Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

5400rpm vs. 7200rpm

My understanding re: HDD speeds is that the only thing it really effects is the time it takes to open a file and save a file. Actually working w/in a program you are using RAM memory which has nothing to do with HD speed.

Where you do sometimes see differences (I have noticed) is in dealling with large MS Office docs (ppt or word files with lots of images). Since these programs are not really designed to deal with big files, they do not seem to load all the iamges into RAM, so while working in a file you can see lag. When I upgraded to a 7200 drive it actually did make a (small) difference in opening, and working in these files. Conversly, it has no effect that I can notice working with photoshop or inDesign.

The next machine I get, I will probably opt for the larger slower drive over the faster smaller drive, as the time differences are pretty minimal.

just my 2 cents. :eek:
 
Your hard drive is one of the biggest bottlenecks in your system.

Also, the better preforming drive also benefits the operating systems ability to read/write the page (swap) file.

~J.
 
I really wish there was a more definitive answer for this :confused:

I went to the store last night to pick up a new MacBook Pro and really wanted a 7,200 RPM drive, but they only had this in the 2.6GHz model. I was going to get the 2.5GHz model to save some money as I don't see how there could be much of a difference in 100MHz.

Now that the performance is negligible, I'm thinking I should go back and swap it for a 2.5GHz model with the 250GB 5,400 RPM drive. This would save me about $270 plus a few more dollars in tax. I'm not hurting for cash, but its kind of hard to justify (I haven't opened the box yet).

Any thoughts or benchmarks in regards to the 2.5 vs 2.6 proc?
 
As a notebook owner for 3 generations of apple...the first thing I noticed was that my hard drive fills up FAST.

I will be opting for the 250 instead of the 7200.

More space and portability is more important than a faster hard drive to me.
 
monklife said:
As a notebook owner for 3 generations of apple...the first thing I noticed was that my hard drive fills up FAST.

I will be opting for the 250 instead of the 7200.

More space and portability is more important than a faster hard drive to me.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this.

I upgraded a windows laptop from 4500 to 7200, and that's a total difference, but going from 5400 to 7200, the only noticeable difference I see is doing Installs of Software is faster on 7200. boot times are a little faster on 7200, but not worth it.

Buy the Standard 250. Then as SSD drives go down, I am sure you'll be able to upgrade to an after market SSD drive and get performance.
 
Replaced 5400 160gig with 7200 200 gig Hitachi

I replaced the drive on my MBP 2.4 and the performance of everything seems twice as fast. The Hitachi drive is supposed to be better than other 7200 drives. In any case, I wouldn't want another 5400. The buffer on the new drive is much bigger, too -- that may account for some of the difference.
 
I think people put WAY too much emphasis on synthetic throughput numbers. The reason new 5400rpm drives are about as fast (in throughput) as a 7200rpm is due to platter density. To get the large number of GB on the same platters, they have to put more data per unit of area. So even at 5400rpm, almost as much data flys under the heads (per second) as flys under the heads of a 7200rpm drive.

But 7200rpm drives SEEK significantly faster. Not only do the heads seek quicker, but the desired block of data rotates under the heads more quickly after the heads have moved to the right track.

If you think your modern OS X system is doing sequential reads or sequential writes alone, you are very mistaken. Modern multitasking operating systems are logging to files, writing out data, reading in code. Loading up an application reads from many files (app files and system files) and there are seeks involved.

The true speed from the 7200rpm drives comes from this ability to seek, to help in a multithreaded/multitasking environment.

The Hitachi 7K200 drive was fantastic a year ago. Today it's still a great drive, but last year when it was a new drive it was faster, and generally as quiet and as power-frugal as typical 5400's. That's what I put in my MBP 2.2 and I love it. I recently put a WD Scorpio 250G 5400rpm in my Mac Mini and it's surprisingly quick.

(the whole thing that people tell you about systems slowing down as they get full is true, it's due to increased fragmentation of the free space. but it doesn't mean that a 250gb 5400 is faster than a 200GB 7200, unless you have 190+GB of data to store.)
 
Hey, thanks for such an informative post.

I have been following the arguments, including a popular one to get the faster drive and store what doesnt fit onto an external

but for me the whole point is to fit all my files on the laptop, so I can then back everything up to an external (well, I use two externals for double security).

in the end I ordered for the 7200 drive yesterday. At the moment my files + MAC OS = around 110Gb data and I am growing at roughly 5 - 10 Gb a year, so the 200Gb should give me plenty space for a while.

If it gives a noticeable perfrmance boost, great. If not, It wasn't such an expensive upgrade and I know I am ok for space :) :apple:
 
hooly said:
Hey, thanks for such an informative post.

I have been following the arguments, including a popular one to get the faster drive and store what doesnt fit onto an external

but for me the whole point is to fit all my files on the laptop, so I can then back everything up to an external (well, I use two externals for double security).

in the end I ordered for the 7200 drive yesterday. At the moment my files + MAC OS = around 110Gb data and I am growing at roughly 5 - 10 Gb a year, so the 200Gb should give me plenty space for a while.

If it gives a noticeable perfrmance boost, great. If not, It wasn't such an expensive upgrade and I know I am ok for space :) :apple:
Click to expand...

Same here. I ordered a 200GB 7200 HDD for my MBP. I've already got 2 external HDDs (1TB+320GB) and 120GB isn't much. I try not to store too much stuff on my machine (programs and games only) and use external HDDs instead. A WD Passport can store 320GB and is small and lightweight.
 
Does anyone else have any experience with the extra heat, buzzing, vibration that some people have noticed on their MBPs with 7200 drives? If it's really an issue, then it's an easy decision for me to go with the 5400.
 
I went with the 7200rpm Drive on my new MBP as well. This is a computer ill be working on, not a data server so i want it to be quick and snappy. I have enough external/network storage that i can use to hold all of the extra files i have. This drive should tide me over until some bigger/faster drives come out - *crossing fingers for 500 gig version or the new SSD drives grow in size and drop in price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back