5400 vs. 7200

I have one of the first generation MacBooks with 2gb of memory. Will I notice a difference if i upgrade it to a 7200rpm hd vs the 5400 i currently have?

I don't know about current gen laptops but I've noticed a difference whenever I did it on iBooks or Powerbooks. I would think there would be a difference. The difference can be noticed in benchmark tests but I don't know how significant it will be during actual use.
Bryan

ive done the upgrade and to say the least, No i didnt see or notice a thing ! SO Dont waste the dough.

You notice when rendering in software like Final Cut, iMovie etc.

As Unforseen says, it's dependent on what you're going to be using it for as to whether you'll notice the difference.
For applications where you need to read/write a lot of data off/on the drive, you're most likely to notice the difference.

I did the upgrade from 100GB 5400 Apple to 160GB 7200 Seagate Momentus 7200.2. The result was a quicker boot time, fast user switching was actually FAST, less beachballs when launching bulky applications, copying lots of data and system backups were noticibly quicker. My websurfing didn't improve nor did iCal run more quickly. My personal theory is that applications the load alot of metadata to launch and applications that rely heavily on the faster 7200rpm paging space benefit the most. Just MHO.
-Dave

Booting is faster, applications launch faster, everything just seems snappier overall. Makes it feel like you're using a desktop computer instead of a laptop. I'd say it's definitely worth the investment. I have a 200gb 7200rpm drive in my 15" MBP and I love it, same in my wife's 13" MB:

http://www.xpcgear.com/0a50940.html

I have a 120 gb hd I think I am going to upgrade to this:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-4638
It seems like the next price I can find. any reason why I should look elsewhere?

This does bring me to the next issue, what is the best way to compleatly clean a drive for resale?

I bought, and am currently running that exact drive from Dell. Works like a charm. I ended up putting one in both my Mini and my MB. That was the same price I paid back in mid-July. As for erasing a disk, use Apple's Disk Utility in your /Applications/Utilities folder. As quoted from Disk Utility Help "When securely erasing a disk, Disk Utility writes over the erased files' data, so it can never be recovered. You can choose to write over the data once, 7 times, or 35 times. Writing data over the disk 7 or 35 times is more secure than writing over it once, but takes longer." Hope that helps.
-Dave

Its why I detest portables and the macmini. Slow hard drive = poor performance.