Faster hard drive versus faster CPU

uymanuyman
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I was wondering if a faster hard drive in the mini (upgrading to the 5400 rpm from the 4200 rpm) matters more than getting the 1.42 ghz instead of the 1.25. By the way, a lot of this stuff is new to me (I'm using a B&W G3 still). Also, I noticed that some hard drives have 8 or 16 mb of buffer and I'm not sure how that affects speed also. And then there are the 7200 rpm drives. And finally the external firewire 7200 drives.



So my question is, should I just get a 1.25 ghz mini and upgrade the drive or is it still better to get the 1.42? Or the 1.42 w/and external 7200 drive connected with firewire 400 ? Thanks!



uyman

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    uyman

    Quote:

    I was wondering if a faster hard drive in the mini (upgrading to the 5400 rpm from the 4200 rpm) matters more than getting the 1.42 ghz instead of the 1.25. By the way, a lot of this stuff is new to me (I'm using a B&W G3 still). Also, I noticed that some hard drives have 8 or 16 mb of buffer and I'm not sure how that affects speed also. And then there are the 7200 rpm drives. And finally the external firewire 7200 drives.



    So my question is, should I just get a 1.25 ghz mini and upgrade the drive or is it still better to get the 1.42? Or the 1.42 w/and external 7200 drive connected with firewire 400 ? Thanks!



    uyman



    I have a G4 Powerbook 667MHz and I have a fine time running most apps. It's got a 4200rpm 2.5" hard drive in it. I really don't notice that much of a difference over the 7200rpm drives in my PC. I would say that maybe 1.42 vs 1.25 would be a better upgrade than to a 5400rpm drive. I don't think that Apple is offering a 7200 rpm 2.5" drive as an option on their site. This slashdot article may provide some insight.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    The 1.25 mini has a SeaGate 40GB 5400rpm drive with 2MB cache

    The 1.42 mini has a Hitachi 80GB 4200rpm drive with 8MB cache.

    (Faster spindle rotational speed makes the 40GB drive faster at some tasks, more cache makes the 80GB faster at some tasks, depending on usage. YMMV.)



    The Superdrive in the mini is a 4x ±RW with only 2MB cache

    (All drives in the mini are considered "notebook class" in performance)



    CPU performance gain in the 1.42 vs the 1.25 is only about 7%.



    For maximum price/performance, I'd recommend...



    a 1.25 bumped to 1GB RAM.

    an external FW400 7200rpm drive with 8MB cache.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    skatmanskatman Posts: 609member
    Quote:

    It's got a 4200rpm 2.5" hard drive in it. I really don't notice that much of a difference over the 7200rpm drives in my PC.



    Huh? There is either something else really slowing down disk access on your PC, or it's just that you don't notice things like that.



    Modern 7200 RPM desktop drives have over 2X greater sustained transfer rate that 4200 RPM laptop harddrives.



    There is no doubt that getting the latest 5400 RPM drive with high data density (such as Seagate 100 GB or Hitachi 100 GB) will noticably improve your performance over a 4200 RPM drive.



    1.25 GHz vs. 1.42 GHz will matter if you're running your processor at 100 % all the time. However, if you're doing more mondane tasks such as Office work, email, DVD playback, you will not notice the difference.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    One of the limiting factors in the mini may actually be heat.

    Overclockers and modders are risking pushing beyond the fan's capability to cool.

    I wouldn't recommend an internal 7200 for that reason.

    FW will do fine (plus you get an extra bootable device).
  • Reply 5 of 9
    mynameismynameis Posts: 74member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    One of the limiting factors in the mini may actually be heat.

    Overclockers and modders are risking pushing beyond the fan's capability to cool.

    I wouldn't recommend an internal 7200 for that reason.





    Does a 7200rpm HD put off signifigantly more heat than a 5400rpm HD?
  • Reply 6 of 9
    kwsanderskwsanders Posts: 327member
    No, it does not. In fact, the Hitachi 60 gig 7200 rpm laptop drive that I have in my Dell Inspiron 8500 actually uses less power and produces less heat than the original 5400 rpm drive that came in the system.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    skatmanskatman Posts: 609member
    Hard drives are getting more and more power efficient.

    Hitach 7k60 is pretty good, but the new 5k100 and the new 100 GB 5400 RPM seagate use less power.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    uymanuyman Posts: 36member
    Thanks again to everyone for their help. I appreciate it. I think I'll go with the external FW drive (which will double as my backup). Afterall, the purpose of getting the mini is to get something cheap that I can replace without guilt in 2-3 years. This way I can reuse the external HD. The internal 7200's are too expensive for me. Anyway, thanks!

    uyman
  • Reply 9 of 9
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by uyman

    This way I can reuse the external HD. The internal 7200's are too expensive for me. Anyway, thanks!

    uyman



    Well, the laptop (2.5") hard drives that you would need to add to the Mac Mini might be expensive, but if you are going for an external drive, it might be easier to find an external enclosure on tigerdirect.com, zipzoomfly.com or newegg.com and buy and internal 3.5" drive together. Rather than the prepackaged 'external hard drives'. They are the same thing, only with a brand logo and an enclosure style that is unique to the company. I would shop around for both options to see which is cheaper:
    • Buy the hard drive and enclosure separately

    • Buy the hard drive with the enclosure in one package from the hard drive manufacturer

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