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Seagate Momentus 500GB HD 5400 or 7200

M

machomer

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
164
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Which of these two drives would you recommend? I'm concerned about noise, but most importantly battery drain. There were some reviews on the 7200 being more quiet and about the same noise levels.

This would go into a MBP before the unibody, if it makes a difference.

Thanks
 
It would be going into a MBP that is 2 generation prior to the current MBPs. So it's a non-unibody with 4gb RAM. I get the beachball from time to time and I hear the fan kick in when running Fusion.

I'm do the following:
WMWare Fusion running Vista (school requires it for Excel Solver)
iMovie
Normal Web browsing
Music
Movies
 
heat?

miles01110 said:
Doing any of these things you aren't going to get great battery life anyways. I'd go for the 7200 knowing that you'll be using the wall adapter frequently.
Click to expand...

Would installing the 7200 over the 5400 make the MBP run hotter?
 
miles01110 said:
Probably, but hard drives generate a lot of heat in the first place. I wouldn't expect your lower arms to suddenly start burning as soon as you upgrade.
Click to expand...

So it shouldn't really be anything to worry about or stop me for getting a 7200 over 5400?
 
get the 7200 rpm. I noticed huge difference between a system running a 4200 and a 5400 so I would expect it to be even more difference between a 5400 and 7200
 
I have, I believe, the same gen MBP. It's not the same hard drive as the one you're talking about, but when I got it, I bought the 7200rpm drive upgrade. Totally worth it. Runs hot, but I have a laptop cooling pad most of the time, and the rest of the time, it seems fine.
 
machomer said:
Which of these two drives would you recommend? I'm concerned about noise, but most importantly battery drain. There were some reviews on the 7200 being more quiet and about the same noise levels.

This would go into a MBP before the unibody, if it makes a difference.

Thanks
Click to expand...

In general, the 5400RPM will use less power and generate less heat and noise than a 7200RPM - this is why 5400RPM HD's are more common in laptops. 7200RPM really makes a difference if you're editing video or any HD intensive tasks. The tasks you've named are not bad. If you are going to be plugged into the wall adapter 90% of the time then sure go 7200RPM.

You probably know there are several versions of the Momentus so I'd take a look at the spec sheets for the one you're interested in to compare power requirements.
 
What about Battery life?

I'm considering this 7200.4 drive, but I haven't seen a clear idea from anyone [at least I haven't come across it via search] about how -much- the 7200 impacts battery life.

I have the early 2008 17' MBP.

I'd love the speed of the 7200 for video editing [does this make a big difference in imovie/final cut] and definitely the storage of 500gb.

I normally lean toward WD because I've had some bad luck with seagate.

Can anyone who has been using this drive in their MBP give me thoughts on the above? I greatly appreciate it!

- MD
 
milesdavis said:
I'm considering this 7200.4 drive, but I haven't seen a clear idea from anyone [at least I haven't come across it via search] about how -much- the 7200 impacts battery life.

I have the early 2008 17' MBP.

I'd love the speed of the 7200 for video editing [does this make a big difference in imovie/final cut] and definitely the storage of 500gb.

I normally lean toward WD because I've had some bad luck with seagate.

Can anyone who has been using this drive in their MBP give me thoughts on the above? I greatly appreciate it!

- MD
Click to expand...

I heard one guy said when he upgraded his hd from 5400 to 7200 it only took off ~10 minutes. I don't know where I saw that at.
 
Thanks for the reply. I've read both accounts, just a 10 minute loss, but also as much as 10% decline to 2x decline in battery when using a 5400rpm drive.

I wonder if anyone has tested this in practice? I'd love to know. There is a review on Toms, but it's from years ago and is based on 40GB capacity models.

Thanks all! MD
 
i have a seagate 320gb 7200rpm in the same generation MBP that I put in, in january, for nearly the same reason, vmware. Honestly, I havnt noticed anything over a 10 min loss, unless I do something that requires lots of hd access for long periods, but I usually try to limit that and kill bluetooth and lower the backlight to help out.. but I will trade the battery life for the speed, and space....
personally ..I am thinking about an extra battery to help with all day use but then I think for a hundred bucks I can get a spare battery or for about 200 I could grab a netbook notes, email, browsing....but then I think wait I have my iphone...so I basically just think....end rant....

anyway..whatever you lose will most likely be a tradable for speed... again personally
 
Interesting. So many different reports.

So, will 7200 be a significant increase in performance with iMovie and Final Cut? Prob. not a huge deal with photoshop and illustrator, I would guess. How about moving around files?

Thanks! MD

ps. is the vibration totally out of control bad, or just slightly more? I think of bad vibration like driving in a uHaul ruck!
 
milesdavis said:
Interesting. So many different reports.

So, will 7200 be a significant increase in performance with iMovie and Final Cut? Prob. not a huge deal with photoshop and illustrator, I would guess. How about moving around files?

Thanks! MD

ps. is the vibration totally out of control bad, or just slightly more? I think of bad vibration like driving in a uHaul ruck!
Click to expand...

I find things to be much quicker when working with large files. It vibrates less than an electric toothbrush but some people might find it annoying.
 
Interesting... I wonder if there is a way to 'dampen' the vibration? I remember reading someone recommending 'rubber bumpers?? does that even make sense?

I mostly use it with a BT keyboard and mouse, so unless I'm out and about, I guess the vibration won't be too bad. Does it vibrate onto the work surface? Is it that intense?

Also -- how hard it is to swap drives? What is the best method as far as cloning my current drive, do I have to reinstall OSX or just straight clone it?


Thanks!
 
clyde2801 said:
installed a 7200 in my uni MBP, along with 4 gigs of ram. Once, I had to swap the drives out momentarily, and with the 5400 it seemed like it took FOREVER to boot up.
Click to expand...

How are vibrations and heat with the 7200? Also which model HD are you using?
 
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