MacBook Pro :: Which Has More Bang For Buck? SSD Or 7200
Jul 21, 2009
Bang for buck wise which has a better speed to price ratio? I'm not talking about benchmarks, I'm talking about noticeable performance. I heard some people say that 5400 drives are so fast nowadays that even 7200 drives can sometimes be slower. Is this true?
Also, if it's a 7200 drive, is it cheaper to BTO straight from Apple the 7200 drive? Rather than buy aftermarket? (bearing in mind that I don't need the space of the two drives, so if I buy aftermarket the old drive will end up being unused )
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Jul 30, 2009
I'm really liking the thought of having an SSD drive in my new 13" MBP but I don't have a clue as to which one I should choose.
my budget is somewhere in the 250-ish range. so I'm hoping some of you pros can suggest something good in that price range.
I see alot of them are SATA II. can our MBPs use these or do I need to stick with just the regular SATA drives?
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Nov 5, 2010
The title says it all - getting a 2.4Ghz 13" MBP, 4GB Ram (rarely if ever need more), and thinking of a little boost somewhere over the 500GB 5400RPM drive. $300 for a 128GB SSD is pretty high, especially considering I'll probably max that out far too quickly. Is there any bigger bang for the buck performance upgrade over the Momentus XT?
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Mar 21, 2010
have MROOGLED and searched forums but haven't found a quick and dirty answer to this...
What's the best bang-for-buck upgrade of these?
1) Software Raid 0 ?
(Free, but might actually slow some tasks due to adding a workload to the processor?)
2) Add RAM ?
($150 to bump from 3GB DDR3 to 6GB, $300 to bump to 10 GB)
3) Hardware RAID 0 ?
($800 for the apple controller - yikes! )
I read Lloyd Chambers recs for optimizing photoshop, and while very helpful, it seems overkill for a weekend warrior , non professional like me.
Using the base 2009 Mac Pro with standard 3GB of DDR3 primarily for
1) medium photoshopping with file sizes up to 200 - 400 MB
2) importing / smoothing / editing movies in iMovie and possibly FCE from HDV tapes and a Flip
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May 10, 2010
I recently bought the new 13" MBP and have been looking at upgrades. I bought it standard so I could walk out with it that day, but I've been thinking about two main changes: RAM and a SSD hard drive. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the Intel X25-M 160gb SSD, it looks like the best GB per $ ($424 for 160GB). I know that will show great results. Is a RAM upgrade also necessary for improved speed and performance? If so what is the best RAM to change to? I'm looking at either getting 1 4GB card for a total of 6GB or getting the pair for 8GB. I don't want to drop $300+ if it isn't going to do much for me.
I mostly use the MBP for word processing, internet, email, etc.; but I want a bit snappier and quicker performance than what I'm getting out of stock. It is possible (likely) I will get into music making/mixing on this machine.
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Oct 6, 2010
I got two questions.
1) What would you guys say the best bang for your buck FireWire 800 is? I hear a lot of differing opinions on this one, so I'd like a couple suggestions, need over 500GB though. 750GB and up would probably be the best.
2) I've got 2 PATA hard-drives from my old Windows PC that crashed, what would you guys suggest doing about getting the data off of them? Most of the hard drive kits I found are for SATA, and the one I found for PATA was like $50 at Best Buy, I just want to get the data off these hard drives and junk 'em. I don't need bells and whistles and fancy enclosures.
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Sep 20, 2010
I want to replace my 3 year old drives before it's too late.
I have about 200 gigs of data, split between a pair of Seagate Baracuda 7200rpm drives I bought 3 years ago.
I am thinking on going with a single 500 gig drive for my data, and I can't decide between a Caviar Black, or a Baracuda 7200.12.
I have read that the Caviar Black have incredible performance, , but only for the 1TB since it has 3 platters.
How do the 500gig models compare between WD and Seagate? I just don't have the need for more. My OS and Apps are on the SSD at 23 gigs, and all the rest of my work/personal files take up about 200 gigs.
Which is going to be better, the Black, or the Baracuda? 500 gig models only.
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Sep 22, 2010
For not much extra (price wise), I can opt for the 7200 rpm hardrive.
Is it worth the upgrade? How much does the 7200 rpm drive affect battery life compared with 5200 rpm in the latest Macbook Pros?
I've heard manufacturers say the difference between the two doesn't in any way affect battery life.
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Oct 12, 2010
I'm heading off to college in the fall of next year and I have a feeling I'll be buying a MacBook Pro; I'm already saving some cash for this purpose. My question is whether I should be getting a 128 Gb SSD or a 500 Gb 7200 RPM disc. Speed is the real issue as I don't expect to take up much more than 50 Gb. So, should I go SSD or not?
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Aug 28, 2009
I am initially purchasing a new 15" Pro with the hope to eventually get a 160 GB Intel SSD for the Optical Drive. So until I do that, I will use the purchased drive for data and the bootable OS.
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Sep 14, 2009
What I want to know is that if I replace my 160 GB 5400 RMP HDD with a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD in my MacBook Pro 13' the noise level and vibration become much stronger ?
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Dec 31, 2009
So I have my new MBP specced out ready for Jobbsy's announcement 26 Jan, principally including 7200 rpm drive - and now I find they're dodgy! I particularly wanted a fast drive for music production but I gather they're glitchy in a bad way. Are they all bad?
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Apr 28, 2010
I know there is already a thread about which is better, but I figured itd be nice to see who ended up getting which. I ordered with a 7200, probably don't need it though.
Why did you choose the option you did? Do you think you'll need it? Do you notice the speed increase?
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Sep 1, 2010
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Upgrading my 13" MBP hard drive with OWC's kit.
Should I get a 1TB @ 5400RPM or 500GB @ 7200RPM?
I'm guessing 1TB.
Also, is it safe to do the 8GB RAM kit?
I deal with video and motion graphics.
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Sep 25, 2010
Just received the new Macbook Pro 17" with I7 option as well as the 7200rpm HD 500gb. The machine works great so far. However, there is a slight vibration I can feel on the aluminum in front of the keyboard and basically across the machine, though when I moved it from a glass table to a wooden desk it was much decreased. The machine is also much noisier than I thought it would be, though I did know when I went for the 7200 option that it might be noisier.
Is this normal because of the HD or I7 chip? I can return the machine and exchange it, but the anti-glare screen seems ok with no pixel problems, etc., so I don't want to look for trouble without a benefit.
Is it possible this is not the HD? (vibration and noise does seem to emanate from the left side-I believe it is a Seagate, ID starts with ST)
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Jan 27, 2008
As a lot of people on these forums are, I am waiting for the next updated MacBook Pro. I want to get the fastest hard drive I can, but I want to ask the people who use the 7200 RPM HDDs if they can notice a difference, and if so how beneficial is it? Its really not a problem to pay the 250 for the 200GB 7200 option (and I do want to do that thru Apple because I want my hard drive under warranty) but I do recall hearing complaints that the 7200 RPM is louder, etc. So here is the basic question. How much faster is the 7200 and is it worth the upgrade? For background, I do Visual Effects/3D Animation. I use the Mac Pro for most of that and will sometimes use the MBP for that kind of work.
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Mar 8, 2009
I just wanted to do a quick writeup of what I've learned from upgrading my 2006 White Macbook from a 60gb 5400 Seagate drive (came with it) to the 7200 RPM 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio Black.
First of all, there's some discussion of whether the new drive vibrates, and the answer is yes it does to some degree. The 5400 isn't even perceptible, but the Scorpio Black makes the entire machine feel more like a computer instead of just a paperweight. (if that makes sense) Finder seems to work a little quicker now and programs load faster. I think the 16MB cache helps a lot in this respect (vs. 8MB for most 5400 drives.)
My computer has Tiger and boot camp beta installed with a split drive between Windows and Mac. I realized that I could not really rescue the Windows partition using Tiger, but apparently this is possible with a program called winclone on a Leopard machine. So I'm going to put the old drive into an external usb case for when or if I need Windows down the road.
Here's what you need to do this:
1. An External USB drive bigger than your internal drive (or with more space than the stuff you want to keep). Mine is 160GB.
2. Tiny/Jeweler size Philips screwdriver
3. Size 8 Torx driver. This is smaller than most sets provide, so you will probably need to go to Sears or a good hardware store and pick up one of this size for about $4.
4. a coin
A. Connect the USB drive to your macbook. Open Disk Utility and make sure the drive is formatted GUID with OSX Filesystem (Journaled). If you have a Windows files system on your external drive, this WILL NOT WORK.
B. Download Carbon Copy Cloner. Start up the program and start a backup from your original hard drive over to the USB drive. You may get a couple of error messages, but they probably don't matter.
C. Reboot the computer and make sure you can boot into the USB drive. You do this by holding Option when the computer makes the startup sound.
D. If everything looks good on the USB drive, you can shut down the computer.
E. Remove the battery with the coin.
F. Take off the metal L-shaped thing that holds in the memory and the hard drive. You need to undo 3 little phillips screws.
G. Pull the white plastic strip to remove the hard drive. Need to be careful at this point to avoid any static discharges, so take at least one shoe off and make sure your foot is on the ground.
H. Use the size 8 Torx to remove the hard drive carriage. Replace the old drive with the new one. Put the old one into the static bag.
I. Put everything back together. Note: when replacing the L-bracket, you should use a small flat-head screwdriver to stuff the memory buffer material back into their slots. Start up the computer.
Should boot into OSX, but you may have to hold the option key to get it to boot up. I've had this problem, but I think I may not have used GUID to format the disk.
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Aug 15, 2009
I'm trying to find out if this is the same seagate drive. I have searched around but could not find anywhere saying its a 7200.4.
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vs.
[URL]
It has a different number ST905003N3A1AS-RK I know RK means retail kit, but I just wanted to make sure it is the same drive before I go and buy it.
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Aug 20, 2009
Is the Seagate (with built-in drop protection) the only option for a 500 Gb, 7200 rpm drive? I bought a 15" MBP a few weeks ago and opted for the 5400 rpm drive since I heard there were lots of problems with the 7200 rpm drive. I see Apple released a patch recently for the 7200 rpm drive, but it sounds as if it's not a 100% solution (Apple says it "reduces" the problem). Are there any 500 Gb, 7200 rpm drives that are recommended (and don't have redundant built-in drop protection)? I can tell my drive is a bottleneck.
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Aug 30, 2009
I'm looking to buy a 7200 RPM drive but it has to be very quiet...as close to 5400RPM drives as possible. I bought a WD Scorpio Black but it sounded like a jet engine prepping for engines for takeoff and vibrated my whole unibody case which as you might imagine became jarring after a while
I'd get an SSD drive but the drive i see as a suitable replacement (256GB) costs �515 ($838) which is....just not gonna happen
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Sep 23, 2009
Is a 7200 rpm HD in the macbook pro so much faster than the 5400 rpm?
And is it a lot nosier and more consuming? And what about the heating? Runs hotter or stays the same?
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Apr 18, 2010
Wife needs a new computer and have decided to go MBP. I was set to order a 17 inch I7 with 7200 rpm hd but found out the local store has them in stock with the 5400 rpm HD.
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Jun 5, 2010
I ordered one of these early last week from Tiger Direct, and since the whole world has ordered one as well, it's severely back ordered.But I have been getting concerned with all these reviews I am seeing, that it vibrates enough to be a sex toy. the 13" MBP apparently is nuts.. but maybe that was just his drive? I used a friends 13" Sony Vaio last night, and it felt like a jack hammer, and i was like "Please please please don't be like this"my MBP is 15" (see sig), the momentus is juts 7200 RPM right? not any more than another drive? what are your guys experience with 7200 RPM in MBP's (make sure you state your size)
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Aug 4, 2010
I'm considering upgrading the stock 5400 RPM Hitachi drive in my macbook pro to the Seagate momentus XT (7200 RPM) hybrid drive. I'm curious about the experiences of those who may have done a similar upgrade:
1. Is there a noticeable difference in performance? I seem to do a lot of waiting for the HDD in my day to day usage and I suspect the increased spindle speed will be helpful.
2. Any noticeable tradeoff on battery life (>~10% or so)?
3. Should I expect an increase in heat or vibration?
Finally, for those using the momentus XT I've been reading about issues with the dreaded beachball waiting for the drive to spin up. This lag would obviously defeat the purpose of upgrading and I'd like to hear about any personal experiences in this regard with the drive.
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Aug 26, 2010
i'm thinking of getting a macbook pro 15" 2.66ghz for use with logic pro mainly.
my question is really about heat.
if a 7200 rpm drive is going to heat up so much (especially when using intensive programs like logic) that it is bad for the disk would a 5400 be better all round?
obviously it would be slower but would it also last longer/ be more reliable?
...or would the difference in heat be negligible compared to the improved speed?
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Nov 21, 2010
I'm thinking about upgrading my 5400 rpm hard drive. Is there a big difference in performance/battery life between 5400 and 7200 rpm?
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Nov 29, 2010
I have a Rev. E 15" MBP with the stock 250GB 5400 rpm HD. I'm getting close on running out of HD space so I'm looking to get a bigger HD. Is it a good idea to replace it with a 7200 rpm HD? Is the speed improvement significant? My MBP is my primary computer, I do a lot of general internet surfing as well as a lot of photo editing (I'm a photographer). I did some quick search and it looks like some HD's have bad vibrations? Does a 7200 HD drain out much more battery than a 5400 one?
I did a quick search at a local computer store and found the following, which one would be best to get?
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Nov 11, 2008
This guy claims they're available for Apple corporate accounts:[URL]
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Dec 2, 2008
does anyone know the brand / model number of the hard drive apple ships in your macbook pro if you select the 320GB 7200RPM option?
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Dec 31, 2008
anyone heard? i thought they were supposed to be out by Q4 of 08 and today is the last day of 08
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