ANTenna Blog -- Apple

I had the opportunity last week to work with a new MacBook Pro, one that's about year newer than mine. Performance on the new model was much faster. Why? Because of the hard drive's speed. That's one place where you should choose carefully.

I've been writing on this topic since last September, but have become more convince than ever that drive speed is a killer feature. Think about the areas where modern desktops get their performance boosts from. The ones that get talked about the most like processor speed, aren't the most important in the real world.

• Processor - CPUs already so fast it doesn't make much difference

• Processor cache - Hard for most people to know. Bigger is generally better, but the 3MB cache in the latest Core 2 Duo chips is more efficient and effective than the 4MB cache in the previous generation.

• Memory - as long as you have enough (2GB minimum for a modern Mac), memory speed isn't much of a determining faster.

• Front-side bus - this makes a difference, yes, potentially even more than CPU speed. However, these speeds only increase slowly, and are tied to processor chipsets.

• Graphics chip speed and memory - important for game playing and high-end graphics, doesn't affect business and general productivity applications.

• WiFi speed - faster WiFi (like 802.11n) will help you load and save files faster across the LAN, but won't affect your Internet experience.

• Hard disk speed - will affect every aspect of your computer, from booting to loading apps to loading/saving data to working with virtual memory.

The older MacBook Pro (2.2GHz processor, 4MB cache, 3GB memory) had a 200GB hard drive that spun at 4500 RPM. The new one (2.4GHz processor, 3MB cache, 2GB memory) also had a 200GB drive, but it rotated at 7200 RPM. It blew the old notebook away on every aspect of working with it.

My advice: For both iMacs and MacBook/MacBook Pro notebooks, get the fastest hard drives you can. Pick rotation speed first, and then get the largest caapcity. If you need to save money, save money by getting a slightly slower processor.

Thus, here's what I'd recommend on today's offerings from Apple:

• 15-inch MacBook Pro: 2.4GHz processor, 200GB 7200 RPM drive.

• 17-inch MacBook Pro: 2.5GHz processor, 200GB 7200 RPM drive. (If you get the 300GB 4500 RPM, you'll be sad about the performance.)

• 12-inch MacBook: 2.4GHz processor, 250GB 5400 RPM drive.

• 20-inch iMAc: All the drives they offer are 7200 RPM models, so choose based on capacity.

• Mac Pro: All their SATA drives are 7200 RPM 3GB/sec drives, so you won't see much difference. They offer 15,000 RPM SAS drives for RAID arrays, and if performance is paramount, striping across three or four of those drives will give you top speed.

It's a pity that Apple doesn't offer faster SATA drives than 7,200 RPM in its iMac and Mac Pro models. They're hard to find - but worthwhile.