Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why such low RPM HD's?
- Thread starter levitynyc
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's actually mostly heat and power issues. After the screen, the hard drive is the #1 consumer of power in a laptop. The faster it spins, the more power it consumes, and the more heat it generates. There are a few 7200rpm drives for laptops, but they're really expensive and get really hot.
levitynyc said:
Because the simple fact is that no one makes 160Gb+ laptop drives that run at 7200rpm. Apple can only use the components available.
mrogers said:
I'm fairly sure that 7200rpm drives don't produce appreciably more heat. They are more careful with efficiency in faster drives.
robbieduncan said:
True but there's a soon-to-released 7200 version of the 160GB Seagate Momentus 2.5" SATA drive.
i only recently heard of 160GB HDDs.negatv1 said:
if you need that kind of storage, you would be much better off with an external HDD. They hold much more, and are a lot cheaper.
emotion said:
Soon but not now. As it's not available Apple don't list it as an option. Next round of updates when these drives are in plentiful supply then it'll be there.
Hmmm, is it just me or is the 7200rpm HDD not available as a BTO on the 15" model (at least its not on the UK Store)? I'm sure you could on the CoreDuo 15" before.
If this is true, it seems a bit silly.
If this is true, it seems a bit silly.
Too bad the 200 GB drive isn't 7200rpm. Be sure to come back and check the forums for the eventual thread of "this drive" vs "that drive" on the Macbook Pro.
redeye be said:
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/10/12/fujitsus_mhv2200bt_uk/index.html has a good review. It's slower overall, and they conclude it's for storage not performance.
Umbongo said:
That review is for the Fujitsu 200GB 2.5" drive, but I'm guessing that Apple puts the Toshiba 200GB drive in the macbook pros because the Fujitsu is a non-standard height (12.5mm instead of the standard 9.5mm because it has three platters instead of the typical 2). Unlike the Toshiba, the Fujitsu does not use perpendicular magnetic recording.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that maybe the Toshiba 2.5" 200GB 4200 RPM drive performs better than the Fujitsu because of what redeye be said. I hope so, anyway
.levitynyc said:
There is a limit to the number of bps under the head. The Perpindicular drives have a much higher ariel density, which meant that more bits move under the head at slower speeds. Generally, this is a good thing. There is still a bottlenect due to drive speed in general, but with the next wave of drives (with flash ram) expect the whole drive speed thing to not be so important. And the rest of the components *will* get faster, this is first generation stuff.
Make sure you consider your needs.
From barefeats:
1. The 7200rpm internal drive is NOT significantly faster than the stock 5400rpm when doing small RANDOM reads and writes. That implies that it won't give you much advantage for booting and normal operations.
3. If you work on audio or video where large blocks are captured or played back, the 7200rpm internal drive of the MacBook has a clear advantage over the stock 5400rpm internal drive.
http://www.barefeats.com/5472.html
From barefeats:
1. The 7200rpm internal drive is NOT significantly faster than the stock 5400rpm when doing small RANDOM reads and writes. That implies that it won't give you much advantage for booting and normal operations.
3. If you work on audio or video where large blocks are captured or played back, the 7200rpm internal drive of the MacBook has a clear advantage over the stock 5400rpm internal drive.
http://www.barefeats.com/5472.html
iSee said:That review is for the Fujitsu 200GB 2.5" drive, but I'm guessing that Apple puts the Toshiba 200GB drive in the macbook pros because the Fujitsu is a non-standard height (12.5mm instead of the standard 9.5mm because it has three platters instead of the typical 2). Unlike the Toshiba, the Fujitsu does not use perpendicular magnetic recording.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that maybe the Toshiba 2.5" 200GB 4200 RPM drive performs better than the Fujitsu because of what redeye be said. I hope so, anyway
I didn't realise Toshiba had released one. I guess in the end it is worth waiting for reviews, dissections and benchmarks.
robbieduncan said:
Well considering Other World Computing had the Seagate 5.4k Momentus back in January of this year, I wouldn't bet on Apple using the 7.2k Momentus 7200.2 anytime soon. According to Seagate's June '06 announcement, the 7200.2 Momentus is expected to ship in the 1st Q 2007. True the Momentus 5400.3 was over $300 when 1st released, but it soon dropped more than 50% in a few months, same will happen when the 7200.2 comes out. No 7.2k laptop drives do not generate much more heat, they use nearly the same amount of power as 5.4k drives (in some cases less than older 5.4k models).
Good source of news on laptop storage is at:
http://laptoping.com/category/laptop-hard-drive/
Notice in the future, Seagate may offer 1.46TB laptop drives ...woohoo!
http://www.infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtml?id=002570DE00740E18002571A2004B5DDE
What I'd really like to see before 128GB NAND flash drives come out later this year, or early next year, is a 10k rpm laptop drive from Seagate (they already have moved to 10k 2.5in drives for the blade server market, it's just a matter of getting them to run on less power
, cause that would be hotter than a 5.4kk drive ). A 10k laptop drive with 4GB of NAND flash for quick booting.