[bcaslis]

For anyone interested, I tested on a new MacBook Pro 17" HD the supplied Apple Seagate Momentus 7200 versus the Hitachi TravelStar 7K200. Here are the results:

System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.4.9 (8Q1058)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookPro3,1
Drive Type ST9160823AS
Disk Test 38.20
Sequential 81.46
Uncached Write 96.15 59.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 86.16 48.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 60.24 17.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 95.28 47.89 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 24.95
Uncached Write 7.76 0.82 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 86.78 27.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 84.98 0.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 121.90 22.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]


System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.4.9 (8Q1058)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookPro3,1
Drive Type Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00
Disk Test 44.43
Sequential 80.41
Uncached Write 106.08 65.13 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 92.64 52.42 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 46.81 13.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 122.52 61.58 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 30.69
Uncached Write 10.35 1.10 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 76.16 24.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 80.50 0.57 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 122.39 22.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]


So you see that the Hitachi is both bigger (200GB versus 160GB) and a little faster overall. Noise wise it seems about the same spinning and slightly more noise when the heads are seeking (not much just a little more noticable).

[HenrySeiden]

Interesting, thank you for the testing info. Which one did you keep in the MBP?

[charlespsu]

Thanks for this!

[pinktanku]

Hitachi might have better shock protection, I don't really remember but I trust it more