[HelloNateR]

Is the 7200 rpm HD worth a 20GB sacrifice in size? I'm after the best performance for my applications, and so the whole battery life discussion is moot for me. Which is better?

[brokenjago]

From what I've heard, the only real-world diofference between 5400 and 7200 RPM drives is random read/write times. Everything else is pretty much the same.

If random read/writes are what you need, the 7200 is what I'd go for.

[Salty]

7200rpm is what I'll be getting in my next laptop. It's painful that some tasks can actually be faster on my old VERY old iMac than my newish PowerBook.

[mduell]

Sustained transfer rates of contiguous are about the same (spinning faster vs high areal density), but the 7200RPM drive is faster for seeks, random read/writes, and non-contiguous transfers. If you need speed, 7200RPM is the way to go; I doubt you'll miss the extra 20GB.

[lafiamma]

under what circumstances would the computer extensively use random read/write times? and with regards to non-contiguous transfer, isn't all file nowadays saved non-contiguously?

probably someone could suggest under what real-world task would we benefit most from the 7200 HD, given let say the memory doesn't play a part in the equation? Eg video editing, image manipulation like in photoshop, transfering small files / large files from one hard disk to another etc. Thanks.

[mduell]

Off the top of my head:
Copying your MP3 collection to another drive (~0.25 seconds per MP3).
Creating thumbnails of your photo collection in iPhoto (again, some fraction of a second per photo).
Jumping from one part to another in a large video file.

[iDORK]

I just got the new PB 15" with Seagate 100GB 7200RPM and it is FAST compared to my previous PB with Hitachi 5400RPM.

Check out this roundup review on 12 hard drives including the 7200RPM Hitachi and Seagate.

[mrmister]

The long and the short is that you will definitely notice the speed bump with a 7200rpm drive, on the order of 20% faster.