[IntroVertigo]

Can somebody please explain to me the performance enhancements one could get with a 7200 rpm HD over a 5400 rpm HD?

Also, can I install a 7200 rpm HD on my Macbook? I know that Apple offers a 7200 rpm HD upgrade for the Macbook Pro, but I wasn't sure if it would be compatible with the Macbook.

Thanks in advance.

[Tuoder]

A SATA 7200-RPM HDD should be perfectly compatible with your MacBook. I was thinking of doing the same thing with mine when I get it. It would make any operations that use the HDD alot significantly faster. The old G4 Minis loved HDD upgrades. But then, those started out with 4200-RPM drives.

[brokenjago]

You can if you buy one off the shelf, yes.

The 7200 RPM drive is in theory, faster, but real world tests only show it to be significantly faster with a string of random read/writes to the drive.

[wataru]

I put an 80GB Travelstar 7k100 drive in my iBook and didn't find much of a speed up, if any. I did enjoy the extra space, but it really wasn't worth what I paid for it.

[Simon]

BareFeats has some 7200 vs. 5400 tests.

ANALYSIS AND INSIGHTS
The numbers tell us several things:
1. The 7200rpm internal drive is NOT significantly faster than the stock 5400rpm when doing small RANDOM reads and writes. That implies that it won't give you much advantage for booting and normal operations.

2. Internal drives exhibited higher random write rates than external FireWire drives.

3. If you work on audio or video where large blocks are captured or played back, the 7200rpm internal drive of the MacBook has a clear advantage over the stock 5400rpm internal drive.

3. If you plan to connect a fast 3.5 inch 7200rpm hard drive to the FireWire 400 port of the MacBook Pro, you will lose a lot of speed compared to using the FireWire 800 port of the Powerbook G4. Thankfully, I know of at least two companies who will soon release ExpresCard/34 SATA and/or FireWire 800 products that will allow your MacBook Pro to enjoy truly fast external storage.

[kaido]

7200rpm hard drives are perfectly compatible with the MacBook. See here for a list & general information:

Wired by Nature :: Technical Articles ~ Mod your MacBook

7200rpm drives are faster than 5400rpm hard drives. It all comes down to what you want more of: speed or capacity. 7200rpm drives are only available in up to 100gb. If you opt to go slower, you can get more capacity. Currently 200gb is the largest, but is only 4200rpm. There are also 160gb drives available which run at 5400rpm, as well as 120gb. If you need the capacity, go with 5400rpm. If you need the speed, go with 7200rpm. Avoid 4200rpm unless you really, really need that extra 40gb for the 200gb drive.

[IntroVertigo]

Do the 7200 rpm hard drives consume more power compared to the 5400 rpm hard drives? How does it affect battery life?

[kaido]

Originally Posted by IntroVertigo

Do the 7200 rpm hard drives consume more power compared to the 5400 rpm hard drives? How does it affect battery life?

It reduces battery life by approximately 4 minutes according to tests. No biggie. No heat difference for me over the stock drive either (using a 7200rpm 100gb Seagate drive).

[IntroVertigo]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'm going to stick with the 80 gig 5400 rpm HD for now. Definately going to look for an upgrade at some point in the future.

[Dorkington]

Personally I would just stick with it and buy an external if you need the extra storage. The Price for the difference in space is much more cost effecient imho