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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Good new HD for a 12"?

Good new HD for a 12"?
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WizOSX
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Oct 13, 2005, 05:32 PM
 
The hard drive on me 12" 1.33 has been recently diagnosed as very ill and dying. Currently I have a 4200rpm 60gb (stock). I asked the technician about a 7200 and they seemed dubious as to whether that was really a good move due to heat. Has anyone done this and been happy with heat and speed? What is the fastest, quietest 5400 60gb around. The techinician wants to put in a WD 60gb 5400. How's this one?
     
mduell
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Oct 13, 2005, 06:04 PM
 
The power consumption/heat production for 2.5" drives is pretty much the same across all 3 spindle speeds.

I'd go with the 60GB 7200RPM Hitachi 7K60, or Seagate for 5400RPM drives. Also, you may want to think about upgrading to 100GB.

Prices (from Newegg) -
Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM: $173
Seagate 60GB 5400RPM: $102
Seagate 100GB 5400RPM: $177
Seagate 120GB 5400RPM: $249
     
ism
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Oct 13, 2005, 06:21 PM
 
Seagate. 5yr warranty. It's all good. I'd get the 120Gb 5400 rpm or the 100Gb 7200 rpm.
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 13, 2005, 09:42 PM
 
Some people have complained that the Hitachi 7200 was much noisier than your average 2.5 HD. Anyone have one in a 12" and could comment?
     
mduell
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Oct 14, 2005, 12:10 AM
 
Originally Posted by WizOSX
Some people have complained that the Hitachi 7200 was much noisier than your average 2.5 HD. Anyone have one in a 12" and could comment?
Hitachi rates them as follows -
5K100 (5400RPM, up to 100GB):
Acoustics (A-Weighted Sound Power (decibels))
Idle (typ.) 22 - 25
Op (typ.) 24 - 27

7K100 (7200RPM, up to 100GB):
Acoustics (A-Weighted Sound Power (decibels))
Idle (typ.) 26
Op (typ.) 30


So they're a bit louder, but not much.
     
newsushi
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Oct 14, 2005, 12:29 AM
 
The 80GB stock hitatchi in my 12" PB recently bit the dust with no warning at all

So I replaced it with a 100GB Seagate 5400rpm (about $170). It's noticably noisier than the stock drive, but it's not disturbing by any means. Seems fine, and I'm enjoying the extra space.

-NewSushi
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 14, 2005, 11:45 AM
 
I'm divided between two 5400/80gb drives, both of which are about $125 and available immediately locally--a Seagate or a Western Digital. Is either quieter and/or more reliable?
     
mduell
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Oct 14, 2005, 01:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by WizOSX
I'm divided between two 5400/80gb drives, both of which are about $125 and available immediately locally--a Seagate or a Western Digital. Is either quieter and/or more reliable?
The Seagate has a 5 year warranty, the WD does not.
     
tooki
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Oct 14, 2005, 04:09 PM
 
Unquestionably the Seagate. The big difference in warranty alone should make it a no-brainer, since the warranty length gives you a good idea about how much confidence each manufacturer has in its own product.

tooki
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 15, 2005, 09:01 PM
 
Thanks, all, for the help. I'm going for a Seagate for sure over the WD. The Hitachi 7200's are almost impossible to get in Canada right now. Plus, considering my bad luck with the stock drive and mduell's, I'm a little nervous about Hitachi. So my choices now are (all Seagate):

60gb/5400 $138Can ($117 US)
80gb/5400 $149Can ($126 US)
100gb/5400 $199Can ($169 US)
120gb/5400 $255Can ($216 US)

80gb/7200 $269Can ($228 US)
100gb/7200 $379Can ($321 US)


The guy who will install one of them on Tuesday leaned toward the 80 or 100gb/5400. He felt that 120gb or 7200 rpm are really wasted on a notebook--if I were doing the kind of work that required either (which I don't), I'd be using a desktop. I really don't know if the 7200rpm will be that helpful or not--obviously boot time would probably improve by about 10secs (?-my guess). I rarely use large files, mostly internet, Word, Excel, Photoshop occasionally for small jobs but also some use of graphics programs like Canvas. The 7200 would be nice but for and extra $100-140. I don't know.
     
bighead
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Oct 15, 2005, 09:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by tooki
Unquestionably the Seagate. The big difference in warranty alone should make it a no-brainer, since the warranty length gives you a good idea about how much confidence each manufacturer has in its own product.

tooki
Though it is not an indicator of reliability over a large-scale, I've had my Seagate 100GB drive replaced twice since last December. I'm glad that the warranty is 5 years, since I'll probably be using it again within that time period.
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Jamus
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Oct 15, 2005, 10:28 PM
 
Longtime reader, first time caller here....

Oddly enough, I had almost the same problem this past week. My 4200RPM 40GB Hitachi with 2MB cache started going out in my PBook 12". I went with the Toshiba 5400RPM 80GB with 16MB cache as the replacement. I too was worried about heat and battery impact. After using it for just a few days now, I can say I do notice a small battery life hit, and a very slight heat increase, however on the good side I have noticed much better system response. Not improvements with games or Photoshop, but web browsing, windows opening, things like that seem much snappier.

So far the trade-offs have been worth it.
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 15, 2005, 10:39 PM
 
Thanks, Jamus.

Does anyone know what the cache on the 60gb in the 1.33 12" likely had?
     
cSurfr
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Oct 16, 2005, 09:14 AM
 
I just replaced my dead drive with a 100gb 5400RPM seagate w/ 8mb of cache. To be honest I don't notice that much (if any) difference at all. YMMV, but the the drive is solid. And the 5 year warranty is always nice. Wasn't too hard to replace either. There is a guide on pbfixit.com i believe.
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I was David B.
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Oct 16, 2005, 09:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by WizOSX
The hard drive on me 12" 1.33 has been recently diagnosed as very ill and dying. Currently I have a 4200rpm 60gb (stock). I asked the technician about a 7200 and they seemed dubious as to whether that was really a good move due to heat. Has anyone done this and been happy with heat and speed? What is the fastest, quietest 5400 60gb around. The techinician wants to put in a WD 60gb 5400. How's this one?
I have the same drive like you (stock 60 GB Hitachi, 4200 rpm) and replaced it with a 7k60. Its not worth it. The 7k60 is noisier and hardly faster (believe it or not). So I threw it out again.
I would also opt for a Seagate. Warranty is hard to beat and if you search you will find people explain that Seagates 2.5 inch drive are very calm.
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 16, 2005, 07:25 PM
 
Thanks dSurfer and I was for the info. My thinking right now goes like this:

Comparing the 80gb/7200 with the 120gb/5400, if I 'm interpreting the Barefeats and Tom's articles correctly, the higher density on the 120 should mean that those two drives are very close in speed. Since the 120 is $12 cheaper and 50% bigger, the 80/7200 makes no sense at all.

Comparing the 100gb/7200 with the 120gb/5400, at $116 more and 20 less gbs, I'm not sure the 100/7200 really makes sense either. If I want to buy more speed than the 80/5400 or 100/5400 it makes more sense to get it through the higher density at much lower cost. And if the speed increase isn't that significant, with the 120 I've at least got the extra space for my money.

So it really comes down to choosing between the 3 5400rpm drives. Roughly $40 for each of the two jumps. It mainly comes down to speed and resale value--in 18 months of using my 12" with the (now dead) 60gb I only filled half of it. However, I'm still leaning toward the 120/5400.

Does this make sense? Anybody got any counter arguments?
     
I was David B.
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Oct 17, 2005, 04:44 AM
 
The high density drive with 5400 rpm makes much sense. The drive that you have now has only 4200 rpm but due to high density it is astonishingly quick.

So I think any 5400 rpm with high density will do a good job.
If you think about resale value my experience is that people pay more for large slow drives than for small and fast drives.

So the 120GB Seagate with 5400 rpm seems to be a good choice. Thats what I would buy too.
     
WizOSX  (op)
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Oct 21, 2005, 10:03 PM
 
Update--in case it is of use to anyone.

I've had the 120gb/5400 Seagate in my machine for two full days now. It is an excellent drive. Very, very quiet and very fast. Boot time into Tiger, before I loaded any software, was 37 seconds! That's the fastest time for any machine, Windows or Mac, that I've ever had. With software loaded it now takes about 45 seconds which is still quite a bit faster than before. Overall, the machine "feels" faster, although that's always hard to judge--partly because eveything is fresh, new and efficient and also because I was using old, slow Macs while waiting for the drive to be put in. Specifically, I was using my Beige Desktop (upgraded to 533mhz G4) and my 7600 (upgraded to 300mhz G3) in 10.2.8. So now everything feels like lightening. I'm amazed, however, that those machines can still pinch hit when necessary (which is why I keep them around).

Thanks, all, for the help.
     
ism
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Oct 22, 2005, 08:34 AM
 
Originally Posted by WizOSX
Update--in case it is of use to anyone.
Congrats, ace choice
     
I was David B.
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Oct 23, 2005, 02:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by ism
Congrats, ace choice
thanks for your answer in the other forum (12 inch what to buy).

In the meantime I have found performance measurements that compare the 100 and 120 GB/5400 rpm seagate with the 7200 rpm seagate. You find this info comparing results from Toms hardware guide with barefeats measurements.

It roughly shows that the 120 GB/5400 rpm drive is a little faster than the 100 GB/5400 rpm drive.
The 7200 rpm drive is the fastest, but only 10% ahead compared to the 120 GB drive.
     
ism
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Oct 24, 2005, 05:23 AM
 
Cool, good find. I didn't look into it in too much detail. I might have gone with a 7200rpm drive, but I couldn't find any in stock when I needed a new drive and I wanted to be up and running as quick as possible.

Saying that, I'm already down to about 15Gb free space so the extra 20 Gb the 5400rpm drives provide is useful. Time to clear out some stuff.
     
   
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