[malcolm]

Can anyone who's tried both drives (both 5400RPM) tell me which is snappier/faster? Seek time, I think it's called, and/or read/write time. That kind of thing.
I'm about to order a new pb (I will load it with RAM, so that won't be an issue), and I'd like the extra 20GB of the bigger drive, but not at the expense of a slower drive (or a noisier one for that matter, but the jury still seems to be out on that one). Frankly I'd get the 7200RPM drive that's now available, except I think it would drain the battery, and 60GB just isn't big enough for long.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Malcolm

[Luca]

I doubt there's any noticeable difference. Moving from 2MB to 8MB buffer makes a just slightly noticeable difference. Moving from 4200 RPM to 5400 RPM makes a somewhat noticeable difference. But 80 GB vs. 100 GB, both at the same spindle speed and both with probably the same amount of cache? I doubt you'll notice any difference at all. You could even test them and the difference would probably be within the margin of error.

[FFL]

The platter density is slightly higher on the larger drive, therefore it is, in theory faster. IRL, I doubt you'll notice much difference.

[malcolm]

Thanks Luca and FFL. I'll go with the bigger drive.
Malcolm

[Wrao]

I wish I had a 100GB drive in my powerbook. I never thought I would fill 80 GB, now I have 3 GB left and I still need to get Jampack 4(10GB) and iLife '05(6GB)

[Luca]

Get an external case and a 250 GB drive.

Actually, for the same $100 it costs to upgrade from the 80 GB to the 100 GB internal drive, you can buy a Firewire case and an 80 GB desktop hard drive to go with it. $100 for 20 extra gigabytes is a terrible deal. You're paying SO much extra just to get the latest and greatest thing - I don't think it's worth it at all.

[RC23]

yea.. rip off for the 100gb.. unless u must have the extra storage for music etc.. but if u are doing any kind of editing.. etc, id get an external for file storage.. its the best way to get the "snappiest" results

[NATO]

I have a 100GB Drive in my new Powerbook, and I couldn't be happier with it. Its virtually silent, no noises at all from it. Everything loads fast, just as quick if not quicker than the Powerbook I had before which had the 80GB Drive.

[SpecMode]

I did a 100GB HDD self-upgrade of my year-old 12" Powerbook (no particular worries about voiding the warranty, as there wasn't one to speak of :/)...lemme tell you something, I have a newfound respect for the guys who upgrade these things for a living. It took me almost 3 hours from the time I started opening up the case to starting the 'Book up with the new drive installed; I'm still not altogether certain I didn't come out of that with 'extra' screws left over, to say nothing of the ones that I almost couldn't remove from the case to begin with, and likely will never be able to remove again...

All that being said, I couldn't be happier with the new drive. It's nice having almost 55GB free space where before I had a whopping 1GB, and the new drive is as quiet or more so than the old one... Coupled with a RAM upgrade to max capacity (1.25GB), I think I've bought this particular PowerBook an extra year or so of useful lifetime. While I don't recommend the upgrade path I chose, definitely go for the bigger drive if you've got the cash to spend.