I ordered the Macbook Pro and had to decide between 5400 RPM with 120 GB or 7200 RPM with 100 GB. I decided to go for the larger harddisk with 5400 RPM, but now I remember reading a topic somewhere that maybe this will bring problems for editing HD in Final Cut Studio. What is a better choice, larger harddisk or higher RPM?

Thanks in advance
Niels Neeskens

Guy @ DVestore.com liked the 7200 option, so I went with that on mine. He's a pretty knowledgeable person and uses all of this equipment himself, so I followed his advice.

Thank you Derek. I changed my order into 7200 RPM now and have to wait a little bit longer now, but i am happy I could still change it. How is your experience with working on the Macbook Pro 17 inch?

Niels

Niels,

Rob-ART from BARE FEATS did some testing on the speed differences between the standard 5400 and 7200 rpm drives and found there was a minimal performance increase. Check out www.barefeats.com and look up that article.

However, having said that I just upgraded my 17" MBP with a Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm drive myself. Hey, every little bit of performance helps!

By the way, the MBP does get a significant speed increase by having matched pairs of RAM installed; that I can say from experience. So, I have (2) 1GB monolithic sticks installed also and yes, I noticed a big jump in boot time and app access time right away.

Without a doubt, there is a larger performance increase by having a matched RAM pair than there is by upgrading to the 7200rpm drive alone, but with both, you've got an awesome combo.

I went for 2 GB 667 DDR2 - 2x1 GB SO-DIMMs and the 7200 Rpm, so I got both! Thank you for the info Robert Lane.

Greetings Niels

How is your experience with working on the Macbook Pro 17 inch?I like it. I'm still loading up software and some other stuff, but it's very fast. I have not timed it, but would estimate that it boots up in about 15 to 20 seconds. I imported some P2 footage from the HVX from one of my HDD's and it was very quick with editing and moving around in general. I have not had the chance to apply any filters or anything like that yet.

Working with my 17" MBP is wonderful. FCP 5.1 loads and runs at blazing speeds (out performing my dual 2.0Ghz G5). One drawback I've found was trying to run my ever so useful little apps, such as a screen capture and a DVD extraction tool. Those little apps that I use on a daily basis on projects... Guess they don't like the new intel chip. Anyone have trouble with a few applications running on their MBP?

Other than that - enjoy Niels! You'll love it, I'm sure.

Thank you Paul, I'll do that!

Greetings Niels