Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New HDD: 7200rpm or 5400rpm?

BeSweeet

BeSweeet

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 2, 2009
1,566
1,269
San Antonio, TX
Hey guys,

I'm going to be buying a new 2.5" HDD soon for my uMBP, since the one that I'm using right now is throwing bad sectors all over the freaking place (I've only owned this thing since early September).

Newegg is the website of choice for me (unless anyone knows of a cheaper site).

I'm thinking about getting a 7200rpm drive over a 5400rpm drive, because from everything I've read, they're considerably faster. I game, do video editing, etc, so any speed increase would be welcomed. But, I also read that it can get hotter, vibrate more, and decrease battery life. I don't know how much it would decrease battery life, but I'm never unplugged for more than a few hours. Heat isn't really an issue for me, but it may be an issue for the drive? Since it'll be going in a laptop that I do carry around (very rarely while it's one), should the extra vibration be an issue? If there's a drop or something (the sudden motion sensor), the uMBP should turn it off for a few seconds anyway.

I'm also looking for something that'll last more than 4 months :D. I don't plan on getting a Hitachi drive. I can't seem to find a Samsung 7200rpm 2.5" drive.

So, with the pros and cons shown, what do you guys think I should go with?
 
7200 RPMs, without a doubt. Especially if you game.

The speed increase is decent and the other negatives are negligible. I would never consider a 5400 RPM drive again. I would love to have an SSD though! Too bad they're so expensive.

I would go with a Seagate. Personally, I use a 350GB 7200 RPM drive from Seagate and it's great. A few months back, my 1-year old Seagate died and Seagate sent me a new one with no questions asked -- all I did was pay for expedited shipping. I sent back the old one and they destroyed it upon arrival. The process was quick and flawless. They come with a 3 year warranty.
 
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&...G=Search&cx=011016119145480959114:kuv1aq0hily

7200rpm HDD:

Video editing is best done with a dedicated video HDD (scratch disk), games load their maps into the RAM, so the loading process might be two to five seconds faster.
You will lose 10 to 25 minutes of battery time.

You might feel the vibration.

The Seagate Momemtus 7200.4 is a 500GB 7200rpm HDD, Hitachi has also a 500GB 7200rpm HDD, called Travelstar something something.
 
How much will the 7200rpm drive affect battery life? I'm definitely going to pick one up though.

Any other sites besides Newegg that I might want to look at?
 
Ok, enough said. I'm going to get a 7200rpm drive, I'm just not sure which one to get. I don't really need a 500GB (320GB is fine), but it would be nice. I'm looking at the Seagate 7200.4, and a lot of people seems to have failing hard drives within 4 months.
 
WOW.

Went out, bought it, swapped drives, and IMMEDIATELY noticed a speed difference. Boot times of Snow Leopard are 3x faster than they were before. Just amazing.

Here's the drive I bought if you haven't already looked at it. Not a lot of detailed specs: http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5509442&CatId=2682

I just need to get Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 restored and I'll be finished. Really looking forward to seeing those two perform.

Another factor that's probably making things faster is the fact that this thing has no bad sectors/blocks (yet) :D.
 
BeSweeet said:
Went out, bought it, swapped drives, and IMMEDIATELY noticed a speed difference. Boot times of Snow Leopard are 3x faster than they were before. Just amazing.
Click to expand...
I notice a difference too. Some people get too caught up on the CPU and RAM and forget about the hard drive speeds when buying their computers. When SSD get even larger capacities I think I'm going to upgrade.
 
EndlessMac said:
I notice a difference too. Some people get too caught up on the CPU and RAM and forget about the hard drive speeds when buying their computers. When SSD get even larger capacities I think I'm going to upgrade.
Click to expand...

I can just imagine how fast one of those would be in this.
 
SSD very fast! But very expensive! I've had mine for about 4 days.

Brother just installed a Seagate 500 GB 7200 in his MBP 13 and the thing so far has been running fine. A very very slight new vibration in the palm rests to a slight increase in temp he said. not much. Batt life he's unsure of just yet. But from what I saw its fast vs the stock 5400 he had in there. He uses Photoshop and iMovie at the same time with 4 GB RAM and the thing cooks. He says he notices HUGE differences now. So...i guess only time will tell on how good the Seagate is.
 
And I'm guessing that the sudden motion sensor was something that was unique to the hard drive, because the new one doesn't temporarily turn off when there's any sudden motion.

I put the stock HDD into an enclosure, plugged it in to something, shook it a little, and it turned off.
 
New SSD or New Macbook Pro. Decisions Decisions. I think for the $1,450 I would have to go with the new Macbook Pro, and wait for prices to come down. That is just ridiculous.
 
One thing with the whole 5400 vs 7200 RPM equation that you have to factor in is the size of the drive, because the less you fill up the hard drive, the faster it will be, since that data is more densely arranged on the spindle and they're sitting at the outer edge of the disks, the fastest part of the drive. So a 500GB 5400 RPM drive will likely be faster than a 7200 RPM 250GB drive, if they have the same amount of data on them. I won't fill my HD up more than 50% of its capacity. However SSD's can be filled up to near 100% capacity with no dropoff in performance, which is why (for me) a 256GB SSD is (capacity wise) as good or better than a 500GB traditional HD, since I'd never fill that one up past 50% anyway.
 
packgrad2000 said:
One thing with the whole 5400 vs 7200 RPM equation that you have to factor in is the size of the drive, because the less you fill up the hard drive, the faster it will be, since that data is more densely arranged on the spindle and they're sitting at the outer edge of the disks, the fastest part of the drive. So a 500GB 5400 RPM drive will likely be faster than a 7200 RPM 250GB drive, if they have the same amount of data on them. I won't fill my HD up more than 50% of its capacity. However SSD's can be filled up to near 100% capacity with no dropoff in performance, which is why (for me) a 256GB SSD is (capacity wise) as good or better than a 500GB traditional HD, since I'd never fill that one up past 50% anyway.
Click to expand...

You are right about the density of the drive but mine I have about 400gb filled, so for me the 7200 rmp makes a pretty big difference, guess I should have noted that in the OP.
 
There are even 500GB 7200 rpm HD's and 640Gig 5400's i'd better get a smaller faster one than a bigger and slower one, just imagine what a torture...
 
Paul B said:
Don't the Scorpio Blues (5400rpm) perform better than some 7200rpm drives?
Click to expand...

i had heard this, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Even comparing drives of similar sizes (ie, the WD 500gb scorpio blue tested as fast as the 500gb momentus 7200.4)
 
bsizz234 said:
i had heard this, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Even comparing drives of similar sizes (ie, the WD 500gb scorpio blue tested as fast as the 500gb momentus 7200.4)
Click to expand...

It's not how hard the drive works, but how 'efficiently' the drive works. You'd do well to go to Tom's Hardware and research the drives you're looking at.

Also, don't just research the current models, compare your current drive to the ones you're considering buying.

For my iMac I ended up buying a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green. Here's my argument, for being a 3.5" running at an estimated 5,400 RPM, it scored middle of the pack compared to fellow 3.5" drives at 7,200 RPM, and in all stats it surpassed the Seagate drive my iMac originally came with. Add to the fact that my old 160 drive had reached the space limits in terms of VRAM, my performance gain was very substantial.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back