Yet Another 7200 v 5400 Question...

[terryblyth]

Hi guys, I've done a search on this but not really come up with the answers I need.

I'm about to upgrade my Macbook from its 120GB drive to either a 200GB (for speed) or 320GB (for size) as well as the RAM from 1GB to 2GB.

Is the difference in speed for the drive noticeable and worth the extra? I'm not bothered about heat or power consumption. I do use Logic occasionally, but not for anything high end. That said, would the slower speed do anything to audio recording/playback quality, or just access time?

200GB would see me through for a while, and by the time I need to do anything about another upgrade I'd think bigger drives at the faster speed would be available! However they're both roughly the same price, so if speed/quality isn't THAT noticeable, I may as well go for size and save myself some dosh later on.

 

[ethernet76]

Noticeable yes, but for what you're doing probably not necessary.

If you decide to do some more serious recording later on I'd use an external drive anyway.

 

[ethernet76]

It also depends on how you get audio into your computer for logic. If you're using a firewire DAC I'd go for the 7200 now.

 

[terryblyth]

OK, that's great. I'm currently using an Edirol UA-25 which runs through USB. I can't see me needing more for what I use. In that case, it looks like the 320GB has won out, wouldn't ya say?

 

[ethernet76]

The new 5400 will probably be faster than what you're using now anyway.

So either way it'll be slightly faster.

The only time I opt for 7200 drives in laptops is when I need fast read/write times on the go. Otherwise external drives are probably faster than any internal 7200 laptop drive you could get.

 

[Mac Donald Duck]

seagate announced new 5400.4 Momentus faster and high capacity with low noise and cooler

 

[lekun]

seagate announced new 5400.4 Momentus faster and high capacity with low noise and cooler

Any good ideas about when these will be available for purchase from places like Newegg? I just bought a 160GB 5400.3 (after trying out a 7200 RPM and not liking the noise).

It sucks to be in the MBP and aftermarket hard drive market right now.

 

[ViveLeLivre]

I have a Hitachi 200GB 7200 Travelstar in my MacBook and it is dead silent 99.99% of the time. Every once and a while I hear a very soft muted mechanical noise as the arm seeks across the platters, but I actually find the sound pleasing to the ear. You can not hear the drive spin at all. Also, according to reviews I read on the web, it actually consumes less power than some 5400rpm drives.

It's a very fast drive. At $199.00 from OWC, I'd give it a look.