4400 and 5200 rpm hard disks

[randytamayo]

Guys,

Would I get performance boosts from the Powerbook G4 if I upgraded my hard disks from 4400rpm ones to 5200rpm ones?

I did a couple of search runs on this site but no results were returned. If this has been discussed before, link please.

Thank you.
Randy

[Maverick]

yes most definitely there is a performance boost.

here's a good review

http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?newsID=240

btw: its 4200 vs 5400. maybe that's why nothing came up.

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by Maverick]

[penmanila]

well, not all that much as far as i can visually tell but heck maybe my eyes are just slow can't hurt, though. (just upgraded from a 60 gig 4200 rpm to a 100 gig 5400.) there's already a 100 gig 7200 rpm laptop drive available somewhere, as well as a 120 gig 5400 rpm.

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by penmanila]

[dominiquejames]

I remember vaguely that something about heat issue has been touched on the subject of upgrading the HD speed and size. Can someone confirm this please? Thanks!

[penmanila]

ys, could be a problem with the 7200 rpm drives, but the 5400s are okay. the drive manufacturers are also getting better at handling heat, i think. the 100-gig 5400 i'm using doesn't feel any warmer than the 4200.

[Dave_D]

7200 on portables?

Battery life would be affected though... no doubt about it. That's why even though they are available, manufacturers aren't making them standard equipment (on portables).

I found an article by Hitachi might be of interest.

Honestly, I don't find it much use for portables UNLESS you have applications that require lots of disk access (like Video).

I do appreciate these drives on server applications as we serve lots of data to our customers continiously at the same time.

For the average user who browses, e-mails and uses standard office applications, the performance gains vis-a-vis shorter battery life would make me think twice about doing this mod.



[Edited on 8-6-2005 by Dave_D]

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by Dave_D]

[hoho]

5400 RPM drives will benefit video capture the most. If you are using it solely for photography, music, internet and wordprocessing, then the advantages will not be much more noticeable.

Video capture will need the higher speeds to keep up with the massive data that a video feed puts out (25Mbps throughput). But the uses I listed above will not need that boost as much, it make help load applications slightly faster, but not so much that it will be a visible boost in speed.

H

[chairman]

Originally posted by penmanila
well, not all that much as far as i can visually tell but heck maybe my eyes are just slow can't hurt, though. (just upgraded from a 60 gig 4200 rpm to a 100 gig 5400.) there's already a 100 gig 7200 rpm laptop drive available somewhere, as well as a 120 gig 5400 rpm.

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by penmanila]

Sir Butch, how much and where did you get the 100 gig 5400 drive?

[penmanila]

from wulf, right here in philmug. i think he has more available--a site search should turn him up elbert also got two 100 gig drives from him, also 5400 rpm, also for 9.5K. wulf also has 100 gig 4200 rpm drives, cheaper.

[jps444]

well recognizable performance boost i believe would be in a case to case basis. you will hardly recognize it of course by just doing simple office applications. but if you are doing work that requires multiple access to the hard disk such as video editing, where the ahrd drive needs to constatntly read and write on itself then surely you will see the performance increase.