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Please advise: 5400 or 7200rpm on MBP?

P

powerchord

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
89
0
right where I am
Hi everyone, I will probably be making a purchase in a few hours (17" 2.4, hi-res, matte). One final question: which hard drive to get 5400 or 7200?

I spoke with an Apple sales rep last night who sort of hinted that the 7200rpm might be more prone to failure (because of higher spin speeds)? That threw me off a bit. Is this true?

I will be using the laptop primarily as a desktop replacement, and will be spending a few hours on it each day (mostly for researching, reading online journals and news, preparing documents and presentations, and some audio, photo, and video editing, and internet of course). In addition to the usual word/office programs, I will be using some applications like Aperture, iLife movies, maybe Final Cut Express, and will be burning audio cds and dvds as well.

For my purposes what do you all recommend? or what is your experience with the drives?

Thanks!
 
I've been using 7200rpm laptop drives for 7 years now across multiple laptops with no trouble at all (PC & Mac). The speed improvement is great and I suggest it as the better option. :D
 
Interesting advice from the Apple Rep. I got the opposite advice when I was deciding on my MBP. I was advised that faster is better if you can afford it. Yes you lose HDD capacity, but if you need more, you can always add an external.

I have been very happy with the 7200 and have not heard of any problems with them.
 
ill be picking up my 17" hi-res matte MBP in a few hours as well!!! i am also getting 7200rpm hd as well for the increse in speed, and will probably pick up a external hd in the future. btw, can the time capsule be used for storage, or just backup? :cool:
 
plumpan said:
ill be picking up my 17" hi-res matte MBP in a few hours as well!!! i am also getting 7200rpm hd as well for the increse in speed, and will probably pick up a external hd in the future. btw, can the time capsule be used for storage, or just backup? :cool:
Click to expand...

You're going to love it!

I only know that Steve Jobs said it could be used for backup for more than one computer. He made no mention of it as a stand alone HD. I think this is because it works wirelessly through Time Machine. I currently have an external HD that I plug in for Time Machine backup. This "all inclusive wireless drive" was supposed to eliminate having to physically attach a HD for Time Machine backups.
 
ErikAndre said:
I've been using 7200rpm laptop drives for 7 years now across multiple laptops with no trouble at all (PC & Mac). The speed improvement is great and I suggest it as the better option. :D
Click to expand...

Winglet said:
Interesting advice from the Apple Rep. I got the opposite advice when I was deciding on my MBP. I was advised that faster is better if you can afford it. Yes you lose HDD capacity, but if you need more, you can always add an external.

I have been very happy with the 7200 and have not heard of any problems with them.
Click to expand...

what about heat increase? is there a noticeable difference?

also, if I get an external hd, I presume that a 7200 on my MBP will aid in the transference of data? is it really that much quicker?
 
On paper, typically 7200rpm drives are 30% faster than 5400rpm drives of the same size.

But it also depends on how much data you need to put on your drive. A 80gb 7200rpm drive storing 75gb of data will be slower than a 320gb 5400rpm drive storing the same data.
 
I have not noticed any major heat issues. The MBP will get warm if you use it on your lap. It is not a laptop, but a notebook. The aluminum is doing it's job and dissipating the heat.
 
I have noticed no difference in heat from mine to my wife's 17" MBP with the 250gb 5400rpm HDD. Also battery wise no difference, I get better as I turn my brightness down etc compared to my wifes.
 
powerchord said:
what about heat increase? is there a noticeable difference?
Click to expand...

I never noticed a heat increase... just a speed increase.

powerchord said:
is it really that much quicker?
Click to expand...

Yep. Any bit of speed increase is nice, especially on a laptop.

powerchord said:
in your opinion, does that drain the battery in a significant way? or really lead to major heat issues?
Click to expand...

I never noticed it. The battery life seemed to stay the same in all cases. No dramatic difference.
 
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