[Sophus]

The Xbench score of my disk OEM iBook 60 GB 4200 rpm 2MB cache disk is really lousy compared to my upgraded Cube (segate barracuda 4, 120GB).

I have noticed that a 5400 rpm 100GB notebook drive is about to be released for consumers soon. I have also noticed that Hitachi sell a 5400 rpm 80GB (5K80) Travelstar drive and also a 60GB 7200 rpm Travelstar drive (7K60) that fits the iBook, both have 8MB cache versus the 2MB cache of the OEM drive.

Does anyone have any experiences with 5400 or the 7200 rpm 8MB cache drives in the iBook? I am most concerned about the impact on battery life and whether there is a real performance gain in upgrading. xBench results from any upgraders?

I already have a 60GB OEM, but it is filling up fast, so I am tempted to go for a 80GB 5400 rpm with 8MB cache, if it will perform noticeably better than the 4200 rpm 2MB cache that comes OEM. Space vs. speed, of course the 7200 60GB is temting as well...

Any advice or observations to share?

Thanks!

[york28]

I replaced the stock 10 gig 4200 in my iBook 500 with a new IBM 40 gig 5400, and there was a very noticable difference. I've hear that higher RPM drives use more battery power, but I don't know the details. I would reccommend it 100%, if you want to take the risk.

The tough part is not deciding to do it, though, it is getting the case apart and back together. There are some excellent tutorials online, assuming that there haven't been any drastic changes to the iBook's internal design in the last few years.

Edit: This is purely observational, I never cared to take and XBench tests.