iJohn wrote: > On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 11:34 PM, Kasey Smith<[email protected]> wrote: > >> I would go with the 7200RPM, going from a 5400 to a 7200 even with an >> IDE drive is a big difference. >> > It used to make a bigger difference than it does now with the newer, > higher bit density platters. > > This article might be of interest: "Should You Be Looking For A Hard > Drive Upgrade?" Tom's Hardware - 2009-08-19 > http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-drive-upgrade,2377.html > > The article compares the performance of an older and a newer Samsung > drive. The new one is a 1TB Samsung F2 which I expect is equivalent to > the 5400RPM F2 you're looking at. Here's an excerpt: > > "The F2 EcoGreen drives comes with 32 MB cache memory, which is four > times more than the SP2004C. But it<the F2> spins at only 5,400 RPM. > This isn’t a reason to be scared in the performance area, though, as > this drive still delivers 107 MB/s and hence provides almost twice the > throughput of the 3-4 year old P120 drive." > > Clearly ~100 MB/s ain't too shabby. It still won't be limited by your > 1.5Gbps theoretical max SATA bandwidth (~185 MB/s??). Other aspects of > your system ... like your CPU performance and max memory transfer rate > ... will probably hold it back more. > > While you might possibly get a bit better performance by going with a > 7200 RPM drive, I don't think with your system you'd really see a > noticeable performance improvement from the extra rotational speed. > > You might also take a look at the site http://diskcompare.com. The > site appears to be pretty an indirect way for newegg.com to try to > sell more hard drives. But if you keep that bias in mind, it can still > be a useful way to locate recent hard drive reviews from the various > hardware sites on the Internet. > > -irrational john > > John,
Thanks for your help. Whilst I'm pretty au fait with the workings of my G5, (my previous Sawtooth & G3Beige before that were heavily modded & rebuilt), my main concern was whether in "real world" computing, the difference in performance between 7200rpm and 5400rpm SATA2 drives would be sufficient to justify the additional cost, when they would be on a SATA1 controller. Your (very rational) assistance helped me weigh up pros & cons effectively. Since my major desire is simply capacity, I'll go for the 5400rpm drives, and add the difference to my piggy-bank, saving for an Intel Mac tower, subject to approval from a) Bank Manager and b) more importantly, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. Thanks again, Ted -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
