4800RPM 200GB vs 5400RPM 160GB vs 7200RPM 100GB

[thebluemonkey]

I'm ordering a new Macbook Pro in the next couple of days and I was wondering which was the faster drive? I was told to find the true "speed" all I had to do was multiply the capacity by the RPM and which ever was higher was the faster drive. This makes sense on the surface but is it actually true? I'll be using it for Photoshop, Indesign and Solidworks mostly so the drive speed is reasonably critical, or atleast it used to be, I've not bought a new machine for a few years.

[road2ruin]

Sadly thats not true. The capacity has nothing to do with the speed of the drive infact the fastest drive out there at the moment is the 10,000rpm 74GB raptor. Sometimes the size could be a handicap if the platters are too large it will increase seek times. Generally speaking its best to go for the largest capacity you can afford as you probably wont notice the extra time to transfer files from slower disks.

[bobthemonkey]

what are you using it for - if you're capturing video, then you'll need the fastest drive possible. MBP's get hot - and 7200 laptop drives kick out a lot of heat (not really a laptop, more a boiler

I'd go for the 5400RPM 160GB - I find the difference noticable when dealing with video and stuff, and 40gb isn't realy anything. (can't believe i just typed that - a couple of years ago 40GB was so massive)

[TheExcession]

I iomagine this could get quite complicated to figure out quantitavly.

I thought the average seek time was just as important as the RPM.

During writing to the disk then I would imagine on a non frgamented drive where you get a clear run at laying down the data then the RPM is going to be the most critical.

But in getting files back off the drive then surely it's as much to do with how quick the head can move across the surface to find the right track, once the track is found then the speed of the disk under the head will make a difference to how quickly it can be read.

[pdV6]

To be fair, unless you're in the realtime video arena (e.g. streaming video from the machine) you'll really not notice unless you're dealing with stupidly large files. As has been noted, the seek time is what you'll notice in everyday use.

The disk capacity is a red herring as the HDD is made up of several "platters" with multiple heads - a small disk with few platters could put in a slower seek time than a large disk with many, its impossible to tell without knowing a lot of detailed info about each drive.

[PJR]

I'd go for the 5400rpm drive too.. They are lots faster than the common 4200rpm laptop drives. 7200rpm drives are nice, but costlier, use more power and usually generate more heat. So 5400rpm drives seem like by far the best compromise.

Cheers, P

[thebluemonkey]

I'll mostly be doing page layouts in Indesign, a bit of photoediting and lots of sketching in Photoshop and some CAD stuff in Solidworks and Rhino when booted into XP. Looks like it's the 160GB option really then. Thank you everyone, much appreciated.