Ultra ATA 7200 RPM vs SATA 5400 RPM

Which would have the edge in speed?

Ah, makes sense now. At moment I have two MBP, one with the the 5400 120GB and one with the 7200 100GB. When I first got them the 7200 seemed much faster (booting, copying, etc...). Now after a few days the 7200 is still faster much not nearly as much. At first it was twice as fast, but not only seems about 10 - 20% faster. I have reinstalled OS X to test this out and it's remaining consistant. I'm at a loss why the difference dropped so much, although it was the 5400 going faster not the 7200 slowing. The big difference between the two according to Xbench is that the 7200 scores much faster in reading, 2 to 3x the speed of the 5400. It's doesn't seem as much in real life though, but the Xbench score differences are pretty big.

Similar Messages

  • 7200 rpm vs. 5400 rpm for the new MacBook Pro?

    Hi there,
    I'm ready to buy one of the new MacBook Pros. I was going to go for the 15" 2.0 GH. There's one thing that's difficult to decide. Should I go for the 7200 rpm HD upgrade?
    In principle it would seem that the default 5400 rpm HD would act as a bottleneck for the new and powerful CPUs. I heard some people say, though, that the 5400 rpm HDs are fast enough and that I would not notice any difference. Therefore, spending the extra money on a faster HD would be a waste.
    There is also the concern about battery life. Would a 7200 rpm HD reduce the battery time considerably vs. a 5400 HD?
    Since this would be my work computer, I would not want to sacrifice performance. So, if there is no significant difference in battery life and a considerable gain in performance, I would definitely go for the 7200 rpm option.
    What is your experience and/or opinion? I'm anxiously waiting for your response so that I can go ahead and enjoy the new Mac Book Pro.
    JM

    Thanks for your prompt response japamac. Interesting results. I wonder whether the results for performance, battery usage and temperature for the 7200 rpm that comes as an option in the Apple store would be similar to the ones you got for the 7200 rpm HD you used in your test.
    One question, since the difference is quite remarkable in the synthetic tests for "Media Center", I'm curious to know what real life applications would that relate to.
    Thanks again for your help.
    JM

  • The New Hard Drives - 4200 rpm vs. 5400 rpm?

    Hi,
    Many thanks in advance for your attention.
    The new MacBooks (and MacBook Pros) offer two Hard Drives.
    160GB at 5400 rpm
    and
    200GB at 4200 rpm.
    I do a lot of video editing. Isn't the 4200 (slower) HD inferior?
    Why would more GB be offered at a slower rpm?
    - Ross

    Keep in mind that some drives have perpendicular technology in them, improving their performance even if the rpm is slower. the 160 GB 5400 in the current MBP's is one of those.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpendicular_recording

  • 7200 RPM drive versus 5400 RPM drives

    I'm about to invest in my next laptop and have the following impressions:
    7200 is generally faster for sustained reads/writes and seeks.
    7200 uses marginally more power (0.5 watts) - but is not going to be noticable in terms of heat or battery life (spin down, CPU, lighting are the big draws I presume there)
    What I haven't seen is any comment on noise levels. Has anyone experience or data from the OEM to compare noise levels/frequencies for whatever drives Apple seems to ship these days?
    Thanks!

    Hi, don't know if this will really answer your question but my new MBP just arrived Monday with a 100GB, 7200 RPM drive. I definitely notice the improvement in access time. Noise? I cannot tell the difference, its as quiet as a mouse. Drawing a bit more power but it is negligble. If you can swing it, I would recommend the 7200...Too bad you can't order it in a larger drive size though. 120 would have been nice
    dave

  • 200G 4200 rpm vs 160G 5400 rpm?

    I'm considering a 200G drive for the extra capacity -- it seems like you can never have a drive that's too big. I'd love to be able to partition it for different development/OS environments. But can you get a drive that's too slow? Would I notice the speed difference on a "slower" 4200 rpm drive? Thanks for any thought you might have.

    ...does anyone know the exact model and - most importantly - the exact >seek< time (and throughput) of the different hard drive models...
    You can find most of your answers here:
    <a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://">http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200511/notebook_1.html
    http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200512/ST910021AS_1.html
    http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/12/fujitsus_mhv2200bt/
    Webb
    PM G5 1.8/A 3GB, MBP 2.16, PM G4 DA , iMac600SE, 9600/G4, Older Macs/OS 7-10.3   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   G5 has 2 Raptors, 4X 300GB eSATA. G4 has dual 1.2GHz, 2 X SATA, FW & SCSI drives

  • Speed of SSD vs 5400 rpm Serial ATA

    On the online Apple store the difference between SSD hard drives and the 5400 rpm Serial ATA drive is said to be in durability. How does the speed of the two kinds of drives compare? I know that 7200 rpm is preferred for video editing because the drive can be read faster. Is there any difference in how fast a 5400 rpm drive and an SSD drive can be read? Apple does not mention this on their website, which I think they would do if the SSD drive was faster (which is why I ask).

    That's actually barefeats.com.
    SSDs are in their infancy, and there's a huge range of speeds among the many currently available models. All of them will probably be faster for all purposes than a 5400RPM hard drive, but some are slower in some uses than a 7200RPM hard drive. The fastest and most expensive ones are several times faster than any hard drive in most operations, and somewhat faster than hard drives even in the operations that SSDs perform most slowly. If you are thinking of buying a SSD, I recommend waiting a year: prices then will be half what they are now, and speeds will be uniformly higher, expecially among lower-priced SSDs.

  • How do I know if a core I5 and 5400 rpm drive is ok for me or if I should get a core I7, 7200 rpm dr

    Buying a new laptop.  My old Dell Inspiron is giving up the ghost.
    How do I know if a core I5, 5400 rpm drive is good enough for me or if I should get a core I7, 7200 rpm drive laptop?  Also can I get an I5 with 7200 rpm or an I7 with 5400 rpm?  Need some recommendations.  I am not a computer expert so need some good explanation on what to get and why?  I don't do video games on the laptop.  Mainly use it for mail, Excel, word, internet searches, internet videos, etc.
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    I actually have the Envy Ultrabook is why I asked. HP provided me one for a testing unit so we here on the Forum could keep abreast of their latest offerings. The mSSD accel cache is amazing. It gives ultrafast boot times and hard drive access. It does make the laptop hard to work with for tekkies, but for most users who will not try to monkey around with the OS, like dual boot with Linux or reload with a clean install of your own Windows 7 and other similar stuff it is a great performer...no need for a 7200 rpm drive.

  • 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm on new MacBook pro?

    What is the difference?  Will I really notice it when video editing?  Does it change battery life and longevity?

    About 1800 RPM? But seriously, folks. It's a matter of speed. The 7200 RPM drive will typically be faster at i/o than the 5400 RPM drive. Any activity that requires a lot of disk i/o will benefit from a faster drive.
    Battery life will be slightly but not significantly less - maybe as much as 10 or 15 minutes. There is not a huge difference in power consumption between 5400 and 7200 RPM drives.

  • Is it possible to upgrade from 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm to ssd on the new 13" 2012 macbook pro?

    is it possible to upgrade from 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm to ssd on the new 13" 2012 macbook pro?

    New non-retina 15" MBP, I just replaced the 500 gb HD with a Samsung 830 256 gb SSD from Amazon, $255 for the kit (includes a USB cable).  Wow.  What a difference.  Yes, there was a learning curve for some of it, but was so worth it.  Let me know if I can help.  I'm using the 500 gb in 2 partitions - one for a clone of the SSD, and one for Time Machine.

  • Can I replace the 5400 RPM drive with a seagate 7200 RPM drive in a Lenovo B570

    Hi there,
    I have a Lenovo B570-1068AFU system that comes with a 5400 RPM HDD.  Does this system suppor 7200 RPM HDD upgrades? I would like to replace the current 5400 RPM with a segate 7200 RPM.  Possible?
    Thank you for all your replies.
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    To add a little to what Tanuj said, you may have a (fixable) issue when moving to the new drive.
    Depending on when your laptop was built it may have a legacy (512-byte sector) or Advanced Format (4k-byte sector) hard drive.  Many/most larger drives on the market are AF.   If you migrate from legacy to AF, you may notice that Windows Update has stopped working.  Windows 7 is supposed to handle AF drives correctly, but there are many cases where it doesn't until updated, or an additional driver is installed.  The situation is worse with XP, but also fixable.
    You may well not have any problems with this, but if you do I have some notes and links to fixes over here:
    Windows Update Broken After Cloning Hard drive
    Z.
    The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc.  The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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  • 750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm or 128GB Solid State Drive?

    Ok so im probably going to get the MacBook Pro 15 inch non retina 2.6 GhZ. it comes with 750 GB Serial ATA Drive and im trying to see if it is worth upgrading to the SSD im going to be using it for a lot of video editing (Final Cut Pro/YouTube) as well as streaming videos and using it for class work give me your opinions on what you think would be best to get if im using it for this thanks! (also ahould i upgrade to 2.7 GhZ.??)

    I agree with Bimmer 7 Series.  I did the same SSD update of the 2.5" Hard Drive.  i went from a 750GB 5400 RPM to a 512 GB SSD and used the 750 for additional storage (put in a chassis) and a 4x improvement on performance on the SSD vs. the typical HD. 
    Boot time went from 50seconds to 10 seconds.
    Loading Parallels 7 load of Windows XP Pro was 1:33 minutes to 40 seconds.
    Excel 2010 load time was 25 seconds, now 7 seconds
    iMovie with 40 minute move added to edit/preview- 40 seconds, now 14 seconds.
    These are just a few examples. I have the 2012 13 MBP (2.8Ghz 8GB RAM).

  • 7200 vs 5400 rpm HD

    Hello,
    I'm out of space on my 120gb hd. ifixit.com sells bigger drives. I'll go for either 320gb or 500gb. What are pros/cons of 5400 rpm vs. 7200 rpm? I've heard there's a speed vs power tradeoff.
    Thanks

    The pro is faster access the con is slightly more noise/vibration and possibly a little less battery life depending on use.
    I'd recommend this bundle

  • Option to go from 5400 rpm HD to 7200 rpm? Apple waiting for my phone call.

    Hi,
    My new 15" Macbook Pro is being replaced with a new laptop due to problems. I am in discussion with Apple regarding confirmation of my current laptop specs. When the HD spec was discussed, 5400rpm 500g, I asked about upgrading to a 7200rpm. Apple indicated that would be possible.
    So the question is; is it worth upgrading to the 7200 HD? I heard from a local Apple store that the 7200's can cause heat problems and quick draining of the battery. But they couldn't tell me why. I don't have a lot of confidence in what I was told by then, due to other experiences.
    So, 7200 or 5400? Your opinion would be much appreciated. Upgrade cost btw is only $60. So it's not a money issue.
    Thanks in advance.
    Peter
    Message was edited by: Petermgr

    Unless its bearings are failing, the hard drive temperature sensor will typically show the lowest reading of all the sensors in a MBP, often by a wide margin. How a hard drive could "cause heat problems" is a complete mystery to me. As for power consumption, most users notice no perceptible difference in battery run time after switching from a 5400 to a 7200 RPM drive. Some manufacturers' specifications show nearly or exactly the same power demands for 7200 RPM drives as for 5400s.
    It is likely that you will hear a 7200RPM drive more of the time than a 5400, though it may still be pretty quiet. And it's possible that you will feel more vibration through your hands on the keyboard and wrist rests.
    I wouldn't have Apple upgrade the drive, though. I'd save $60 and have them install a 5400RPM unit, and then I'd spend the $60 and maybe a little more besides to get a bigger 7200RPM drive, install it myself, and use the 5400 RPM drive for backup or extra storage. Then I'd have two drives for $10-$30 more than just the 7200RPM drive would have cost me if Apple had installed it.

  • 5400 RPM HD vs 7200 RPM HD

    Hi all,
    What are the specific advantages of upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive in the Macbook Pro vs. the 5400 RPM drive that comes standard?
    I am a commercial/editorial photographer and am considering obtaining a 17" Macbook Pro for use as a tool on location and in the studio for tethering to my camera so that files can be stored directly to a hard drive and clients can see images that can be manipulated right away on a nice large display. All of my color critical Photoshop work is done on my Mac Pro and cinema display.
    Thanks in advance.
    Best,
    Dennis

    I suggest you have a read through this thread:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659&tstart=0
    I would consider holding off purchasing any Macbook Pros until we know they have fixed the issue that is causing regular clicks, beeps and 30-40 second system freezes.

  • I need to change the internal hard drive for my mac book to a 320 gb, 5400 rpm, 2.5" - suggestions of which to get and where to get it?

    I found this: is this the right one?
    Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BPVT 320GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive

    great thanks--- other than that is this the right thing to get?

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