7200 rpm hard disks
I notice that Apple advertise a 7200rpm hard drive as a BTO option on the new powerbooks, but you have to choose between that or a larger 5400rpm drive.
Can someone give some opinion as to the real-world performance difference the 7200 would make to application speed? I assume it would help with virtual memory performance a bit, but is it really worth the money?
And as someone who tends to fill up their hard disk to within the last couple of gigs pretty quickly, would I get better performance from the faster disk, or from the extra 20gig of scratch space?
Can someone give some opinion as to the real-world performance difference the 7200 would make to application speed? I assume it would help with virtual memory performance a bit, but is it really worth the money?
And as someone who tends to fill up their hard disk to within the last couple of gigs pretty quickly, would I get better performance from the faster disk, or from the extra 20gig of scratch space?
Comments
The faster the boot drive the better and don't run your computer from a full harddrive as when its full its slow.
Dobby.
I just don't get the people that post (not just here, it happens on /. all the time) wanting everyone else to hand deliver the info to them, instead of making the slightest bit of effort on their own. THEN post and add something meaningful to a discussion, whatever.
Originally posted by concentricity
I just don't get the people that post (not just here, it happens on /. all the time) wanting everyone else to hand deliver the info to them, instead of making the slightest bit of effort on their own. THEN post and add something meaningful to a discussion, whatever.
I don't want to seem rude either, but that was needlessly pissy. The OP asked, expressly, for other posters' personal opinions, presumably based on experience. He can work out for himself what the signal to noise ratio is. You can't discuss anything with a review.
There is no code of etiquette against asking that kind of question. That is what this forum is all about, no?
Originally posted by concentricity
I really don't want this to sound rude...
Well, I was going to reply to that but I think Shalmaneser made my point for me. Cheers :-)
Say you have a 60gb 7200rpm drive and a 100GB 5400rpm drive.
Human's natural desire to simply will mean that you will think the 7200rpm drive is faster and rotationally it is. However we're talking about 2.5" platters here and the 100gb drive has a much higher areal density which means more data is passing under the drive heads albeit at a slower rate.
I'd say if the sizes are close go with the 72k drive unless it's more than a %20 premium in price.
If you don't mind a slightly less efficient battery, you want a little more speed, and an extra 20 GB doesn't entice you, the 7200 drive would be the way to go.
I already have high-capacity desktop systems. If I bought a new MacBook it would be an adjunct system. Most of my media would still reside on 250-500 GB (cheaper) desktop drives. Since I don't travel too much and am usually near an AC outlet, I'd go with the faster drive. My girlfriend who'd use the laptop as her primary machine would probably benefit from the larger drive though.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Originally posted by concentricity
I really don't want this to sound rude, but anyone here can post some opinion...but that's pretty worthless. If the question is about 7200 vs. 5400 considering size tradeoffs, google for some benchmarks and reviews (there are quite a few). Once you know the real-world performance differences you can make a reasonable decision for yourself about what makes sense for you.
I just don't get the people that post (not just here, it happens on /. all the time) wanting everyone else to hand deliver the info to them, instead of making the slightest bit of effort on their own. THEN post and add something meaningful to a discussion, whatever.
So then whats the point of thes forums?
Originally posted by Xool
For your average user I'd think the larger drive would be better.
If you don't mind a slightly less efficient battery, you want a little more speed, and an extra 20 GB doesn't entice you, the 7200 drive would be the way to go.
I already have high-capacity desktop systems. If I bought a new MacBook it would be an adjunct system. Most of my media would still reside on 250-500 GB (cheaper) desktop drives. Since I don't travel too much and am usually near an AC outlet, I'd go with the faster drive. My girlfriend who'd use the laptop as her primary machine would probably benefit from the larger drive though.
Interesting... I use my laptop as my primary machine, however I am usually near an outlet, and I have an external 160GB firewire drive, so I guess the consensus here is that the 7200 is probably the way to go.
Thanks for all the input, sure beats a Google search
If you guys would just NOT QUOTE the off-topic flame, I could delete it. Hint hint for next time.
Regarding the flame, concentricity, posts that offer no answer except "Use Teh Search N00b" are off-topic, violate posting guidelines, and will be deleted when possible.
Faster drives work better for audio recording and likely as well for video (the rest of you feel free to correct me here).
Originally posted by Bergermeister
What, Socrates, do you plan on using the drive for? It's your main machine, but if you mainly type emmail, then it won't really make a difference.
Faster drives work better for audio recording and likely as well for video (the rest of you feel free to correct me here).
3D modelling/rendering, Photoshop, game and application development (XCode, REALbasic), web design, Garage Band, iTunes, gaming, Virtual PC, word processing. And email.
Basically I want an all-round powerhouse desktop replacement from which to run my life and my business. I get the impression that this is the purpose for which the machine was intended.
Having said that, it is day to day performance issues such as Mail suddenly deciding to stop and think for 5 seconds while I'm writing an email which I'd most like to cut down on. I tend to run about 10 apps at once and mostly everything is smooth but then suddenly it will freeze and stop to think. I guess first and foremost I'd like to stop that happening, but I imagine you'll tell me that the best way is to keep my disk 1/3rd empty, which seems kinda wasteful
Originally posted by hmurchison
It's a bit of a tradeoff.
Say you have a 60gb 7200rpm drive and a 100GB 5400rpm drive.
Human's natural desire to simply will mean that you will think the 7200rpm drive is faster and rotationally it is. However we're talking about 2.5" platters here and the 100gb drive has a much higher areal density which means more data is passing under the drive heads albeit at a slower rate.
I'd say if the sizes are close go with the 72k drive unless it's more than a %20 premium in price.
Come again?
Originally posted by mdriftmeyer
Come again?
I think he means that larger drives are higher density and therefore have a higher data access rate for the same rotational speed.
Originally posted by concentricity
I really don't want this to sound rude, but anyone here can post some opinion...but that's pretty worthless. If the question is about 7200 vs. 5400 considering size tradeoffs, google for some benchmarks and reviews (there are quite a few). Once you know the real-world performance differences you can make a reasonable decision for yourself about what makes sense for you.
I just don't get the people that post (not just here, it happens on /. all the time) wanting everyone else to hand deliver the info to them, instead of making the slightest bit of effort on their own. THEN post and add something meaningful to a discussion, whatever.
For your information, i came to this forum only to find a discussion and an answer on the posted question, so you are totally wrong about your 'worthless'..
It's still difficult for me, will i order 120mb or faster 7200!! help!!! if it opens faster programs, and when more programs are open, take care of things better, then i need the 7200, if its to much noice, takes down my battery to fast, shakes my laptop when its on a desk, then i dont want it!!!
Originally posted by Socrates
3D modelling/rendering, Photoshop, game and application development (XCode, REALbasic), web design, Garage Band, iTunes, gaming, Virtual PC, word processing. And email.
Photoshop is the only app above that's going to hit the disk hard, unless you don't put enough RAM in it.
I'd argue, though, that it will be a long time before most 3D apps get ported. Most of the companies in this business are small, and scramble really hard just in making their tools better for each revision.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Seagate 160GB 54K drive coming
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Too bad the new higher density drive doesn't use Serial ATA so it can't be placed in a MacBook... yet.
There's also a second upside to the new technology (orienting the bits on the drive vertically rather than horizontally) and that is the increased density should increase drive speeds. With the same rotation as before, more bits will fly under the drive's read head in the same amount of time. It also means you have more room to squirrel away stuff.
Originally posted by Socrates
I notice that Apple advertise a 7200rpm hard drive as a BTO option on the new powerbooks, but you have to choose between that or a larger 5400rpm drive.
Can someone give some opinion as to the real-world performance difference the 7200 would make to application speed? I assume it would help with virtual memory performance a bit, but is it really worth the money?
And as someone who tends to fill up their hard disk to within the last couple of gigs pretty quickly, would I get better performance from the faster disk, or from the extra 20gig of scratch space?
Here are comparisons between the two drives that I think are probably in there (somebody correct me if I am wrong):
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Sectio...artid-264.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Sectio...artid-278.html
The 7200 rpm drive is slightly faster, and uses 20% more power, with the same noise level.
I would go with the 120gb drive myself.
Originally posted by Socrates
Having said that, it is day to day performance issues such as Mail suddenly deciding to stop and think for 5 seconds while I'm writing an email which I'd most like to cut down on. I tend to run about 10 apps at once and mostly everything is smooth but then suddenly it will freeze and stop to think. I guess first and foremost I'd like to stop that happening, but I imagine you'll tell me that the best way is to keep my disk 1/3rd empty, which seems kinda wasteful
Buy a ton of memory to solve the beach ball problem. If you open so many apps, you will use up the memory and start virtual memory swapping (which is slow regardless of what drive you get, hard drives are slow across the board compared to RAM).