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will my macbook be faster with a 7200RPM drive?

V

vzippa5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 5, 2009
21
0
I have run a benchmark on my macbook with a Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM drive installed, and noticed that my score is higher than some other people who have posted their benchmarks. (newB, so I'm guessing that a higher score is better)

Will I notice a better performance if I upgrade to one of the 7200 RPM drives?

4189018652_279dc5bec5_o.png
 
Yes you will notice the difference, there is even more of a difference with an SSD.
 
Mars478 said:
You sure as well will. I use a 7200RPM and will NEVER go back to 5400RPMs.
Click to expand...

can anyone post a benchmark that shows their mac running much faster with a 7200 drive? I ask because this seems to be a topic of debate on the forums, and some tests have shown the new 5400 RPM drives are as fast or faster...

& it just seems more scientific than people saying "it feels faster"
 
vzippa5 said:
can anyone post a benchmark that shows their mac running much faster with a 7200 drive? I ask because this seems to be a topic of debate on the forums, and some tests have shown the new 5400 RPM drives are as fast or faster...

& it just seems more scientific than people saying "it feels faster"
Click to expand...

7 > 5

/thread
 
742073364_H3vSw-O.png


Highly used intel 80gb SSD about half full. It got a little slower since i know i filled it atleast once over. (hopefully apple implements TRIM sometime in the next major OSX release)

i will probably never go back to disk drives for my boot drive. It makes my desktop computer with a 7200rpm drive feel slow. Now i have to switch those over to SSD's as well.
 
I did an upgrade to a 7200RPM drive (and 4GiB of RAM) a couple months back on my MB 4,1. Unless you have one of the better 5400RPM drives (which would mean you've already replaced the stock drive), the different will certainly be noticeable. Even compared with one of the better 5400s, you'd probably still notice a difference.

Xbench results on the new drive:
Code: 
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.6.2 (10C540)
		Physical RAM		4096 MB
		Model		MacBook4,1
		Drive Type		WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0
	Disk Test	67.56	
		Sequential	94.24	
			Uncached Write	124.34	76.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	126.04	71.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	50.92	14.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	146.43	73.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	52.65	
			Uncached Write	19.15	2.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	162.98	52.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	92.98	0.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	145.83	27.06 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
What about power use on the 7200 drive? Do you find you are consuming the charge in your battery much quicker?
 
I have the seagate 7200 RPM 500GB hard drive in my macbook pro and 7200RPM drive western digital drive in my ibook and it made a pretty significant difference, especially when i updated my ibook. batter life really isnt affected too much, i can still make it through a 3 hour class on my macbook pro with some juice left
 
There is very little difference between, say, a 320gb/7200rpm notebook hard drive and a good 500GB 5400rpm. I use the scorpio blue 500gb and it's as fast as the scorpio black 7200rpm. From what I have been able to gather it saves a little on battery - not much though.

The bottom line is...if you really need a fast drive in the notebook, get an SSD. The difference between your 500gb 5400 seagate and a 7200 will not be noticable, but the difference between it and an SSD will be.
 
I personally wouldn't put a 7200 on a 13 inch. The thing will run hotter and you may notice vibration. I know some people do it, but I think there's a reason Apple does not offer a 7200 on the 13 inch in contrast to the 15 inch.
 
philosopherdog said:
I personally wouldn't put a 7200 on a 13 inch. The thing will run hotter and you may notice vibration. I know some people do it, but I think there's a reason Apple does not offer a 7200 on the 13 inch in contrast to the 15 inch.
Click to expand...

Don't know that heat is really a concern, but I have heard reports of vibration depending on what kind of drive you put in there.

Why do you think the 13 vs. 15 would make a difference? They both pack components in pretty tightly....
 
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