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Do all 7200 hdd's run louder and hotter than 5400's?

Whackintosh

Whackintosh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2009
435
14
Montreal, Quebec
Am planning on getting a mini and swapping out the hdd for a 7200, but I'm getting a bit worried looking at some posts on another board that claim they've found the faster drives running hotter and louder, with more vibrations. What have peoples' experiences been here?
 
It depends. Cheap 5400s can easily be hotter and louder but good 7200 can be cooler and more silent. Get SSD if you want noiseless and almost cold hard drive
 
Whenever I get a laptop, my first task is to get a 7200 RPM drive. There have been some issues with the 500GB 7200 seagate drive, but I have a Seagate 320 in my MAcbook and the hitachi travelstor in my kids Mac Mini.

The 7200 combined with some extra RAM provides a noticeable responsiveness to the machine. Never had an issue yet and the mini is 3 years old. Sold one Macbook after 2 years and drive was still good. Current MB going strong since december.
 
The Hammer said:
Give the guy a break. A SSD is not a cost effective solution right now for someone considering a Mini.
Click to expand...

I just gave him an idea. 32 or 64GB SSDs are not so expensive anymore so if I was the OP I'd get one of those 32GB SSDs and 1TB FW800 external drive for storage.
 
It really depends on the make, the model, and sometimes the luck of the draw. 7200rpm drives generally run hotter than 5400, but at most perhaps a couple of degrees more. Decent 7200rpm drives still run cool.

As for the sound, it depends on a lot of things. Faster drives tend to vibrate more, and have a higher pitched "whine" sound as they spin. But thats not to say that a 5400rpm drive can't have the same issues, or that all 7200rpm drives exhibit this issue. I don't have much experience with 2.5" drives, but i've been very happy lately with Western Digital 3.5" 7200rpm drives - almost zero vibration and no whine to speak of. I've had the least luck with seagate drives, which have loud seeks and tend to make regular "click" sounds every 30 seconds which would drive me up the wall.
 
With Runcore SSDs making their debut, I think replacing to a SSD might be an option (and even a cost effective one) in a year or so. But for all intents and purposes, I'd wait a few months until more 7200 high capacity drives are out there, competition means lower prices for consumers.
 
jesterscourt said:
With Runcore SSDs making their debut, I think replacing to a SSD might be an option (and even a cost effective one) in a year or so. But for all intents and purposes, I'd wait a few months until more 7200 high capacity drives are out there, competition means lower prices for consumers.
Click to expand...

I got my Seagate 500GB 7200RPM hard drive for $140. Even with a few months I don't see the price of 500GB 7200RPM drives lowering that much. Maybe after half a year.
 
Thanks to Hellhammer and the rest for so much feedback. I'd thought about SSD but the cost and unproven longterm robustness is putting me off. I'll probably go for a Hitachi 7200. Lots of people here seem to like the WD 7200, but I seem to recall there being lots of failures in their drives a few years ago. Are they better these days?
 
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