Hi, I'm purchasing the base model Mini and will be upgrading to a 7200 320 gb hardrive. I can purchase the 7200 Hitachi Travelstar today only for$69.00 Canadian. Since this is a one time thing, is this drive good enough or should I spend $30.00 to $50,00 more on a Seagate or WD. I've done a fair amount of research and read reviews but I would love to have some feedback from experienced Mini users. Thanks for any help.
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Mac Mini Hitachi 320gb 7200
- Thread starter RBZ
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I've got one in my MBP, and it's way faster than the stock 160GB 5400 rpm drive that replaced it.
The only thing that is really going to be faster is the newer 500GB 7200 rpm drives but they do cost more.
Hitachi, WD, Seagate etc. are all pretty much the same. People will state claims that "brand x is way better than brand y" or "I'll never trust brand x drives again" blah blah. You basically need to filter though all of this crap and realize that every once in a awhile you may come across a lemon, just suck it up and replace it.
Here is a benchmark that features the Hitachi 320 vs. Scorpio 320 vs. Seagate 500GB.
The only thing that is really going to be faster is the newer 500GB 7200 rpm drives but they do cost more.
Hitachi, WD, Seagate etc. are all pretty much the same. People will state claims that "brand x is way better than brand y" or "I'll never trust brand x drives again" blah blah. You basically need to filter though all of this crap and realize that every once in a awhile you may come across a lemon, just suck it up and replace it.
Here is a benchmark that features the Hitachi 320 vs. Scorpio 320 vs. Seagate 500GB.
I recently installed that very same Hitachi model in my new 2.26GHz mac mini. It is working fine so far. On the subject of Western Digital, they are in the doghouse with me because I had a terrible time with their MyBook series of drives and firmware going bad.
So are small random performance or sustained transfers preferable? These differences are mentioned in the review you linked to.
It depends on what your trying to accomplish.
Generally if you want the fastest boot drive, then you would want to opt for the faster small read / write transfers. Large sustained transfers are going to be better if say you needed a scratch disk while editing video.
Really the differences between the 320GB notebook drive are negligible because some will be better than other at different tasks. Just choose the one that is the cheapest (as in price, from a reputable company) or one that you want right now at your local retail store.
