New PowerBook Hard Drive: 5400 or 7200?

[Greenone]

Hi-

I don't have anything to compare to my new PB cause this is my first laptop, but I've used friends'. This thing is SWEEET! I decided to go for the 100/7200rpm HDD and added 1 GB ram to the 512 stock. I'm so glad I did! It all started when an Apple Genious dude told me I'd be best off going for the 7200 if speed mattered to me more than a little space (and he emphasized a LITTLE space...I'll already have plenty, you know?). Then I started asking around in here and most people agreed 7200 was the wiser choice, after considering all the factors. This thing RIPS. I really am very happy with it (knock on wood...I've read posts in which people are complaining about lines in the screen and flashing screens - so far there's no sign of either with my machine).

On to the point, noise: this thing is QUIET. I couldn't believe it when I first plugged it in. Again, I have friends whose laptops are so noisy. Even my husband (fixes PC's for a living) was pleasantly surprised at how quiet this laptop is. I do hear some very faint, distant little "purr" of a sound when I use two fingers to scroll, but it's not annoying (and I too have a noise/weird sounds issue), it's consistent, and you can only hear it in an incredibly quiet room.

HTH!

 

[generik]

thank you all.

and jfreak, that is particularly clear logic.

for what its worth, in one store in denmark, they have a 15 and 17" and they both have matsushita 5400 drives. hmm, does this mean seagate is going one place and the others elsewhere?

any pb will be better than what i have in my ib g3 LOL... provided its not full of problems (screen and the like)

I got this drive:


TOSHIBA MK8026GAX:

Capacity: 74.53 GB
Model: TOSHIBA MK8026GAX
Revision: PA005B
Serial Number: X59H1073S
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

Minor bummer, cos I was expecting the Seagate. On the bright side Toshibas are mostly quite reliable..

 

[tekmoe]

i will say it again.

extra space = not a lot
extra RPM = a lot

have a nice day.

 

[nomad01]

i will say it again.

extra space = not a lot
extra RPM = a lot

Still not seen much evidence of this though.

Looking at the speed tests on Bare Feats although this is the previous rev of Powerbook, shows a very slight startup time improvement and not much else between 5400 and 7200.

Be interested to see some proper tests rather than "finger in the air" type tests.

 

[tekmoe]

20gb isn't much these days. hell, you can buy a dual-layer burnable disc that is half that. more storage can always be had. the rpm's can't. go with the 7200. faster is better.

end of statement. thank you.

 

[nomad01]

20gb isn't much these days. hell, you can buy a dual-layer burnable disc that is half that. more storage can always be had. the rpm's can't. go with the 7200. faster is better.

end of statement. thank you.

Oh yeah, I agree, faster is better but if you look at my last post, the Bare Feats speed test I mentioned displays little or no speed gain between the two drives so "End of statement" doesn't prove anything to me.

Anyone have any real world tests?

 

[tekmoe]

if you want real world tests, ask the people using the 7200rpm drives what they think in terms of comparison to a 5400rpm drive. in all honesty, most people who have commented on the speed difference have all left positive feedback. i, myself, am one of them. the 7200 just feels faster. whether a benchmark can prove that or not, does not matter to me. a 7200rpm drive moves faster than a 5400rpm drive. that is a fact. i will take the speed over storage any day of the week, as would most other people too.

 

[nomad01]

if you want real world tests, ask the people using the 7200rpm drives what they think in terms of comparison to a 5400rpm drive.

That's not really a real world "test" though, is it? It's just an opinion and it's not unknown for people to just think that their new machine feels faster. Saying that you won't believe benchmark tests just because the drive is supposed to be faster is just burying your head in the sand though.

I'm not talking about obscure benchmarks... the Bare Feats test says that something as simple as the startup of the machine is just one second faster which is really a negligible amount.

And as I've said before, I agree that I'd go for speed over size... you don't have to keep making that point to me, really.

At the end of the day, if you're happy with the machine and it feels fast to you, that's all that matters. I'm not saying that the speed you feel you have is just in your head but I'd just like to see some facts rather than conjecture.

Thanks.

 

[tekmoe]

Saying that you won't believe benchmark tests just because the drive is supposed to be faster is just burying your head in the sand though.

where did i say i won't believe benchmark tests? i merely said they do not matter to me.

the Bare Feats test says that something as simple as the startup of the machine is just one second faster which is really a negligible amount.

one second or sixty seconds, it's still faster.

And as I've said before, I agree that I'd go for speed over size... you don't have to keep making that point to me, really.

in my opinion, it seems you are still not convinced that a 7200rpm has any advantage over a 5400rpm drive. otherwise, you would probably not be looking for the real world tests you keep asking about. my point is a 7200rpm drive IS faster.

At the end of the day, if you're happy with the machine and it feels fast to you, that's all that matters. I'm not saying that the speed you feel you have is just in your head but I'd just like to see some facts rather than conjecture.

point taken.

good day sir.

 

[nomad01]

where did i say i won't believe benchmark tests? i merely said they do not matter to me.

Okay. I won't argue over semantics.

one second or sixty seconds, it's still faster.

Yes but if I reboot my machine twice a day every day, gaining one second each time, I'd save something like 12 minutes over a year. Is that worth and extra 140 pounds? Guess it must be to some people but if I were buying a new PB I think I'd rather buy more ram and a huge external HD.

in my opinion, it seems you are still not convinced that a 7200rpm has any advantage over a 5400rpm drive. otherwise, you would probably not be looking for the real world tests you keep asking about.

I'm not convinced it has a significant advantage. Your post that I first replied to said "extra RPM = a lot". To me, an extra second here and there is not "a lot". Hence why I was asking for some kind of tests/proof. Just because something is theoretically faster doesn't always mean that there are true gains to be had so I'd like more info.

Also, my old 12" PB always felt really nippy compared to my desktop machine so this piques my curiosity too.

 

[tekmoe]

ok ok, i will be the first to admit i am getting slightly ahead of myself...

when i did the BTO for my new 17", the 7200rpm drive was available without any additional cost. if it would have costed an extra 200 dollars, i seriously doubt i would have opted for it. so yes, i can see clearly from your perspective at this point.

 

[nomad01]

ok ok, i will be the first to admit i am getting slightly ahead of myself...

when i did the BTO for my new 17", the 7200rpm drive was available without any additional cost. if it would have costed an extra 200 dollars, i seriously doubt i would have opted for it. so yes, i can see clearly from your perspective at this point.

Ahhh. I see. I didn't realise that was an option on the 17". That's nice.

In that case, yes, I'd have gone for the faster drive too.

Think we were talking at cross purposes.

 

[SteveMcQ]

I took the extra space over the speed in the 15" I just ordered. Figured, I'd be hard pressed to find the space when I needed it down the line and I doubt a second or two waiting on a 5400RPM drive was enough for me to go with the smaller, yet faster drive.

 

[smartgirlglasse]

I just took the plunge (about 45 min ago) and ordered the 15" with the 7200 100 gig HD. I reckon that my current external drive can provide whatever extra space I need.

 

[panda]

I just took the plunge (about 45 min ago) and ordered the 15" with the 7200 100 gig HD. I reckon that my current external drive can provide whatever extra space I need.

well done!

(so did i)

 

[cepler]

I'd like to see a speed comparison between the Toshiba drives that Apple uses and the Hitachi 7k100 drive which is supposed to be a very very nice drive (Better than the Toshibas) Once these come down in price a little I'll probably pop my PB open and put one in.

 

[Agent Smith]

I'm currently deciding whether or not to take the PB plunge. I am probably going to go BTO with the 7200 rpm hd, but the only thing holding me back is the persistence of the screen problems. That, and that pesky "AirPort not working with more than 1 GB of RAM" thing. I'm thinking I'll wait a bit longer for the next batch for the (hopeful) fixes.

Edit: I do have the 1.33 12 inch PB already, I just need to upgrade. Need the real estate...

 

[Greenone]

I'm currently deciding whether or not to take the PB plunge. I am probably going to go BTO with the 7200 rpm hd, but the only thing holding me back is the persistence of the screen problems. That, and that pesky "AirPort not working with more than 1 GB of RAM" thing. I'm thinking I'll wait a bit longer for the next batch for the (hopeful) fixes.

Edit: I do have the 1.33 12 inch PB already, I just need to upgrade. Need the real estate...

I have no screen issues whatsoever and although I recently upgraded my ram to 1.5 gb, I was using airport with no problems in an internet cafe, using only the 512 mb ram. Just fyi. This laptop kicks ass!

 

[stevexanth]

Enuff grunt...enough said!!

Suppose i'm a bit of a power user(G5 dual)...so i waited until the 15'' power books had the option of a 7200, faster graphics/ram and took the plunge....i'm surprisingly pleased...no probs yet and so light next to my old pc laptop...wanted to get one before the switch to intel...y'know for old times sake!!

Velly happy.......do it.

 

[Greenone]

I gotta say though, I'm still bugged by the lid that has the gap in the front right corner. I thought it was better but I realize that was only cause I had the iskin on the keyboard and the Radtech screen saver over the keys too, making the closing of it more firm all around. Without those things, the big ol' gap's back.

 

[JDOG_]

I gotta say though, I'm still bugged by the lid that has the gap in the front right corner. I thought it was better but I realize that was only cause I had the iskin on the keyboard and the Radtech screen saver over the keys too, making the closing of it more firm all around. Without those things, the big ol' gap's back.

No offense buddy, but why were you using all those things to protect your keyboard? It's just a keyboard!

 

[SteveMcQ]

I gotta say though, I'm still bugged by the lid that has the gap in the front right corner. I thought it was better but I realize that was only cause I had the iskin on the keyboard and the Radtech screen saver over the keys too, making the closing of it more firm all around. Without those things, the big ol' gap's back.

I was just thinking of having the same setup--the iSkin with the Radtech ScreenSaverz--but I just went ahead with the ScreenSaverz. The iSkin seemed a bit like overkill at this point.

 

[Flyinace2000]

I'll weigh in. My PB (last gen before the "HD" screens) has a 100gb 5400rpm drive and performs relativel well. The other day i needed to do some diagnostics on it and my disc warrior CD would not boot. So i installed OSX and DiscWarrior on a FW Drive (200gb 7200rpm). Let me just say how much OSX just FLEW! Boot times were noticebly quicker and over system responsiveness was amazing. There is no question, if i had the option i would get the 7200rpm drive.

 

[Greenone]

No offense buddy, but why were you using all those things to protect your keyboard? It's just a keyboard!

Heh heh...funny to be called buddy, as a woman, but there's nothing wrong with being called buddy, either!

I'm SO glad I'm using both. My son gave me pinkeye the other day and were it not for the iskin, I would have been contaminating the keys like crazy. Plus I get kinda neurotic about other people putting their dirty paws on my keys, and others keep asking to use it, look something up on the internet, etc. So to answer your question, I'm using the iskin to "protect" the keys (it's just that it's a lot more work to have to clean keys later than to clean an iskin), and i'm using the screensaver to protect the screen - not the keys. make sense?

 

[SteveMcQ]

Heh heh...funny to be called buddy, as a woman, but there's nothing wrong with being called buddy, either!

I'm SO glad I'm using both. My son gave me pinkeye the other day and were it not for the iskin, I would have been contaminating the keys like crazy. Plus I get kinda neurotic about other people putting their dirty paws on my keys, and others keep asking to use it, look something up on the internet, etc. So to answer your question, I'm using the iskin to "protect" the keys (it's just that it's a lot more work to have to clean keys later than to clean an iskin), and i'm using the screensaver to protect the screen - not the keys. make sense?

Makes sense to me. Regarding the iSkin: Does it seem especially bulky when it's on? I'm wondering whether there's enough space between the keyboard and the screen when it's closed with it on w/o having the screen touch. I'm looking to get the clear one. Does it diminish the illuminated keyboard's backlight any? I've been looking for some impressions on it. Thanks.