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7200 or 5400 RPM?

Kingsly

Kingsly

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 9, 2005
3,389
14
Either in front of a computer or behind a camera.
About to order the MBP but I wanted to know: Do I get the 120 Gbyte 5400 RPM drive or the 100 Gbyte 7200 RPM drive? I know I will use the space, but if the speed of the hard drive takes a hit on the overall perceived speed of the computer than I want to know. I am going to film school but I edit off of external drives (Mac HD is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!)
Soo...

What do I get? Will I really notice the drop in speed? Will I regret not having that extra 20 Gbytes?
Help?
 
I'd go with the faster drive if you keep your video files on external drives. Its harder to fill up 100GB if you don't put video on the drive. But its a close call.
 
Overall, capacity is more important in a laptop I think. A 7200RPM drive will make a big difference over a 4200RPM drive, but the difference is a lot smaller between a 5400 and 7200. I'd probably go for the bigger drive. There is a difference in performance, to be sure.
 
i had this same question and ended up buying the 7200 rpm hard drive over the 120 gb :)


i chose 7200 because in my case, 100 gb is more than enough space
 
I would say to go with the 7200 and less size because you can always "upgrade" the size with external drives later on, whereas if you were unhappy with the performance of the 5400 you are sorta stuck. Maybe I am just intimidated by upgrading laptops though.
 
i'd say the seagate 160gb 5400rpm if it's within your budget. lots more capacity and should be faster than teh 100gb 7200 due to data density increase.
 
i have a powerbook (see sig for specs) and i think it has a 5400RPM HDD in it. It is near on impossible to record music on it. If you are going ot be doing anything like that, get a 7200 HDD.
 
7200rpm HDs will generate (a) more noise (b) more heat (c) consume more power as a result, battery life will suffer....the higher speed drives are also more prone to break downs due to heat-related causes...

i plan on connecting my MBPro to a external HD for all my video / music storage...i dont plan on doing any particularly intensive on the unit so it should suffice...
 
Nope, it isn't the heat issue anymore. It is the cache issue.

If the 5400rpm has a 16mb cache and the 7200rpm only has an 8mb cache, then the difference between them is negliable.
 
pd0x said:
7200rpm HDs will generate (a) more noise (b) more heat (c) consume more power as a result, battery life will suffer....the higher speed drives are also more prone to break downs due to heat-related causes...
Click to expand...

I know at least 10 other people at my college that have had failed hard drives on their powerbooks, including me. Thought drives fail all on all makes of laptops, I have to think the extreme heat of a powerbooks causes failures a bit more. Granted, I have no evidence to back this claim, but regardless I would highly recommend you get AppleCare unless you are competent enough to change out a failed hard drive yourself.
 
japasneezemonk said:
i vote 72000 RPM
Click to expand...

We'll have to wait a while to see speed like that. :D

I'd choose 5400 rpm and extra capacity, even though the 7200 rpm drive will help keep things moving more smoothly once real memory is full.
 
Definitely the faster of the two HDD!

When mine failed recently I was hoping Apple may have upgraded my HDD... but alas no - they had a heap of similiar drives - just for this purpose.

I'm almost tempted to upgrade the HDD in my current 1.5GHz PB still!
I think it would make a HUGE difference.
I notice it significantly when I'm using files on my PB HDD vs my external HDD which is alot faster!

Don't forget extra RAM too though!
 
7,200 RPM ALL THE WAY! I just put one in my iBook and it made a HUGE difference in performance. I'm so impressed that if I ordered a MBP in the future I will be sure to put the 7,200 RPM drive in it.
 
So the general consensus is that 7200 RPM makes a noticeable difference in the speed of the computer. Just out of curiosity, why? Faster read/write time? Or is it the cache? Exactly where am I going to see the speed the most? Thanks.

One more thing. From reading all of the posts it seems like I can upgrade the HDD later if it pleases me. Is that a viable option that I should be actively considering?
(whew, what a mouthful!)
 
Chrispy said:
7,200 RPM ALL THE WAY! I just put one in my iBook and it made a HUGE difference in performance. I'm so impressed that if I ordered a MBP in the future I will be sure to put the 7,200 RPM drive in it.
Click to expand...

You had a 5400 rpm drive in there before that?
 
i find that hard disk space will definitly be helpful in the long run. 20 gbs can help you a lot if you store a lot of media, or use it as your primary computer. it's worth reducing the speed to have this extra capacity IMO. not to mention that you do save heat and energy at the same time.
 
bousozoku said:
You had a 5400 rpm drive in there before that?
Click to expand...

No, I had a 4,200 but I have used many powerbooks in the past and those had the 5,400. The 5,400 is faster than the 4,200, but the difference was nothing like going up to the 7,200.
 
steelfist said:
i find that hard disk space will definitly be helpful in the long run. 20 gbs can help you a lot if you store a lot of media, or use it as your primary computer. it's worth reducing the speed to have this extra capacity IMO. not to mention that you do save heat and energy at the same time.
Click to expand...
Steelfist brings up a good point: What about battery life and heat?
 
Will battery life really be affected that much? I get the noise thing… but won’t the increased energy consumption of the 7200 rpm drive be some what alleviated since it will be spinning for less time? I know it will be a little less efficient spinning at those higher speeds... but I really don't see how it could make that big of difference. Anybody care to explain?
 
Damien said:
How much does it cost to get Apple to replace a failed HD? (not got applecare)
Click to expand...

Should not be more than 75USD per hour and should take one hour. Buy your own new hard drive and take it in. If you get a new hd, btw, it will be under warranty for three years if it is a Hitachi, toshiba; which should give you some renewed satisfaction that part of the computer is still under warranty.
 
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