MBP - which disk speed

I am about to buy a 15" MBP and have been offered the choice to upgrade from the 250GB 5,400 rpm to the 200GB 7,200rpm drive.

Would I notice the data access speed difference?
Does the faster unit use a lot more battery power?
Does the MBP run hotter with the 7,200rpm disk?
Is one drive more reliable than the other?

The MBP will be used general work, parallels and Aperture 2 plus I need the laptop to last at least 4 years

All advice most welcome, thanks in advance

I did a lot of research on this before I got my MBP....I cant get really technical about it but I know that you won't notice the difference between the two unless you are doing serious video editing or other saving that saves HUGE gigs at a time in one file. I prefer the extra 50 gigs of space.

I have read that it does use a little more battery power but nothing significant so I wouldn't let that be part of your consideration.

No idea about the hear.

For what you are using it for, I would just go with the 250 since if you're using aperature and I guess parallels too, you are going to want to have some space on your HD...esp if you'll be dealing with a LOT of pictures and a lot of files on the windows side or whatever OS you are running with parallels. Good luck...

I have read the opposite - that the increase from the 5400 to the 7200 is very noticable in things like boot time and application launch time. I would be inclined to go for the 7200 drive.

which is more important to you

a few seconds here and there or 50 gigs more memory? that is the only question i would be asking my self.

you probably will not see much of a difference in heat and battery life.


personally i would go for the bigger hard drive

Many thank - I have decided to go for the larger disk and 4gb of ram.

boatman said:

Many thank - I have decided to go for the larger disk and 4gb of ram.

Click to expand...

Good choice! Which MBP are you getting (2.4 or 2.5?)

boatman said:

Many thank - I have decided to go for the larger disk and 4gb of ram.

Click to expand...

also i wouldnt recommend upgraded to the 4gb of ram. you can buy a much cheaper one and install it yourself. Check newegg.com

Cheers.

Upgrading my MBP to 4gb was under $100 at Crucial and took 5 minutes to install! I did decide on the 200gb 7200rpm drive for speed