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New Internal Drive - 500GB 5400 or 320GB 7200?

A

Angelus520

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 22, 2003
133
0
Chicago
I'm going to upgrade the HDD in my BlackBook and am debating between getting a 500GB 5400rpm drive or a 320GB 7200rpm drive.

OWC has the following deals for the drives and an external FW400/USB2.0 enclosure for my old drive:

DIY Upgrade Bundle: 500GB Seagate Momentus 5400RPM 2.5" SATA HD 8MB Cache, OWC On-The-Go FW400/USB 2.0 Kit for $177.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/DIYST500M6F4/

DIY Upgrade Bundle: 320GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM 2.5" SATA HD 16MB Cache, OWC On-The-Go FW400/USB 2.0 Kit for $159.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/9320421ASUF4/

I know there's a big difference in speed and cache sizes and I'm going to notice a huge jump in storage space either way since my BlackBook only has an 80GB drive right now. I assume it's a 5400rpm with 8MB cache and that's been working for me for the last two years so I'm leaning on getting the bigger drive.

Any thoughts?
 
Angelus520 said:
I'm going to upgrade the HDD in my BlackBook and am debating between getting a 500GB 5400rpm drive or a 320GB 7200rpm drive.

OWC has the following deals for the drives and an external FW400/USB2.0 enclosure for my old drive:

DIY Upgrade Bundle: 500GB Seagate Momentus 5400RPM 2.5" SATA HD 8MB Cache, OWC On-The-Go FW400/USB 2.0 Kit for $177.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/DIYST500M6F4/

DIY Upgrade Bundle: 320GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM 2.5" SATA HD 16MB Cache, OWC On-The-Go FW400/USB 2.0 Kit for $159.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/9320421ASUF4/

I know there's a big difference in speed and cache sizes and I'm going to notice a huge jump in storage space either way since my BlackBook only has an 80GB drive right now. I assume it's a 5400rpm with 8MB cache and that's been working for me for the last two years so I'm leaning on getting the bigger drive.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I was in the same spot as you were last month, I went with the 320GB HDD. I come from the PC world and I am use to 10,000 RPM WD Raptors, based on that I went with the 7200 RPM drive, as spindle speed can make your machine fly, and until some one makes a 10,000 rpm drive in a 2.5 form factor,(almost there with the Velociraptor) I went with the 7200 drive, difference is easily noted. You will be amazed:)
 
If this machine is 2 years old why throw a 7200 RPM drive in there. You don't know how loud or hot the thing will get.

Also, do you really need more than 320GB? Also, it will be cheaper if you buy the drive and enclosure separately.

I highly recommend This drive from OWC. It is a Hitachi 320GB 5400 RPM drive for $58.99 after $20 rebate and then the enclosure by itself is here for $59.99. Also, you'll get $15 back for that 80GB HDD if you decide to use a larger backup drive and send it in for a rebate. (I would recommend you do this for Time Machine backups. Maybe buy two of the Hitachis. You are limited by F400 anyway so 7200 or 5400 doesn't make much difference).

If you do want to go the 7200 RPM route I recommend This Hitachi drive for $89.99 after rebate.
 
7200 rpm all the way. get it seperate for about $80 at newegg

and to the fellow wanting really fast drives...i think i saw some 15000 rpm drives on ebay that are 2.5, but they were only like 64gb.

10K drive 73gb

15K 73gb

incredible
 
brop52 said:
Also, do you really need more than 320GB?
Click to expand...

I remember when 1GB seemed overkill :D

brop52 said:
Also, you'll get $15 back for that 80GB HDD if you decide to use a larger backup drive and send it in for a rebate. (I would recommend you do this for Time Machine backups. Maybe buy two of the Hitachis.
Click to expand...

Hadn't thought about the rebate on the old drive and getting two drives seems like a smart plan. I'm bummed I missed out on the Cyber Monday sale at NewEgg since they had all the 500GB drives on sale for $99. I saw it but didn't realize what day it was and went back on Tuesday and they were back up to regular price. It's only $15-$20 more but just the idea of saving that, especially with buying two.
 
I recently upgraded with the 320 GB Hitachi 5400 drive. I'm very happy with this upgrade. Greater density drive = faster performance at the same speed. Extra heat and noise for what might be a 20% speed increase doesn't sound worth it, especially when you will gain so much from the higher density compared to your existing drive.

People claiming 7200 drives are "amazing" probably didn't take the intermediate step of trying a 5400 drive with a higher areal density. If you really want to read up on this, go here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/500gb-notebook-hdd,1960.html

It's long and very informative. Note that older ~100GB 7200 drives are put to shame by newer 320 and 500 GB, 5400 drives. Density does a lot. Count on this going to the next level when the next generation of drives comes out.
 
spatlese44 said:
I recently upgraded with the 320 GB Hitachi 5400 drive. I'm very happy with this upgrade. Greater density drive = faster performance at the same speed. Extra heat and noise for what might be a 20% speed increase doesn't sound worth it, especially when you will gain so much from the higher density compared to your existing drive.

People claiming 7200 drives are "amazing" probably didn't take the intermediate step of trying a 5400 drive with a higher areal density. If you really want to read up on this, go here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/500gb-notebook-hdd,1960.html

It's long and very informative. Note that older ~100GB 7200 drives are put to shame by newer 320 and 500 GB, 5400 drives. Density does a lot. Count on this going to the next level when the next generation of drives comes out.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to note that I have the 320GB 5400 RPM Hitachi in my MB right now. It's a nice drive that stays cool all the time. I actually paid about the high 70s for the drive in October. The price has gone down to the high 50s since then. It's a great deal with the rebate.
 
Thanks for all the info. I'll probably wait a few weeks and pick up two of the 500GB 5400rpm drives and an external case for backup. See if anyone has after-Christmas sales for cheaper. I try to buy as much storage as I can since I don't envision myself upgrading to a new computer for quite a while.
 
It really just depends on what you want. If you need to keep alot of info on the computer by all means get the 500 gig. I personally use a server for most of my storage so I don't really need to hold alot of data locally so I would go with the smaller faster drive.

zack
 
Cheffy Dave said:
I was in the same spot as you were last month, I went with the 320GB HDD. I come from the PC world and I am use to 10,000 RPM WD Raptors, based on that I went with the 7200 RPM drive, as spindle speed can make your machine fly, and until some one makes a 10,000 rpm drive in a 2.5 form factor,(almost there with the Velociraptor) I went with the 7200 drive, difference is easily noted. You will be amazed:)
Click to expand...

here you go
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380 1035507779&name=15000 RPM

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822116083

just not sata lol but is in 2.5 form!

pinback pro said:
7200 rpm all the way. get it seperate for about $80 at newegg

and to the fellow wanting really fast drives...i think i saw some 15000 rpm drives on ebay that are 2.5, but they were only like 64gb.

10K drive 73gb

15K 73gb

incredible
Click to expand...

seems i was beaten to it:eek:
 
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