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5400rpm vs 4200rpm
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Feb 2001
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Offline
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I am considering to upgrage original 10GB 4200rpm HD to IBM travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5400rpm HD. I am using iBook 500M with 384M.
My question is if I can see overall speed improvement with new HD. In spec, their seek times are both 12ms and buffer size is larger. If I cannot see, I can go cheaper(and, less heat) 40GN 40GB 4200rpm.
Any opinion?
Thanks
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: St. Paul, MN
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It won't be that big of a difference. The biggest change you'll notice is a shorter battery life.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Los Gatos, Ca, U.S.A.
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I beg to differ Check out Barefeats for a comparison on the boot times and performance improvements between the 4200 and the new 9.5mm 5400RPM drives and then make your own decision. I personally have seen improvements to my Tibook with the 60GB IBM and the 40GNX is supposed to be faster because of the 8mb buffer.
I think this is a good holdover for a performance boost compared to buying a new iBook 700, a hard drive is a lot more affordable.
The best improvments are ram and bigger faster hard drives because a larger hard drive with more free space is going to access files quicker than a almost full 10GB or, whatever size HD you have because the more the HD fills up the HD takes longer to find things. Also you need the free space so your HD can be optimized or defragmented.
Markus  
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Santa Ana
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I replaced my 30 gig OEM drive (Ti G4 DVI) with a 32 gig IBM 5400 rpm unit. It is only a bit faster, but digital video is handled much better. I rarely have a dropped frame with it. I would definately do it again.
PeteWK
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
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Barefeats does compare the drives and the 5400 RPM drives are definitely faster. But as far as user experience goes I don't think you'll find a 4200 RPM drive to be noticeably slower since you won't be comparing it to anything else, unless you are doing heavy data transfer stuff like video. It will just do its job and you won't know or care that a 5400 RPM drive might have shaved off a second or two. However, the 4200 RPM drive will use less power than the faster drive so your battery life will be better.
Chris
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: May 2001
Location: NY
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Originally posted by el lindo:
It won't be that big of a difference. The biggest change you'll notice is a shorter battery life.
The IBM gn and gnx drives have the same power consumption. You won't notice a shorter battery life.
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