Upgrade to 250GB 5400 or 200GB 7200

My MacBook Pro is starting to run out of disk space since I have a lot of graphics and also a lot of applications on my Boot Camp partition. There are two very good options available from OWC: 250GB 5400 8mb cache from Western Digital for $250 or 200GB 7200 17mb from Hitachi for $310. I like the speed and larger cache from Hitachi but its hard to pass up and extra 50GB for $60 less.
I do a lot of Photoshop with pretty big files, maybe 50 mb or so, and running Parallels simulatneously.
Thanks for any suggestions, I know I've got to make up my own mind but any input is appreciated, especially on the quality/speed of the Western Digital drive.

I wouldn't say the speed difference isn't noticeable... but unless you have a major need for that boost in speed, I'm not sure I think spending $60 more for 50GB less storage is really worth it. Especially considering the work involved in replacing the drive in the MacBook Pro. If you go with the smaller, but faster drive... regardless of how fast it is, it is still going to have 50GB less of storage. If you start to run out of space again, you may find yourself wishing you had that extra 50GB vs. a faster drive with no space left.
It really comes down to what you need it for. I'm a pretty big fan of external drives. You can keep your internal drive lean and mean by keeping everything you don't need to have on the road with you on a 7200 RPM external unit with a desktop drive in it. You get tons more storage for much less than a new 2.5" notebook drive (which would likely have much less storage for a bit more money... at the prices you're looking at, you can get a 750GB external drive). Another good option is to go with a bus powered external drive with a 2.5" drive (I would recommend a firewire one as the power supplied from the firewire port tends to be more reliable). These drives offer you extra storage and are small enough not to be too inconvenient to carry around (especially if you have a carry case for your MacBook Pro).

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  • Upgrading Hard Drive from 200GB (7,200rpm) to 320GB (7,200rpm)

    I very much would like to upgrade the hard drive in my MacBook Pro 17" from the supplied 200GB 7,200rpm to the newer larger capacity of the 320GB 7,200rpm being recently made available.
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    Model Name: MacBook Pro
    Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
    Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache: 6 MB
    Memory: 4 GB
    Bus Speed: 800 MHz
    Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
    SMC Version: 1.28f1
    As you can see my Model Identifier is: MacBookPro4,1
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    The WD Scorpio Black 7K 320G (320GB 7,200rpm)
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    The new Seagate Momentus 7200.4 with 500GB of storage, 7200rpm and 9.5mm thickness
    or maybe any other very Large capacity and fast operational drive that may improve over the three drives mentioned above.
    All help and confirmation is very appreciated, thanx..

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