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How long does it take for your Mac to boot?

What's your boot time?

  • Total voters
    108
iJimmy

iJimmy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 4, 2008
223
0
I've been debating on whether to upgrade my hdd (WD 320GB 5400rpm) to the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM.

So I wanted to know the average boot time for those of you that have a 7200rpm hdd in their Macbook. I would appreciate if you could run a similar test.

Here's the low down on my boot time
hdd 320GB, 70GB used
~40 seconds to view the Login screen
~45 seconds for Firefox to load my homepage (Firefox opens at Login)

I know 45 seconds is fast compared to my gf's HP DV6xxx, where it takes ages...sometimes 3 minutes for the start menu to pop up. I've been trying to convince her to switch... I'm slowly making progress. It will soon be complete when she witnesses how fast my mac boots up ;)

I dislike the iPhoto load time. I only have ~8GB or photos and it will get bigger.

I've heard SSD were suppose to be really fast. But I went to the apple store a few months back and compared the two Macbook Air's (one with ssd and one with the standard). In my opinion there was only like a two second difference (so i remembered).

Thanks for your input!
 
Thanks, but I think in the past 5 years technology has changed.
 
iJimmy said:
What's the spin speed hdd?
Click to expand...

5400RPM.

It's fast because instead of using 3 ~160GB platters like most 500GB drives use, it uses 2 250GB platters. Data density is far greater than the drives with 3 platters. Sequential reading speeds exceed 70MB/s with this drive; I love it.
 
Mine takes on average of 5 tests, 53 seconds from power to boot screen and 1 minute 50 seconds from power to complete boot (showing desktop and all start up items). I didn't include the time it takes me to type my password in.

2.53/4GB/500GB

New Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200RPM.
 
alphaod said:
Mine takes on average of 5 tests, 53 seconds from power to boot screen and 1 minute 50 seconds from power to complete boot (showing desktop and all start up items). I didn't include the time it takes me to type my password in.

2.53/4GB/500GB

New Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200RPM.
Click to expand...

I was wondering how much space is being used on your hdd and how many start up items do you have?

Do you notice a difference in performance from your previous hdd to your new seagate?
 
Perhaps a stupid question, but the time it takes to boot up entirely depends on the amount of gigs your computer has full, right?
 
Doju said:
Perhaps a stupid question, but the time it takes to boot up entirely depends on the amount of gigs your computer has full, right?
Click to expand...

I'm no expert, but generally that's true. Of course, if you have 512MB RAM, you can have 5GB on a 500GB HDD and it will still be crap :p
 
Patriks7 said:
I'm no expert, but generally that's true. Of course, if you have 512MB RAM, you can have 5GB on a 500GB HDD and it will still be crap :p
Click to expand...
RAM affects boot speeds? o_O

What I'm thinking is, if I have 450GB of 500GB 7200rpm drive filled, it would still boot slower than if I had 200GB full, for example, or if I had 200GB full of a 5400rpm 500GB drive.
 
Mac after 1 year

I have a black Macbook that is 1 years old. From startup to pulling up iTunes is about 30 seconds for me. It is not my primary computer though. I am typing on a 3 year old Dell XPS.
 
Mine is right at 30 seconds from button to working. I have a 1,1 MacBook with 2GB Ram (max) and a WD 320GB Scorpio Black (7200rpm). I usually sleep my machine but I've needed to do some reboots lately for some new software and hardware.

To the OP....you say that you're using 70GB right now and you need a 500GB drive. That's what I call elbow room. My MacBook came with a 60GB drive originally. I upgraded to a Seagate 120GB 7200rpm a year ago and now the 320 this winter.
 
Mine is 30-35 seconds from power button to login screen, and about another 15 seconds to type in password and start all my login items.

Macbook Pro 4,1, with the 2.4Ghz C2D, 4 GB ram and the 320 WD Scorpio Black 7200rpm drive.

I dunno that the RPM makes too much difference to boot times, I have 2 mini's, one with the stock hard drive and the other has a Hitachi 200gb 7200rpm and the stock actually boots faster...mainly because the 200gb has a bunch of external drives attached and a bunch of server processes it has to fire up too.

Where the extra speed seems nice is running VM's, movie editing, etc.
 
Doju said:
RAM affects boot speeds? o_O

What I'm thinking is, if I have 450GB of 500GB 7200rpm drive filled, it would still boot slower than if I had 200GB full, for example, or if I had 200GB full of a 5400rpm 500GB drive.
Click to expand...
RAM effects boot speed up to a point. As in, you're going to be bottlenecked with 128MB, but 12GB isn't going to do much. RPM is what usually determines the majority of startup time. I had a 10,000RPM HDD and it booted way faster than a 5,400RPM.;)
 
apwr said:
Mine uses 25 seconds to boot and open my homepage in firefox.
Click to expand...
what are the specs of your hdd?

I was bored so I took my extra 60GB from the ps3 and install a fresh copy of OSX (10.5) and it took 30 seconds flat.

Could you guys post up specs of your hdd after y'all vote (Yes I'm from Texas)?
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 (ps3 hdd)
12GB/60GB 5400rpm

Appreciate everyone's input
 
From pushing the power button to desktop is 23 seconds. I would guess half (or more) of that is waiting for bios. I have a G Skill Titan 128gb SSD.

Eric
 
34 secs from power to desktop/airport connection/2 login items. 200GB 7.2K drive with 82GBs used
 
ThomasJL said:
Seagate's quality control took a nosedive a few years ago. For the sake of reliability, I'm planning on getting Western Digital's 500GB drive, even though it's only a 5400 RPM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
Click to expand...

Now that I think about it I've had some trouble in the past with Seagate drives. It was my first external hdd, I backed up all my gf's pictures and you know what... it failed... and every so often I get a friendly reminder. I still have the hdd in hopes that someday I'll recover her pictures. I tried everything to my knowledge and when there was nothing left I could do, I called Seagate and they quoted me something like $100 per 50MB.
Attached is what it looks like.

So since then I have purchased WD and they have never failed. Well anyway I think I might wait for WD to come out with a 500GB 7200.

daneoni said:
34 secs from power to desktop/airport connection/2 login items. 200GB 7.2K drive with 82GBs used
Click to expand...
What mac are you using?
 

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