Hard Drives: 5400 vs 7200?

[Dronomophone]

OK, so i plan on buying a 17" MBP this summer after they update it (cmon santa rose!) and lets say that they have similar options for the hard drives as they do now. The regular is the 160 GB 5400 rpm or for 100 dollars less you can get the 100 GB 7200 rpm. So I'm thinking itll be worth saving money and getting the faster hard drive, even though its smaller. I have an external 250 GB right now that has a little under 100 GB free right now. I plan on using the main internal for recording through Pro Tools and for applications. Everything else will go on the external, maybe buy another one.

So, ive heard that even though it has faster rpm, doesnt necessarily mean faster. I remember seeing those tests where 7200 is definately faster compared to 5400 when theyre both empy, but when they both have say 50 GB of information on it, the 5400 would be faster since it has 110 GB free and the other only has 50 GB free. So in most cases, would the cheaper, smaller, faster hard drive be faster? Saving money is definately a big plus.

 

[atari1356]

I think the test you're referring to is this one, where at the bottom they show that a 200Gb 4200rpm drive can actually be faster:

http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd7.html

However, the last time I pointed that out, someone on here called me an idiot... of course, they didn't have any proof showing that the 7200rpm drive was faster.

*shrug*

 

[andiwm2003]

that should answer the question. i'd go for the larger disk because the faster is in the best case 10% faster. and programs and files just get larger and larger.
robson caching with santa rosa will of course change everything again.

http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd7.html

edit: dang, atari beat me by the minute. and no he is not an idiot.

 

[Dronomophone]

ok well i just realized what i wanted to ask. im most likely going to get the 7200 because its cheaper. Is it actually faster? Also, ive heard about that robson caching on here but i dont know anything about that. What does that actually mean?

 

[Chrysaor]

ok well i just realized what i wanted to ask. im most likely going to get the 7200 because its cheaper. Is it actually faster? Also, ive heard about that robson caching on here but i dont know anything about that. What does that actually mean?

Robson is really fast flash based memory integrated in Crestline chipsets for Santa Rosa platform.
Robson doesn't concern Mac OS X users, unless Apple has something in store for Leopard. It is designed to take advantage of ReadyBoost technology in Vista. Same goes for flash memory integrated in hybrid hard drives, which utilizes ReadyDrive technology in Vista.