Extra Buffer on HDD....is it worth it?

[SolidGun]

At OWC, there is a Toshiba 60GB MK6022GAX 2.5" Super Slimline (9.5mm) Hard Disk Drive
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5582&Item=TOSMK6022GAX

This has 16MB buffer (twice the size of most HDD in its class). Is this something that is worth getting? I have never purchased anything over 8MB and never read anything on 16MB buffer for HDDs before.
They don't offer this for 7200rpm and I want to bring this up to knowledgeable people to compare 7200rpm with 8MB and 5400rpm with 16MB.

 

[SolidGun]

Anyone?

 

[FriarCrazy]

Well... what are you going to be doing with the drive? What kind of apps do you use?

 

[SolidGun]

With my PowerBook, I don't do anything heavy, since my desktop will do just fine. But I have been transferring a lot of data back and forth and the writing time on the stock HDD is bugging me.
I burn DVDs, play some games on it and PhotoShop. But when I can afford to purchase some software for graphics editing/creation, I will get into that with the Mac.

 

[FriarCrazy]

Well, I don't know any benchmarks of 5,400 vs 7,200 speeds and 8 mb cache vs 16 mb cache speeds, however, I can try to help hypothesize some ideas that might be worth researching

1) A 7,200 RPM drive is hotter and probably takes more battery power. It has to spin the drive a lot faster, so I would guess it will drain your battery faster

2) Simple picture editing on a 5,400 will be allright, however, if you plan on doing video editing I would say 7,200 hands down.

3) The extra cache will help I/O performance slightly. You would probably get a bigger performance gain with the 7,200 speed drive, but you have to measure the cost. Battery life and heat could be a big concern.

4) Apple care, do you have it? I have heard that installing 7,200 drives can potentially void your applecare. If you have a probelm, they might try to blame it on the fact that the hardware wasn't designed to take the heat of the 7,200 RPM drive. I read that in a previous post.

Here is a benchmark of an 8mb cache drive vs a 2 mb cache drive of the same variety.

benchmark

I hope that helps a little!

 

[SolidGun]

Thank you for your advice FriarCrazy.

However, I know that 7200rpm HDD has to spin less to load than 5400rpm HDD. I suppose it will depend on the usage of it, but that is what I have read.

Also, I am not too worried about editing stuff, but more frustrated with data transfer times. I transfer large files back and forth from my PC to PB from work/school/home and transferring all the data takes quite some time.

 

[FriarCrazy]

However, I know that 7200rpm HDD has to spin less to load than 5400rpm HDD.

Very interesting. I didn't really think about that - thanks! Anyhow, goodluck with your search. I know how the abysmal data transfer times feel. If you remember, please PM me when you make your decision and ultimately install and test your new drive, as I would be interested to know about the performance gains.