5400 rpm vs. 7200 rpm

[aaronb]

Is there a noticeable difference ($90 dollars noticeable!) between the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm hard drives available for the MBP? If it's worth 90 dollars to get the better performance, then I'm all for it. If not, then I'll just go standard. What is everyone's opinion?

 

[jsw]

There's a lot of discussion about this elsewhere on the forums. I think the general consensus is that, for most, it's not worth it and that, if you're going to spend the $$, it's better to bump to the 120GB 5400rpm one than the 100GB 7200rpm one.

 

[batman123]

There is not much difference, performance wise between the 5400 and 7200. In my opinion, you only need a faster hard drive if you need faster data retrieval, say for music editing etc.
I asked the same question on this forum, and decided that i would rather get the larger HD at 5400 at the same price because i wont see much change in performance.

But its up to you. What do you plan to use ur MBP for?

Batman.

 

[aaronb]

I plan on using it for graphic design, web design, and video editing. I jumped on the 2 GB of RAM so I'd have faster performance so I don't know if it is entirely necessary to get a faster rpm hard drive.

 

[jsw]

It sounds to me, then, that you'd be better served with the extra 20GB.

 

[Kingsly]

Go with the 120GB. Its what I did, and I don't notice any speed difference.

 

[emotion]

There is not much difference, performance wise between the 5400 and 7200. In my opinion, you only need a faster hard drive if you need faster data retrieval, say for music editing etc.
I asked the same question on this forum, and decided that i would rather get the larger HD at 5400 at the same price because i wont see much change in performance.

The last benchmarks I saw suggested that read performance was comparable for the two but the write performance is where 7200 wins out.

My main software (Ableton Live) reads more data than writes so I have a 5400 drive in my powerbook.

I'm considering a a 7200 for the next machine though as the recording of audio I do (digitising my vinyl) would benefit from a faster write performance.

 

[electronboy]

If you are not concerned with battery life get the faster drives. In the past faster drives always consumed more power. I still think this is the case.