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MBP hard drive upgrade. 8mb or 16mb cache?

hooly

hooly

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2007
156
0
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Depends on how much you want to spend. The difference from 8MB to 16MB has to do with constantly reading/opening the same file, such as a JPEG or an MP3. Other than that, you wont notice anything from 8MB to 16MB. I think that you should get the 8MB because its not worth that extra 60 to just get another 8MB cache, if it was also 72k drive, than I would tell you to get the 16MB. Have you looked at any other hard drive brands?
 
hooly said:
I am looking at these two drives:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1218981289&sr=1-1
WD3200BEKT; 320GB, SATA, 2.5" 9.5mm, 7200rpm drive

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1218981289&sr=1-2
WD3200BEVT; 320GB, SATA, 2.5" 9.5mm, 5400rpm drive

They look the same except the second one has a 16mb cache. I have no idea what that means; can anyone with more savvy make a recommendation?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
Drives with more cache generally have a better performance under load. Of course, the example above, the drive with 16MB cache spins at 7200rpm, which SHOULD be the better performer.
 
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gr8bob said:
Drives with more cache generally have a better performance under load. Of course, the example above, the drive with 16MB cache spins at 7200rpm, which SHOULD be the better performer.
Click to expand...

Whoops...I thought it said 54k for the 16MB...I thought that was odd...

OP: If you got the cash, I would get the the more expensive (16MB 7200RPM)
 
noodle654 said:
Whoops...I thought it said 54k for the 16MB...I thought that was odd...

OP: If you got the cash, I would get the the more expensive (16MB 7200RPM)
Click to expand...

Agreed!! The MBP can only get two update, Memory and Hardrive, upgrading to 4G is not very expensive, and I won't open up my MBP twice for more room, so I would definitely go to the extreme(for me it's 320G, i need space the most). So for you, if you got the cash, go for the 16M
 
Thanks, I hadnt noticed that the 16mb drive was 7200rpm... I went for that one :)
 
Have you made sure that they are 100% compatible with your MBP??

Also, I would consider power-consumption and noise. My guess would be that the 54k is more power effecient and probably also quieter - But i am not sure...
 
The cache is meaningless, but as has been pointed out, one spins at 7200 RPM, vs. the slower 5400 RPM, which will make a real difference in real-world performance (unlike cache size, which doesn't even affect synthetic benchmarks).

If you want to pay another $60, go for the 7.2K RPM drive; it's definitely faster.
 
The cache not make a lot of difference. Just don't buy a drive with only 2MB cache. ;)
 
ZballZ said:
Have you made sure that they are 100% compatible with your MBP??

Also, I would consider power-consumption and noise. My guess would be that the 54k is more power effecient and probably also quieter - But i am not sure...
Click to expand...

I know that it has been noted quite a few times, between the HDDs Apple puts in, that there is hardly any, if any, difference in battery life between the 5.4k and the 7.2k.

Noise, I know that has been mentioned, also, with little difference.

However, I'm not entirely sure how that relates to these drives. I doubt you'll have any noticeable differences, though.
 
Firefly2002 said:
The cache is meaningless, but as has been pointed out, one spins at 7200 RPM, vs. the slower 5400 RPM, which will make a real difference in real-world performance (unlike cache size, which doesn't even affect synthetic benchmarks).

If you want to pay another $60, go for the 7.2K RPM drive; it's definitely faster.
Click to expand...

Arguable with laptops; the difference in boot time, which is where most of this speed will come into play, is minimal. IMO if you are looking for a real performance jump in your HDD, you should save your money for one of the Intel or Samsung SSD's which are approaching "reasonable" (Read: Almost competitive with the velociraptor) prices.
 
gr8bob said:
What I mean is to compliment the spindle speed.
Click to expand...

I know... but it doesn't complement a faster spindle speed because cache size is a marketing gimmick, and doesn't affect performance. It's important to have hard drive cache, just not important once you already have about 512 KB.
 
hooly said:
I am looking at these two drives:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1218981289&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1218981289&sr=1-2

They look the same except the second one has a 16mb cache. I have no idea what that means; can anyone with more savvy make a recommendation?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

power saving: you should go for the Scorpio blue, 5400 is good enough for most user.

performance wise: you should go for the Scorpio black, especially you do video editing.
 
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I am now finding numerous reports on forums that the motion sensor's in WD drives can conflict with the MBP motion sensors and cause problems (kernel panics).

Most but not all of the posts are quite old. The recommended solution is to turn off motion sensor in the MBP.

Anyone have any knowledge about this?

Thanks.
 
hooly said:
I am now finding numerous reports on forums that the motion sensor's in WD drives can conflict with the MBP motion sensors and cause problems (kernel panics).

Most but not all of the posts are quite old. The recommended solution is to turn off motion sensor in the MBP.

Anyone have any knowledge about this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Had WD3200BEVT (Scorpio Blue) in my previous MBP, doesn't seem to affect it at all.

For the Scorpio Black (7200rpm), just look out for the WD3200BJKT model (with free fall sensor) as the one without (WD3200BEKT) should be the one you'll want.
 
hooly said:
I am now finding numerous reports on forums that the motion sensor's in WD drives can conflict with the MBP motion sensors and cause problems (kernel panics).

Most but not all of the posts are quite old. The recommended solution is to turn off motion sensor in the MBP.

Anyone have any knowledge about this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Their have also been loads of reports that doesn't make a blind bit of difference, like the about user i've had one of the BEVT's in one of my MBP's since a few days after it was released with no issues whatsoever
 
It seems I ordered the one with the free fall sensor, so I am having doubts now!
 
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