I tend to agree. You'll be getting a slight speed boost. But, with that added quickness comes more noise, heat, vibration, and power consumption. Unfortunately, a WD Velociraptor (10000 RPM) won't fit in a MacBook Pro. A mobile 10000 RPM HDD sounds pretty awesome, in my opinion. It's a real shame that the Momentus XT only has a 4GB cache. For your situation, a 7200 RPM HDD with 8GB-16GB cache would be perfect. The bottom line is that a 7200 RPM HDD will be faster, just not hugely so. If you don't mind spending the money, go for it. Or, maybe just wait a few months and see if Seagate comes out with a better hybrid SSD.
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New MBP. Will 5400 vs 7200 HD speed be noticeable?
- Thread starter DaveN.
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Yes, forget the 5400 rpm.
Resist the urge get caught up in the "excitement that exists here in the forum" around SSD's.
The technology is still too new and Apples implementations are mediocre at best.
As far as third party, like OCZ Vertex 3's, I've been working with SSD's for nearly three years now and they are very expensive, work best in PC's (far better than in my Macs) and are plummeting in price, adding features, and are beginning to resolve the ever problematic garbage collection (TRIM) issues that plague Macs especially.
However I expect fanbois to challenge this vehemently , since many do not use their computers under the heavy, resource intensive work I do.
Give Apple and the industry another six months to a year and SSD's will most definitely the only way to go.
Resist the urge get caught up in the "excitement that exists here in the forum" around SSD's.
The technology is still too new and Apples implementations are mediocre at best.
As far as third party, like OCZ Vertex 3's, I've been working with SSD's for nearly three years now and they are very expensive, work best in PC's (far better than in my Macs) and are plummeting in price, adding features, and are beginning to resolve the ever problematic garbage collection (TRIM) issues that plague Macs especially.
However I expect fanbois to challenge this vehemently , since many do not use their computers under the heavy, resource intensive work I do.
Give Apple and the industry another six months to a year and SSD's will most definitely the only way to go.
Yes, I saw that comparison. The OP said that they are...
For this reason, I don't think that they will notice a significant difference between a 5400 and 7200 RPM HDD, unless a two second difference in opening a word document is a big deal to them. If that's the case, and a few seconds saved matters to the OP, then they should be considering something other than a 7200 RPM HDD.
This is a very valid point. In less than a year SSDs will be much cheaper and, likely, more Mac-friendly.
I agree... I switched from my stock 5400 to a Scorpio black, but it didn't increase performance to the point that it was worth the cost, slight loss of battery life, and increased noise... I have since switched to a small SSD with my original hard drive in the optical bay, and would highly recommend the setup if you don't use your superdrive often.
I'm in disfavor of "test" like the one quoted from laptop mag.
They test devices in a way they are easy to test, but not in a way they are used.
I couldn't care less if Photoshop opens two seconds later.
But when you do certain tasks like saving a file with 40 layers - or performing certain tasks in FCP X. This would be an interesting test. But it would be much more difficult to perform test.
Any links for your one year suggestion?
SSDs will definitely drop in price but who can say how long it will take with the demand rising so fast?
But the implementation will get a boost with the new MBA with it's increased speed.
They test devices in a way they are easy to test, but not in a way they are used.
I couldn't care less if Photoshop opens two seconds later.
But when you do certain tasks like saving a file with 40 layers - or performing certain tasks in FCP X. This would be an interesting test. But it would be much more difficult to perform test.
Any links for your one year suggestion?
SSDs will definitely drop in price but who can say how long it will take with the demand rising so fast?
But the implementation will get a boost with the new MBA with it's increased speed.
If you're asking for a study or proof, then no, I don't have any legitimate sources. I'm simply taking a guess that within a year OS X will support TRIM on third party SSDs. As for the dollars per GB of NAND flash, it takes no official references to say that it is declining sharply at a steady rate. I bought an 8GB USB drive last summer for $30. Now you can get a 16GB drive for the same price. The SSD I bought a month ago cost $30 more two months before that. So, I'm just going off of experiences here.
Not sure if you read it the way I read it but between 5400rpm and 7200rpm:
- there's a ~17 second difference when there are no background tasks
- an ~87 second difference during heavy multi tasking.
I personally strongly dislike waiting for applications to open, which is why I went with Seagate XT.
It really depends on what you're doing. If you are mainly doing web, Office, and the like, you're not likely to notice much if any difference. If you're doing some of the tasks philflow has tested and kindly posted results for, you may very well notice a difference.
Another note--on a 13", every 7200 RPM drive I tried created unacceptable levels of vibration--it was like the laptop had a current flowing through it.
Another note--on a 13", every 7200 RPM drive I tried created unacceptable levels of vibration--it was like the laptop had a current flowing through it.
Here's what application launching is like with Seagate XT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUApK9xRZBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUApK9xRZBA
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