[SuperGroove]

Hi guys,

I have:
Rev. C Powerbook G4 667 DVI
Firewire 400
768MB RAM
OSX.2
4200RPM HD

I am really tired of the spinning ball everytime I use the msnbc.com website, and the sluggishness of Microsoft Word.

In terms of performance, what is the better performing solutions; an external 7200RPM HD, which maxes out at 35MB/s, or an internal 7200RPM HD?

Thanks,
Paul

[Lateralus]

I'd stick with a 5400 RPM drive. From what I have seen in the benchmarks, the 7200's are nowhere near as fast as their RPM speed would lead you to think they are.

That said, I went from a 4200 RPM drive in my PowerBook G3 back in the day to a 5400 RPM 16MB cache Toshiba drive and the difference was enormous. I'm not sure if it was more due to the jump in RPMs or the massive cache buffer, probably a combination of both. I just know that it was a very substantial jump in performance.

I'd recommend this as a 5400 choice.

Now, if you're set on a 7200, I don't really see any option other than an internal still. Because the way I see it... having an external hard drive defeats the purpose of having a notebook in the first place. They are fundamental opposites. If you're going to have an external HD anchoring you to your desk, you had might as well sell your PowerBook and buy a Power Mac.

Good luck.

[effgee]

Originally posted by SuperGroove:
In terms of performance, what is the better performing solutions; an external 7200RPM HD, which maxes out at 35MB/s, or an internal 7200RPM HD?

read all about it here ...

[rjc3]

I'm not sure you would see any increase in speed on the MSN site with a fast HD. Info from page is coming over internet, not from your drive, so fast drive wouldn't have any effect on load times (AFAIK).
Likewise, I don't think that Word accesses large enough files from the drive for a fast drive to make a difference.
Fast drives give fast speeds when transferring large amounts of data. They are great for working with digital video and the like. Word might access your drive regularly, but only for very small amounts of info. I doubt you'd see any noticable increase in speed with a fast RPM drive.
Instead of a drive with a fast RPM speed (good for transferring large files quickly), look for a drive with fast seek speeds. I'm not sure it will make a noticable improvement, but is more likely to have an impact on what you are doing than a fast RPM drive.
Hope this helps...

[SEkker]

I have to say that in principle HD speeds should not be the bottleneck for internet surfing, word, etc.

But in reality, upgrading my wife's Pismo from a 4200 to a 5400 rpm internal drive made a huge difference -- even bigger than upgrading to Panther from Jaguar.

That and other related experiences have me convinced OS X is a HD hog.

And even on older, OS8 machines, moving from 5400 to 7200 was a noticable and worthwhile upgrade.

Finally, for bulk space, external HDs are essential if you have a powerbook and want to do the occasional video editing, etc. Owning a powerbook means you want flexibility -- like typing this sitting on my bed -- and external HDs, even if that means you will be temporarily tethered to that location for the duration of the project seems acceptable to me.

[echosphere]

edited