X301: 250 GB 5400 rpm vs 128 GB Solid State Performance - How Much Difference?

Any idea about how much faster XP Pro will boot with the 128 GB solid state drive vs the 5400 rpm 250 GB drive? And for apps like Word and Excel how much performance difference will there be when launching the apps (doesn't seem like it could be much more than a second or two)? Any idea of the real world performance for writes and reads in terms of Bytes per second? Any users have expereince with both drives using X301s?

The answer to your implied question, "Is 128GB big enough?" is Yes, 128GB is big enough for a Boot Drive.
Mac OS X may only take up 8 to 10GB, but developer tools adds a lot and if you install big Photo or Video Editing tools you might quickly end up at 40GB including Applications.
Mac OS X needs a Swap file and some Paging files as well, and if you do not have enough your Mac Pro will get really weird.
64GB is getting too close for comfort -- effectively too small.
128GB is NOT enough to also store your Photo collection, substantial Tunes Library, or Video editing files. If you have any of those, you will need to move them to a different drive, or get a MUCH larger and more expensive drive, or keep the bulk of them on an external drive that stays on your desk.
You also need a Backup Drive.

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128 GB solid state vs. actual available

How much storage is actually available to a user with a 128 GB solid state drive? I was led to believe from Best Buy that the OS takes up space (i.e. a user's storage space is less than 128) but an Apple representative via chat told me 128 GB is the available storage for a user regardless of the OS. I am confused. Who's right?

The answer to your implied question, "Is 128GB big enough?" is Yes, 128GB is big enough for a Boot Drive.
Mac OS X may only take up 8 to 10GB, but developer tools adds a lot and if you install big Photo or Video Editing tools you might quickly end up at 40GB including Applications.
Mac OS X needs a Swap file and some Paging files as well, and if you do not have enough your Mac Pro will get really weird.
64GB is getting too close for comfort -- effectively too small.
128GB is NOT enough to also store your Photo collection, substantial Tunes Library, or Video editing files. If you have any of those, you will need to move them to a different drive, or get a MUCH larger and more expensive drive, or keep the bulk of them on an external drive that stays on your desk.
You also need a Backup Drive.

500 gb 7200rpm hard drive vs 128 gb solid state drive

I am considering buying a macbook pro laptop the 15 inch with the i7 processor. I will probably get the anti glare screen. What I am on the fence about is whether it is worth the extra money to get the solid state drive or the 7200 rpm drive. I would like something that might be faster than the standard 5400rpm drive, I have read these are laptop drives & they are a bit slower than a 7200rpm drive which seems to be standard in desktops. With performance & speed being very important to me; (I will be doing video editing in both standard def & high def) I would consider upgrading the hard drive to the 7200 rpm or the solid state. Another factor is the hard drive capacity, this is not as big an issue as I keep most of my content on external hard drives.
I need a little help in deciding, I am new to macs I am coming from a 7 year old windows xp home desktop PC. this will be one of my biggest purchases.
would I feel a big difference in performance getting the solid state drive? would it be a lot better than the 7200rpm drive? or should I just stick with the stock 5400rpm drive?
If anybody knows of any issues or known failures with one of the hard drives, I would like to be clued in as, this computer will have to last me at least 5 years, I am getting a one time allotment of financial aid from my school, I want to make the right choice.
Message was edited by: Sossity

I bought a 160 Gbyte Intel SSD, replaced the internal drive and that in a case to use as an external. I also have an SSD in my Mini. Using an SSD is a major improvement. Fragmentation is no longer an issue. Applications start up very fast, some instantaneously. The computer starts up in less than 10 seconds. In short, all operations requiring disc reads are lightning fast. There really is no downside, unless you are bothered by using an external drive for very large files (but then, you would probably use an external drive for that purpose regardless).
The Intel SSD may be above your budget (it is about twice the price for 160 Gbytes than the built to order with 128 Gbytes). If that is the case, just get the built to order and you can add an external drive for very little money if an when you need it.
I bought a 15" i7 and used it for a couple of days before I swapped the drives. In comparison, the stock drive made the computer feel sluggish. With the SSD, it is snappy, fast and responsive.
Others may disagree, but personally I do not believe that you will get anywhere near the improvement with a 7200 rpm drive. The SSD is tops. Also, by the way, they are silent, which I like.

My X301 with solid state Hard disk lost all data

Hello all people, excuse my poor english i try to explain my problem.
1.- I have a Lenovo x301 (type 2776-TMU) with a 128 Gygabites solid state hard disk (Samsung MMCQE28G8MUP-0VAL1)
2-The sympton is: Lost all data of the hard disk and apears 0 partitions and 0 bytes used.
3.- I run all type of diagnostics and all pass OK.
4. I restore windows,aplications etc. and all work fine, but in any random time, the hard disk lost all info and another time apear 0 Partition and 0 bytes used.
5. I try to install, bios, firmware or any update of the lenovo web, and no resolve my problem.
6.- In a last chance install via dvd a fresh instalation with oem windows 7, and present the same sympton of point 4.
7.- I change parameters on the bios setup of the SATA interface (ochi or compatible) with the identical result of the 4 point.
How you understand, i have a big problem and desesperate, but i not sure if my hard disk is of the problem, or the mother board, any firmware, etc.
Any have idea in how attack o determine exactly the origen of my problem?
Thanks and regards all people.
atn, Miguel Angel Borbolla Bonomi
Moderator note; e-mail address removed to stop the spambots getting it

Sounds like a faulty SSD. Return for warranty repair/replacement.
T61p, T400
formerly x23, x40

Hi everyone I have a macbook pro mid 2010 17'' 2.66 i7 looking to put a new hard drive in it something like a 250 gb , orig drive 500 gb 5400 toshiba but i don;t really need that much space so i would like some input, type,speed,brand,compatibly,noise

I have a macbook pro mid 2010 17'' 2.66 i7 looking to put a new hard drive in it something like a 250 gb , orig drive 500 gb 5400 toshiba but i don;t really need that much space so i would like some input, type,speed,brand,compatibly,noise Thank You!!

There's no reason to install a smaller hard drive. In some cases, it may decrease performance.
Your MacBook Pro comes with a 5400 rpm hard drive, so what you can do is to install a smaller, 7200 rpm hard drive, so you will get a better performance. Any 2'5" SATA hard drive will work, but you can have a look at OWC for hard drives > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
HGST and Seagate hard drives have a good reputation, so you can purchase one of them

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?

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.
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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.

Can I replace 5400 rpm hd with my own brand of ssd?

I am buying 13" Pro and want to know if I can replace the stock 5400 rpm drive that comes in it with my choice of ssd?
Thanks very much for any help.

Agreed... an SSD can make a system seem much faster. The impact can actually be more significant on lower end machines. With an SSD, booting into OS X is nearly as fast as waking from sleep. It's a significant improvement. You just have to decide if the limited capacity and premium price is worth it to you.

The big 7200rpm vs 5400 rpm debate

I'm planning to buy a 2.2ghz Macbook Pro. I would get one with 2Gb of RAM and the 160Gb 7200 rpm HD, but now someone I know had already bought the standard config (2.2 Ghz, 2Gb, 120 5400 rpm) through his company but he's selling it because he'd rather use the money he gets from it to buy a 24"" iMac. I would be using the MBPro for iLife, Parellels with Win2K, and possibly Ubuntu Linux. I'm not one to store thousands of songs or photos on my mac, because I'd be buying an external HD for that. He's offering me the MB Pro for a reduced price (a bit above the price of the Black Macbook with a 160Gb HD). I also plan to buy Starcraft 2 when it's released and will also be playing Freespace Open heavily. Will I regret not getting the 7200rpm drive or is the 5400 rpm drive more than fast enough for everything but high-end stuff ?

Probably not. However, if you do regret it the saving should be enough for you to go out a buy one and swap them over giving you the 5400rpm drive to put in an external case.

WD scorpio blue 500GB doesn't run at 5400 rpm constantly

Hello there
I dit upgrade my macbook late 2007 with a 500 GB wd scorpio blue disk and i noticed that it will not run constantly at its 5400 rpm but keeps running sloweren then faster and so on and so on. Not only is the sound anoying but i notice that it affects the preformance while it has to speed uo for a task. is there al slution for thos problem. I just want it to run at a constant 5400 rpm like my previous disk dit.

Those drives like other "green" drives use variable speed motors to reduce energy consumption. It's something you'll have to bear. Open your Energy Saver prefs and turn off the option to spin down drives when idle.

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.

5400 rpm v. 7200 rpm

Does anyone have first hand experience to how much slower the 5400 is? is it THAT noticable?
and does the 7200 really hog THAT much more energy/battery life than a 5400?
thankkk you.

Here's a pretty good article in reference to your post:
http://barefeats.com/rosa06.html
IMHO, get an external Firewire 7200 rpm drive and fuhgettaboutit.

5400 rpm vs. 7200rpm HD for Premiere

Going to switch from FCP to Premiere and I am looking at purchasing an iMac with a 5400rpm HD. The system requirements say it should be a 7200rpm HD. Will Premiere run properly on a 5400 rpm HD or should I consider upgrading the HD?5400rpm vs. 7200rpm

.....before spending a lot of money, if your are SERIOUS about using premiere pro....you MAY want to consider a Windows machine instead of an Apple product. Some people are wedded to the Macs....if you are one of them do a lot of reading first about which machine you buy and how it is configured. An NVidia GPU is a MUST.....multiple hard drives is a MUST, best to have SATA III SSDs and at least 32GB system memory....good luck !

Will using a 5400 rpm drive for the os/application be a problem?

I have an iMac that has a 5400 rpm drive that has FCP and Mac OS on it. Video will be edited from a connected FW 800 drive. Will the 5400 primary drive be a problem?
Thanks.

Did you install this as a replacement drive? AFAIK, iMacs have 7200 system drives.
But to your 5400 boot drive question, there are many FCP users happily editing with MBPs; I'd guess the majority of those laptops are 5400…I know mine is.
Russ

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.

X301: 250 GB 5400 rpm vs 128 GB Solid State Performance - How Much Difference?

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