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Does the RPM really make much difference?

graymccarty

graymccarty

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
57
0
Toronto, ON
Hello,

Im buying a new laptop for University next week, and I'm in a pickle.

I really want a MacBook, (mainly due to the price) but I would def. like a memory upgrade. I'm thinking that I will upgrade to 200GB, however I noticed that by doing this, you're also lowering the RPM. (From 5400 RPM to 4200 RPM) Question - is this something that's actually noticeable?

On the same note, would you recommending upgrading the memory in a MacBook and sacrificing the RPM, or changing and going for the MacBook Pro and getting decent RPM with decent memory?


Many thanks!
 
Yeah personally I have a 5400rpm 120gb in my MBP and it is quite slow at accessing files or doing iMovie work compared it to some of the MBPs in my local Apple store, I wish I had got a 7200rpm drive. I would recommend an external hard drive and a fast internal.
 
dont upgrade at apple. Buy it and buy a 2.5 hardrive at newegg.com. U can have a 160 at 7200 rpm as well as a 200gb at 5400 rpm
 
I would recommend the largest hard drive you can get but nothing below 5400 rpm. I like the extra hard drive but if you have a mobil external hard drive like me it does not make a difference.

In real world use you might spend 20 secs more moving a file that would take 1 min.
 
A 7200 RPM drive with little data will blow away a 5400 RPM. However, the more data that gets put on the 7200RPM drive does cause impact to performance.

Just google 7200RPM vs 5400RPM and there is a chart that is floating around and will explain what I just wrote.
 
John01021988 said:
dont upgrade at apple. Buy it and buy a 2.5 hardrive at newegg.com. U can have a 160 at 7200 rpm as well as a 200gb at 5400 rpm
Click to expand...

The largest SATA 2.5" 7200 rpm drive NewEgg had in stock as of last night was a 100GB. Right now, the 120- and 160-GB SATA 7200 rpm drives are in relatively short supply, and many resellers seem to demand a premium price for them if they have them in stock. This availability problem will probably ease up in the near future however...
 
graymccarty said:
I'm thinking that I will upgrade to 200GB, however I noticed that by doing this, you're also lowering the RPM. (From 5400 RPM to 4200 RPM) Question - is this something that's actually noticeable?
Click to expand...

No. I changed from the 120 GB 5400 drive to the 200 GB 4200 and it doesn't seem to be any slower. I suppose your mileage may vary especially if you do a lot of disk-intensive work, but for general use you're not going to notice any difference.
 
Don't listen to people and their conjectures about large low-rpm drives. They've never actually used it themselves, so they really have no idea how the day-to-day feel is.

If size and performance matter to you, pick up this drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136123


I went for pure performance and picked up a 160GB 7200rpm Seagate drive, but if that WD drive had been available at the time, it would have been a very close contender for my attention. *drool*
 
the faster rpm, usually the faster drive, but once you fill it up, it gets slower, no matter the rpm. plus, faster rpm, more heat, less battery life.

This, from barefeats convinced me to get the 200gb 4200rpm over the 160 5400rpm in my mbp. Because once you fill it half full, the data transfer equals itself out.
 
desk003 said:
the faster rpm, usually the faster drive, but once you fill it up, it gets slower, no matter the rpm. plus, faster rpm, more heat, less battery life.

This, from barefeats convinced me to get the 200gb 4200rpm over the 160 5400rpm in my mbp. Because once you fill it half full, the data transfer equals itself out.
Click to expand...

Barefeats is hardly a credible source for performance comparisons.
And no, it doesn't equal out. Straight data throughput may equal, but random reads and writes are what counts in day-to-day activities.

Enjoy your slow drive.

And the battery life difference between drives is really very, very small. Maybe 5 minutes less battery life with 7200rpm than 4200rpm.
 
whateverandever said:
Barefeats is hardly a credible source for performance comparisons.
And no, it doesn't equal out. Straight data throughput may equal, but random reads and writes are what counts in day-to-day activities.

Enjoy your slow drive.

And the battery life difference between drives is really very, very small. Maybe 5 minutes less battery life with 7200rpm than 4200rpm.
Click to expand...

Show some data that compares the drives and disputes what barefeats have shown. In the multiple threads that have mentioned it, never have I seen anyone able to prove them wrong.

Why do you say they aren't a credible source?
 
whateverandever said:
Barefeats is hardly a credible source for performance comparisons.
And no, it doesn't equal out. Straight data throughput may equal, but random reads and writes are what counts in day-to-day activities.
Enjoy your slow drive.
...
Click to expand...

I looked it up, seek times.

hitachi 160gb 5400rpm: 11ms, avg latency: 5.5ms
toshiba 200gb 4200rpm: 12ms, avg latency: 5.55ms

(avg seek time from newegg, avg latency for hitachi from hitachi datasheet, for toshiba from newegg)

looks pretty much the same, don't cha think?

[EDIT: Here's the toshiba site link, to the specs for the drive (i think it's the same one), don't open it in camino, safari works though]
 
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