Speed of SSD vs 5400 rpm Serial ATA

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Level 4

3,537 points

Speed of SSD vs 5400 rpm Serial ATA

On the online Apple store the difference between SSD hard drives and the 5400 rpm Serial ATA drive is said to be in durability. How does the speed of the two kinds of drives compare? I know that 7200 rpm is preferred for video editing because the drive can be read faster. Is there any difference in how fast a 5400 rpm drive and an SSD drive can be read? Apple does not mention this on their website, which I think they would do if the SSD drive was faster (which is why I ask).

MacBook, Mac Mini 1.42GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 27, 2009 5:37 AM

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Answer 1

Mac-Medic

Level 6

17,301 points

Jun 27, 2009 8:50 AM in response to mahongue

Go to bearfeats.com to see test results comparing the two.

Dave M.
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Answer 2

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jun 27, 2009 9:59 AM in response to Mac-Medic

That's actually barefeats.com.

SSDs are in their infancy, and there's a huge range of speeds among the many currently available models. All of them will probably be faster for all purposes than a 5400RPM hard drive, but some are slower in some uses than a 7200RPM hard drive. The fastest and most expensive ones are several times faster than any hard drive in most operations, and somewhat faster than hard drives even in the operations that SSDs perform most slowly. If you are thinking of buying a SSD, I recommend waiting a year: prices then will be half what they are now, and speeds will be uniformly higher, expecially among lower-priced SSDs.

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Answer 3

mahongue Author

Level 4

3,537 points

Jun 27, 2009 8:11 PM in response to Mac-Medic

Dear Mac Medic,

Thank you, but there is no such domain name (it hasn't been registered yet).

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Answer 4

mahongue Author

Level 4

3,537 points

Jun 27, 2009 8:16 PM in response to eww

Ok, got it.

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