5400 rpm is it worth it?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hi everyone new to this board.

I am going to buy the new 1 GHz Tibook, yummy. But I am wondering about the harddrive. Is it worth the extra cash to invest in a 5400 rpm harddrive, will I notice any diffrence? and the 7200 rpm from IBM...
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    7200 in a notebook drive? That's news to me. OH well.



    Anyway, the 5400 makes a huge speed difference over the 4200 rpm model. When it comes to loading programs and starting up the OS, the 5400 is a big plus. I imagine that the 7200 adds to this bonus, but make sure to check the power dissipation numbers. Don't get something that draws more watts than what you have.
  • Reply 2 of 31
    My new Powerbook is going to be first Apple computer. Which 5400 RPM drive should I buy if I was going to upgrade it? Are there directions to do such an upgrade, including hardware installation and directions on reinstalling OSX and OS 9.1.



    Thanks,

    -Chris



    [ 11-10-2002: Message edited by: sunkist ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 31
    [quote]Originally posted by sunkist:

    <strong>My new Powerbook is going to be first Apple computer. Which 5400 RPM drive should I buy if I was going to upgrade it? Are there directions to do such an upgrade, including hardware installation and directions on reinstalling OSX and OS 9.1.



    Thanks,

    -Chris



    [ 11-10-2002: Message edited by: sunkist ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You'll want to get a IBM TravelStar. They are fairly easy to install - remove the bottom case, swap out the drives, install the OS from the original restore CDs. However, 60GB Travelstars at 5400rpm are not cheap. Expect to spend around $360. <a href="http://www.newegg.com"; target="_blank">www.newegg.com</a> has some of the best prices I've seen.



    The 7200rpm Travelstars are not out yet, and word is that the faster the drive, the lesser the life span.
  • Reply 4 of 31
    [quote]Originally posted by Mr. Fantastic:

    <strong>



    You'll want to get a IBM TravelStar. They are fairly easy to install - remove the bottom case, swap out the drives, install the OS from the original restore CDs. However, 60GB Travelstars at 5400rpm are not cheap. Expect to spend around $360. <a href="http://www.newegg.com"; target="_blank">www.newegg.com</a> has some of the best prices I've seen.



    The 7200rpm Travelstars are not out yet, and word is that the faster the drive, the lesser the life span.</strong><hr></blockquote> Do I want the 2.5inch, 12.5mm Height version?



    Thanks,

    -Chris
  • Reply 5 of 31
    The 12.5 mm will fit, but the 9mm is an easier install, and is less prone to vibrating the case.



    Here's another option: Get a faster, external FW drive for less, keep the stock drive.
  • Reply 6 of 31
    [quote]Originally posted by Splinemodel:

    <strong>Here's another option: Get a faster, external FW drive for less, keep the stock drive.</strong><hr></blockquote> So for everyday OSX, email, web surfing, maybe some coding, looking at pictures and watching movies and stuff, the 4200 rpm won't make my 1ghz seem like a slow poke?



    Thanks,

    -Chris
  • Reply 7 of 31
    I personally saw a huge performance increase when I popped a 5400rpm HD into my notebook. Also, the new faster HDs are much quieter too.



    Toshiba is coming out with a thin 60GB 9.5mm 5400rpm HD if 12.5mm is too much of a tight fit. Do both sizes fit in the iBook as well?
  • Reply 8 of 31
    Toshiba also makes drives with liquid bearings and rather large cache memory. The larger cache seems to make a really big difference in performance. The liquid bearings mean the drive runs quiet and stays quiet. I've had lots of problems over the years with drives that gradually get noisy. The Toshiba 40GB I installed last June is still running silent. Look at their website to get the model numbers.
  • Reply 9 of 31
    klinuxklinux Posts: 453member
    [quote]Originally posted by sunkist:

    <strong> So for everyday OSX, email, web surfing, maybe some coding, looking at pictures and watching movies and stuff, the 4200 rpm won't make my 1ghz seem like a slow poke?



    Thanks,

    -Chris</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I do not know about how OS X handles things but CNET in a recent article said that in their findings (and to the dismay of HD manufacturers), they find little difference in real-world perfomance doing those tasks you listed above with a 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM or 2MB vs 8 MB cached drives. However, they also mentioned that the good news is that there is little price difference in those drives anyway. So this answers your "is my HD fast enough for the CPU" question.



    However, I would advise against putting a more expensive, faster, and hotter drive in your machine for possbily insignificant speed gain. I agree with the suggestion of getting a 7200 RPM FW external drive.
  • Reply 10 of 31
    [quote]Originally posted by Patchouli:

    <strong>Toshiba is coming out with a thin 60GB 9.5mm 5400rpm HD if 12.5mm is too much of a tight fit. Do both sizes fit in the iBook as well?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Unfortunately, the iBook can only house 9.5mm drives.
  • Reply 11 of 31
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    Could you link to that CNET article?



    I saw a huge speed increase going to a 5400rpm drive, so I'm very interested in seeing info that conflicts with that, since I honestly can't tell what is accurate and what is perceived speed.



    Also, I haven't used the 4200 rpm drive in a long time.
  • Reply 12 of 31
    klinuxklinux Posts: 453member
    <a href="http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-6014-8-20069949-1.html"; target="_blank">http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-6014-8-20069949-1.html</a>;



    Not a comprehensive test but a good indicator, IMHO.
  • Reply 13 of 31
    So, if th Pbook is th road warrior's "studio-to-go" how come Apple has downgraded to a slower drive? i woulda thought drive speed kinda crucial for video capture, or does it not matter (anymore)? & is a mouse th essential accessory for th ~Books? video is gonna be my frontline use for anxiously awaited Pbook so i'm interested in th drive issue. downunder here in little ol' NZ Apple resellers always hit us with a large premium so that th cheapest iBook costs $NZ3000 = $US1500+, while th GHz PBook is gonna sting me $NZ8100 = $US4100 without xtras (no RAM deals here). yes, you read it right - over $US4000 for th nu Powerbook with base configuration, & a $US 500 premium just whacked onto th iBook!! Howcum? Cos they can...u can imagine what this does to th public's perception of Apple computers as overpriced underperformers when PCs are priced very competitively - eg Compaq Notebook AMD 1800+ MHz for $US2200, anybrand desktop AMD 2000+ for $US 1400 etc etc ad nauseam. sorry bbout th moan, but what can anyone tell me about HD speeds & video capture on th Powerbook?
  • Reply 14 of 31
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    As I suspected--that article is all about desktop drives, where i agree there is a performance plateau. Sadly, laptops aren't quite there yet, and there are still pretty major differences in speeds.
  • Reply 15 of 31
    Ok this has been talked about a lot other forms so I will sum it up.

    The new drives have a slower RPMs but Higher density. Thus they are able to move more data faster with less power. (about 5 megs more [33-38megs] a sec with %15 less power) So whatever you do DONT waste your money on downgrading your HD.
  • Reply 16 of 31
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    [quote]Originally posted by maclogic:

    <strong>...will I notice any diffrence?...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    YES!!! I have tried the 40GNX from IBM (there are two models, in 20 and 40 GB) and the difference is more than visible. The benefit from such drives is substantial in disk intensive processes. I find pricing for a 20 GB model reasonable.
  • Reply 17 of 31
    thentro - thank you for that clear & simple answer
  • Reply 18 of 31
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    thentro--could you let me know where this was definitely proven in the other fora? I have been reading them too, and looking at the tech specs from Fujitsu, and there are still comments (like Apple's assertion that to get 8MB/sec for uncompressed video you need 5400rpms) that make me suspicious that this is so open and shut.
  • Reply 19 of 31
    The Fujitsu drive in question was just released today so Fujitsu's info might have not caught up yet on the webpage. But the old drives from IBM are about 5 megs slower and the disks are bigger (acording . I read the release earlier but I cant find it now <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> can some one else?
  • Reply 20 of 31
    jmpjmp Posts: 31member
    Fujitsu drive info (no transfer rate in the spec sheet , but the article lists it as 38.1MB/s max) and latency is 7.14ms



    <a href="http://pcworld.shopping.yahoo.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,102947,00.asp"; target="_blank">http://pcworld.shopping.yahoo.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,102947,00.asp</a>;



    <a href="http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/download/hard-drives/mhs4200rpm-datasheet.pdf"; target="_blank">http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/download/hard-drives/mhs4200rpm-datasheet.pdf</a>;



    The old Travelstar 60GH 60GB 5400RPM drive has a max rate of 262Mbits/8=32.75MB/sec and latency of 5.5 ms (from IBM spec sheet T60gh40gn_ds.PDF)



    Longwinded version of the above (crossposting from MacNN):

    "An earlier post indicated that the drive in the new powerbooks is a fujitsu. According to this article linked below, the maximum transfer rate for the Fujitsu MHS 4200 is 38.1 MB per second (media density is very high at 53.2 gigabits per square inch).





    According to the spec sheet listed below, the IBM 60GH (the 60GB model available build-to-order in the previous Ti) has a maximum transfer rate of 262 Mbits/sec and areal density of 28 gigabits per square inch (I think this means 262/8=32.75MB/sec).



    So if I understand this correctly, the max transfer rate of the new standard 60GB drive on the new powerbooks is actually ~5MB/sec faster than the old, build-to-order-and-pay-a-couple-hundred-bucks-extra drive available in the 667/800 Ti. This is due to the fact that although the drive spins slower, the areal density is much higher so for the same amount of disk spin the heads pass over many more blocks."



    Edit: Fixed typo (fortunately the IBM 60GH does not have a latency of 5.5 SECONDS)



    [ 11-13-2002: Message edited by: jmp ]</p>
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