Does going from 5400rpm to 7200rpm reduce battery life?

[hojoon0724]

I'm using an early 2008 MBP (4,1) running the original 5400rpm 200gb HDD but upgrading to 500gb this week.

I'm looking at WD Scorpio 5400rpm but wondering if 7200rpm reduces the battery life relevantly.

Also, I'm running 2gb of memory but I'm debating if 4gb would be dramatically faster.
Or do you think I would be better off buying a new mbp?

 

[spinnerlys]

Those 1800 rpm will cost you 10 to 20 minutes of battery life.

An update from 2GB to 4GB of RAM will also help run things smoother and therefore feeling faster.

 

[Jaro65]

I also have 15" MBP 4,1 and I think it is a beautiful machine. Have you considered adding a 48GB Filemate ExpressCard SSD? They're not that expensive (~$150) and it made my MBP instantaneously zippier. Now I really would want to put a big SSD in my main machine (17" MBP), but I'll probably wait a bit more for the prices to drop.

Also, going to 4GB RAM is a nobrainer if you only have 2GB. Check out the http://www.macsales.com. If I were you, I would probably max out the RAM (the last time I looked, the 4GB module wasn't that expensive) and also absolutely put in an ExpressCard SSD. You'll feel like you just got yourself a new machine!

 

[Nano2k]

There are a lot of users having noise or vibration issues with 7200rpm drives and it's not a big improvement overall.
Go with the extra 2gb of Ram and see how that works out for you. It's a cheap upgrade.

 

[Gabriel GR]

2gb with snow leopard is not enough. I had it for a while and it was too frustrating when I wanted to multitask.

IMO 4gb should be the base RAM.

 

[m85476585]

To see if you will benefit from more RAM:
http://guides.macrumors.com/MacBook_Pro_FAQ#Q:_Do_I_need_to_upgrade_my_RAM.3F


Hard drive power use varies a lot between different hard drives. A new 7200 RPM drive might use less power than an old 5400 RPM drive if it is more efficient or has better power management. Generally, a 7200 RPM drive will use more power, though. Tom's Hardware lists the idle and seek power use of various laptop drives.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...drive-charts/Power-Requirement-Idle,1125.html