5400 vs 7200 RPM hard drives?

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I am about to order a white MacBook, and to my understanding, Apple only ships 5400RPM drives with it. If I go out and buy this drive (My local computer store), will I notice a speed increase (It's 7200RPM)? Or will I be better off spending the money on RAM?

PS: Is that the right kind of drive? Does the Macbook use SATA or PATA?

Edit: Does Samsung make good drives? I can get a 320GB 5400 for 145 bucks, good deal if 7200 isn't that big an increase.

Edit 2: If that link does't work, it's a 160GB 7200RPM SATA 2.5" Seagate.
 
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the macbook uses SATA and if you search around on here you will see that this subject will cause MUCH debate about how much difference a 5400 versus a 7200 makes. i personally wanted the larger hard drive (320GB) so i went with size over speed. i also didn't notice a performance change when i went back to 5400 from 7200 but again this will cause post after post of differing opinions on HDD speed.

also here are a couple 200GB 7200 drives for a few dollars more and they also have 16mb cache versus your links 8mb.
 
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Hi MacBookMe,

That drive is the right kind, 2.5" SATA. As for the 7200RPM, you should notice a speed difference, but I can't say definitively that it would be faster than adding 4GB RAM. I haven't seen any stats on that. That said, believe I'd go for the 320GB 5400RPM drive instead and add to get 4GB RAM when you can afford it (That's what I did). If you decide to go with the 7200 RPM drives, look here at the Seagate 200GB 7200 at a lower price than that Samsung: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/SEAGATE%20OWC/ST9200420ASG/
Check out this site (OWC) for other 2.5" SATA options as well, here for example: http://eshop.macsales.com/search/2.5%22+sata+drives

Samsungs are good drives, but if you're shopping around, you might also want to check out the options available at Newegg.com - good variety and good prices there as well.

Lots of folks here did buy 7200 drives. You might hear from them too.

Good luck on whatever you decide,

Noel

EDIT: Go here for definition of cache: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cache-memory.htm

Note this definition is for computers, but it's really the same when applied to hard drives, see last papagraph...
 
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What does "cache" do?
Sorry I'm dumb

well we must again enter a similar debate to the 5400 vs 7200 but if given a choice and no difference in price you should just go with the 16mb versus the 8mb. i know that doesnt answer your question but if you really want to read all about it just google.
 
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fletch33,

Sorry, I edited my post about the same time you made your last one. I didn't realize you had posted on cache. I didn't mean to preempt yours...

Noel
 
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I put a new Hitachi SATA drive in my MBP about 2 months ago and got a big speed boost- of course, it's mainly due to it's fast seek time and 7200RPM. I researched it for awhile and settled on Hitachi.
 

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