Mac mini 40gb HD 5200rpm?

xlsupremexlsupreme
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I was reading a mac magazine in barnes and nobel last night, I forget exactly which magazine it was but they did speed tests between the 1.25 and 1.42 mini's. They said that the 1.42 was faster in everything except for the hard drive read/write scores, which they later attributed to finding out that the 40gb in the 1.25ghz mini was 5200 insetad of 4200. Does anyone know if that's just a coincidence? Like maybe apple was running short of 40gb 4200's so they used a few 5200's?



I'm asking this because I'm in serious need of a CPU upgrade, the 400mhz iMac DV isn't quite up to par with my needs. I do use an external firewire drive, but I would really like the system drive to be faster than 4200. To me, if the 1.25 has a faster but smaller drive, that would be more worth my money than 170mhz more.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    If you're looking for fast HD access speeds, stay away from laptop drives entirely.



    That said, I don't think there are 5200 rpm drives, only 5400, 7200, etc. What if you purchase a mini and it has the 4200rpm drive in it?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    I believe I read in MacAddict that the Mini's drives were in fact 5400 rpm rather than the originally spec'ed 4200 ones. They tore one down to expose all the gory goodness of it. They also posted performance using the 1.8GHz iMac as a benchmark and they scored decently (not awesome but very decent).
  • Reply 3 of 5
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Because Apple doesn't specify the rpm of the HD, they can basically use either 4200rpm or 5400rpm based on supply/demand and costs. It's a crapshoot though, not everyone who orders a 1.25 GHz mini will get a 5400rpm HD.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    xlsupremexlsupreme Posts: 35member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MCQ

    Because Apple doesn't specify the rpm of the HD, they can basically use either 4200rpm or 5400rpm based on supply/demand and costs. It's a crapshoot though, not everyone who orders a 1.25 GHz mini will get a 5400rpm HD.



    yeah that's more or less what I figured would be the case. Oh well, I suppose that's what firewire and boring nights with a tiny screwdriver are for.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    xflarexflare Posts: 199member
    A recent issue of Macworld UK magazine reviewed the Mac mini and found the 1.25ghz 40Gb version had a 5400rpm hard drive and the 1.42ghz mini had a 80Gb 4200rpm drive.
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