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MacBook Pro 5400 rpm vs. 7200 rpm HDD??

Hi folks,:)

@ GotPro, Cave Man & BobCan, when I think you folks have given the best answer ... you again Surprise me with your inputs ... "in a good way" ... more insights for novices like me.

Q1: Hey GotPro, let me see if I understand you correctly ... if I am comparing "Same Generation" 2.5" HDs the 200GB-7200RPM HD will be definitely Faster than 250GB-5400RPM or even a 320GB-5400RPM!?!?
BTW, Storage space is not of a concern to me ... only running Video Softwares ... lot of intense Processor work.

Q2: GotPro, is there a special reason you have chosen "Lacie Drive" for the 2TB or can I go with any HD company?

Thanks,

G!:D
 
ok i have a dilemma here. i just picked up my friends 1st gen mbp for a decent price. here's the specs

MBP 1st Gen 15'
2.0ghz CD
256mb Vram
7k100gb hdd
2gb Ram Maxed

i really need to get a bigger hdd. i saw that the 5k500 is finally out for the 15' but its $350 and i definately cant afford that. my range is around $200, i would put down $250 for the 5k500 if it evers drop that low. i mainly will be doing tons of file transfer for especially photo management. i have about 20gbs worth of images that i will eventually have aperature and iphoto manage. those 20gbs of images are only friends and family stuff. i will soon pick up an 30d and make a lot of raw images. im trying to learn final cut right now just to play with but i do occasionally do video conversions so i can watch stuff on my divx dvd player. does anyone have an idea when the 7k320 will be out and how much it might cost. if its gonna cost in the range of the 5k500 then i cant afford that. am i better off just getting the 5k320 now? so will the 5k affect a lot of what i will be doing if i get the 5k320 now? i really dont know what to do right now. kinda lost at the moment.
 
too late. i jumped the gun on this one. decided to order the 5k320. i figure with my price range i wont get the 5k500 or the 7k320 for awhile for them to lower in price. also i know the 5k320 will definitely be faster than my old 7k100 that i have. i guess i just wanted something faster since i couldnt do anything with the 2gb ram that is maxed on this machine. also picked up some arctic silver 5 for the mbp. hopefully that will help with all the heat im getting.
 
Be carefull with that arctic silver! If you use to much it will squeeze out and may cause short circuits on GPU or northbridge (dont know how the CPU looks, but on the 2.4 CPU there are no revealed contacts)...
 
well i bought it just in case since i have the 1st gen mbp. im gonna check and see if it has the glop of thermal grease that's been plagueing a lot of 1st gen mbps. if so ima gonna clean it off and apply the grain of rice size that everyone's been suggesting.
 
Well, i have been watching the technician changing the logicboard of my 2.4 MBP and there has been a huge waste of thermal paste on it!
There also have been 2 small tubes with the spare board and one was enough:eek:
 
im hoping there is actually a huge glop of paste on it so i can at least conclude to why my mbp gets ridiculously hot. lets hope the new grease adn 5k320 will drop the heat on my mbp a little so i can at least have it on my lap for more then 5 mins.
 
sdsviet said:
well i bought it just in case since i have the 1st gen mbp. im gonna check and see if it has the glop of thermal grease that's been plagueing a lot of 1st gen mbps. if so ima gonna clean it off and apply the grain of rice size that everyone's been suggesting.
Click to expand...

hey how big of a hd can the first gen macbook read cause im thinking about buying a bigger harddrive to replace my 60gb:p
 
i believe they can read as high as they make it now, which is 500gb i believe. u just have to make sure the size of the hdd is 9.5mm.
 
sdsviet said:
too late. i jumped the gun on this one. decided to order the 5k320. i figure with my price range i wont get the 5k500 or the 7k320 for awhile for them to lower in price. also i know the 5k320 will definitely be faster than my old 7k100 that i have. i guess i just wanted something faster since i couldnt do anything with the 2gb ram that is maxed on this machine. also picked up some arctic silver 5 for the mbp. hopefully that will help with all the heat im getting.
Click to expand...

Good thing you bought the 5K320, because the 5K500 doesn't fit in the 15" MBP.

Also be very careful with the thermal paste; put some of the cables back together is a bitch.
 
actually the 5k500 from owc is 9.5mm. but its freaking $350 which is money i dont have. haha but yea this will be my first time with this mbp. i dont think it'll be a problem for me since i've had experience with the old ibooks. those sucked.
 
sdsviet said:
actually the 5k500 from owc is 9.5mm. but its freaking $350 which is money i dont have. haha but yea this will be my first time with this mbp. i dont think it'll be a problem for me since i've had experience with the old ibooks. those sucked.
Click to expand...

Well unless we are describing different things, the 5K500 is a Hitachi drive which is 12.5mm. If you talking about about the 9.5mm drive that would be the Samsung M6.... :D
 
I also have the 320GB WD becasue bigger one were noch available yet here in Germany (and I think I would pay twice as much for 180gig more).
My new HDD becomes hotter than the fujitsu which was in!
 
wow. damn u western digital. they just released the 7k320 for $250. that was actually in my price range but i dont know if i can justified paying the extra $100 for 7200rpm. i wasnt planning to do hardcore encoding and rendering all the time so i guess i can lose out on some speed when i do do it. i really just wanted to make my machine a little faster since my ram is cap at 2gb.
 
I like the 7200 HD

I got the 7200 RPM hard drive as I use my MBP as a desktop replacement and wanted desktop speed. Personally I love it, its quiet, and snappy fast (if that is a real term). If you can go without the extra 50G of space I would definitely go for it.
 
alphaod said:
Well unless we are describing different things, the 5K500 is a Hitachi drive which is 12.5mm. If you talking about about the 9.5mm drive that would be the Samsung M6.... :D
Click to expand...

yea im completely off topic here im talking about a macbook normal 1st gen and somone said it didnt read there 250 they bought for it
 
Capacity vs read/write time.

Many opinions and links to benchmark tests have been cited within this thread. Please do not forget to explore changes in drive read/write times as data consumes more and more of the hard drive's allowable capacity.

More food for thought...
 
You do Visual Effects/3D Animation, the 7200 rpm HDD will not make it faster than the 5400 rpm HDD , please install RAM 2gb or heigher. it will take it faster than change 7200 rpm HDD.
 
Some XBench comparisons between the stock 320GB HDD (Hitachi Travelstar 5K500 320GB 5400rpm) and a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB:

Before:

Results 47.36
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3050)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02

Disk Test 47.36
Sequential 93.80
Uncached Write 105.70 64.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 97.43 55.12 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 68.43 20.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 120.41 60.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 31.67
Uncached Write 11.36 1.20 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 69.22 22.16 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 66.95 0.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 112.19 20.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]

After:

Results 55.67
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3050)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type ST9500420AS
Disk Test 55.67
Sequential 124.79
Uncached Write 142.81 87.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 155.03 87.72 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 76.52 22.39 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 180.71 90.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 35.83
Uncached Write 11.53 1.22 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 160.76 51.47 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 83.57 0.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 149.47 27.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]


Definitely speedier than before, well worth the upgrade :)
 
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