5200 rpm SSD vs 7200rpm SATA

I am purchasing a new 15 inch Macbook Pro. Debating on whether to get the 5200rpm ssd or

a 7200 rpm SATA. Will I get better performance from the SSD even though it is 5200 rpm?

Thanks!

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 8:37 PM

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9 replies

Feb 5, 2013 8:45 PM in response to JJH Music

You will almost ALWAYS get better performance from an SSD, the reason being there is little boot process. It is instant-on, and ready to run. My old MBA1,1 with a physical disk used to have a boot time of 30+ second from full off... My new MBA 4,1 SSD can reboot (go from full-on, to full-off, to full-on again) in about 10 seconds (fastest) or 15 seconds (average)

Feb 6, 2013 12:19 PM in response to JJH Music

JJH Music wrote:


Thanks for the help. So I am wondering why the ssd is listed at 5200 rpm if it actually has no rotation speed? Doesn't seem to make sense.

Well, I may be heading in the wrong direction here, but I know that some older modles of certain SSDs had rotating magnetic buffers, which would obviously have an RPM speed, but *MOST* of the modern-day SSDs are fully solid-state. There are no buffers or platers, they opperate basically like a flash drive you might have in your pocket.


As the previous poster said, they are really only practical as internal boot drives. For external storage, it would make more sense to go with a HDD.

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5200 rpm SSD vs 7200rpm SATA

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