Need Real-World Reports on 500GB HDDs!

[Val-kyrie]

I have been reading a lot of reviews but need some real-world advice. I am looking to upgrade my 2.4GHz BlackBook's 250GB HDD to 500GB because I need space. I would like to keep battery life as close as possible to what I have now, but would be willing to trade up to 15 minutes for a noticeable speed increase (I already have 4GB Crucial RAM). I am looking at the following 500GB hard drives:

--WD Scorpio Blue, 5400 RPM
--WD AV-25, 5400 RPM (less power draw, more cache, better MTBF than Scorpio Blue but few reviews though all are stellar)
--WD Scorpio Black, 7200 RPM
--Hitachi 7K500, 7200 RPM
--Seagate Momentus XT, 7200 RPM Hybrid (on sale for $105.00)

My BlackBook averages 3-4 hours of battery life still, so I am curious how much battery life I will forfeit if I go to a 7200 RPM hard drive.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Edit: I just found a thread regarding the AV-25. In response to one poster, GiantGuineaPig, asking, "is there any reason not to get one of these AV's?" another poster, Bonox, writes, "yes - if you want to store data on them.

AV drives are meant for streaming video only, where a handful of bits going westward doesn't mean a thing. Having those same bits go west on your spreadsheet might ruin your day.

AV drives are made to just read or write continuously - little to no thermal recalibration and little to no error correction.

edit: they are made for applications like PVR's or security video installations." Does anyone know if there is any truth in this judgment?]

 

[zhenya]

In my experience I have never been able to tell the difference between a 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm drive in a laptop. As the 7200 rpm's tend to draw a bit more power, run hotter, and be louder, I would opt for a 5400. Try to find some benchmarks for the drives you are interested in, as 7200 rpm drives are not guaranteed to be faster than all 5400's.

 

[mr0c]

this is just one site that has comparisons: http://diskcompare.com/disk/566/

(check out all the links to reviews and benchmarks at the bottom)

 

[iMav]

Has anyone used one of the SSD hybrid drives in their Mac yet?

 

[Val-kyrie]

Momentus XT or Hitachi 7K500?

I think I have narrowed the choices down to the Momentus XT and the Hitachi 7K500. They have similar 7200 RPM performance but my main concern is the battery life. Does anyone know which of these two will use the least amount of battery?