I am planning on buying a 15 inch mbp for use at college next year, but was wondering if there is a difference in speed. Which would be more benificial, the 120 gb hd or the 100 gb 7200 rpm drive?
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5400rpm vs. 7200rpm hd
- Thread starter jhsfosho
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There have been some recent benchmarks that suggest there is very little speed gain in going up to the 7200 RPM drive in day-to-day usage. I'd go for greater storage space, especially if you know you're likely to fill up that much space. My 120GB drive feels small.
Test Results
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/206695/
Test Results
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/206695/
Read the specs, the 7200 RPM drive spins faster -- that is about it.
Across the manufacturers, some 5400 drives have a higher mechanical transfer limit (in MBs/sec) and 7200 drives at others.
But these differences aren't very big in notebook drives, and do not affect the average user.
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The cache size and drive size are vastly more important -- bigger is better.
And the warranty is also important.
Desktop drives are a bit different in mechanical transfer speeds, and enterprise drives though they may be noisier -- last longer.
Across the manufacturers, some 5400 drives have a higher mechanical transfer limit (in MBs/sec) and 7200 drives at others.
But these differences aren't very big in notebook drives, and do not affect the average user.
---
The cache size and drive size are vastly more important -- bigger is better.
And the warranty is also important.
Desktop drives are a bit different in mechanical transfer speeds, and enterprise drives though they may be noisier -- last longer.
I would definately go with more space than drive speed. Unless you are moving files around between computer to computer that are really big, you wont see much of a difference. Even on boot up the most difference you might see is a second but doubtfully two.
Well
I can't decide either. I am in the process of getting my replacement MacBook Pro 2.0 with the 15.4 inch matte display. I still can't decide if I want to go with the 120gig 5400 or the 100 gig 7200 rpm. My current MBP has 2 gigs of ram, the 2.0 with 128 vram (week twenty) and the stock 80 gig 5400rpm. The speed and battery life I love. However, after 10 days with the laptop I am down to 18 gigs free. Yeah yeah I know, get an external hard drive.... However, I think if I am going to have it for along time, which I do, because I can't afford systems that often, I should go with the 7200. I do alot of video rendering, graphics editing, and such on the go with my laptop, and think the 7200 would be benficial for writing. Any ideas?
I can't decide either. I am in the process of getting my replacement MacBook Pro 2.0 with the 15.4 inch matte display. I still can't decide if I want to go with the 120gig 5400 or the 100 gig 7200 rpm. My current MBP has 2 gigs of ram, the 2.0 with 128 vram (week twenty) and the stock 80 gig 5400rpm. The speed and battery life I love. However, after 10 days with the laptop I am down to 18 gigs free. Yeah yeah I know, get an external hard drive.... However, I think if I am going to have it for along time, which I do, because I can't afford systems that often, I should go with the 7200. I do alot of video rendering, graphics editing, and such on the go with my laptop, and think the 7200 would be benficial for writing. Any ideas?
yah00z said:
I'll go with the new western digital external 500GB....Right now my 300GB getting full so need to upgrade!!!
Either Pro or Premium edition... http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=242
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=224&language=en