 7200 rpm it's 5-7 business days.
If I upgrade to SSD it's 1-2 weeks.

I'd cancel the order and get the default config with 5400 rpm if I could, but after cancelling they (and/or the bank) hold on to my money for a week, so it would be 7 business days before I can place the order... zero gain.
 
I just did that on the UK site. Seriously 7 days to add a different hard drive, seems a bit stupid.
Yeah. I wonder if it actually takes that long, or if they add X days to discourage people from adding options. That way the sell larger volumes of the default components so they can get better prices on those, plus they can justify shrinking the range of options even more ("our statistics show that only 5% of our customers add options, so now we've removed options entirely").

I mean, there are only 32 variations on the MBP 17" (2 CPUs times 2 RAM configurations times 4 HDD/SDD options times matte/glossy), they sell thousands and thousands of these computers, do they really expect us to believe that they can't build a few of the most common configurations in advance? Major PC manufacturers like Dell and HP have a matrix of like a million variations on all their laptop models, yet every time I've ordered a customized Dell it ships the next day.
 
every time I've ordered a customized Dell it ships the next day

It seems odd that they wouldn't have these confugurations pre-built and that it takes 7 days is ridiculous. I am in the midst of asking for Macbook Pro for work but at the moment my boss is throwing valid arguments at me against Apple. This is one example. The other is here
 
Will I really notice a difference between a 5400rpm drive and a 7200rpm one? I'm not going to be using my laptop for anything that demanding, but are 7200 drives really that much faster? Is it worth 80 bucks?

For instance, 7200rpm or faster speed is needed when music production is concerned. That's why i'm planning to buy a MacBook Pro with 500 GB 7200rpm hard disk (i'm going to use Sonar Home Studio XL :D)
 
For instance, 7200rpm or faster speed is needed when music production is concerned. That's why i'm planning to buy a MacBook Pro with 500 GB 7200rpm hard disk (i'm going to use Sonar Home Studio XL :D)

Actually the 500GB/7200rpm drive (Seagate 7200.4) is often outperformed by the 500GB/5400rpm 500GB by Western Digital. Review. Even in multi media applications the Seagate 7200.4 does not do better. Benchmarks.

Besides, as far as i know, a fast hard disk is necessary for gaming.

A fast hard drive will load levels quicker. It will not really influence in game performance.

Level load times: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010/6
 
it is noticable from the stock drive yeah.
but ive read few reviews and Scorpio Black is not even that faster compared to Scorpio Blue.. few mbps.

Uhmm let me see, 500GB Scorpio Blue performs a bit better, uses less power, makes less noise and costs less... I don't know :)

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010/14

But if your after ultimate performance and don't care about battery life: WD3200BEKT is a bit faster. (or SSD of course)

Spindle speed is nice, but there's a lot more to making a fast hard drive. The fastest 500GB hard drive at the moment is actually 5400rpm and not 7200rpm. Read this if you're interested:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010/14

I picked the Scorpio Blue over the Black because of this review from Techreport and several other similar reviews.
It has performed flawlessly and is an awesome drive.
I highly recommend it.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
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