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batman123

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2006
160
0
Some Place Only You Know...
Hey, i am in the market for a new notebook at the moment and i am very keen on the new macbook pro. I have one issue i would like to address...

Should i go for the 100GB 7200rpm HD, or the 120GB 5400rpm HD?

I want lots of space for ALOT of music/pics and maby vids...but i also want performance...what xactly does that mean? What should i go for.

Please post ur opinions and y. ta.

Batman.:confused: :confused:
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Unless you're working with large files, the 7200 rpm drive won't give you much improvement over the 5400 rpm drive. Sounds like the 120 GB drive will be better for you. Even if you suffer a minor speed hit (it won't be much) with the slower drive, you don't have to worry as much about filling it up down the line and having to swap out the drive or adding an external and having to decide what stays on the portable internal drive and what has to go on the external.

You might want to check out these benchmarks.

ANALYSIS AND INSIGHTS
The numbers tell us several things:
1. The 7200rpm internal drive is NOT significantly faster than the stock 5400rpm when doing small RANDOM reads and writes. That implies that it won't give you much advantage for booting and normal operations.

2. Internal drives exhibited higher random write rates than external FireWire drives.

3. If you work on audio or video where large blocks are captured or played back, the 7200rpm internal drive of the MacBook has a clear advantage over the stock 5400rpm internal drive.

Most people aren't working with the "large blocks" that would benefit most from the faster drive...really heavy-duty audio/video editing folks would benefit, but not the average joe.
 

Satori

macrumors 6502a
Jun 22, 2006
761
6
London
I don't understand why the apple online store doesn't offer the option of a 7200rpm 120 gb drive for the MBP. Surely the extra space would be very valuable to the types of user who need the extra speed!
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Satori said:
I don't understand why the apple online store doesn't offer the option of a 7200rpm 120 gb drive for the MBP. Surely the extra space would be very valuable to the types of user who need the extra speed!

First you'd have to find a 7200 rpm 120 GB laptop drive with a SATA interface...
 
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