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500GB WD internal HD

That's a great price, I recently paid the equivalent of $130 for a 320gb, 7200rpm Hitachi hard drive for my Macbook, so $115 is brilliant for 500gb. Just a few things to bear in mind; warranty should be 3 years for WD hard drives IIRC, so if you're picky Seagate have 5 year warranties on theirs (just in case you find a comparably priced seagate). Another is the speed, 5400rpm is what you're used to, but there is a noticeable speed difference if you buy a 7200rpm drive when transferring large files (or re-installing leopard). For me, the worst thing I've noticed from my new hard drive is more noise, although it can only be heard in a silent room, it does annoy me slightly (not sure how the WD will fare, should be just as quiet as your current hard drive though). Finally, I'm not sure if you have the new alu-Macbook or old, but if its the older version, you'll need a Torx T8 screwdriver to pop the hard drive out from its special case-thing.

Sorry for the essay, hope it helps.
 
i stumbled upon the same 500gb HD when browsing for a new one as well last night.

I'm more interested in the 320 WD HD. Mainly for two reasons:

1. I don't need 500 GB's
2. The WD 320GB HD is a 7200 RPM. I'm assuming the 60GB one I have now, that came with the Mac is 5400RPM and would rather have the speed as opposed to too much storage that i probable won't use.
 
Another complication in deciding is that rotation speed is not a foolproof measure of drive performance. I recommend you look up the technical read/write/seek times for potential drives. A 60GB 7200rpm drive is going to be more performant than a 60GB 5400rpm drive usually. However, a 320GB 5400rpm drive is probably going to be more performant than a 60GB 5400rpm drive. Rotational speed will give you distance travelled, but the data density over that distance differs across drives (density per platter, number of platters, etc.).
 
Right now I'm looking up some drives on ebay, all western digital .

So you're telling me there wont be much difference between a WD 320GB 5400 RPM Vs. a WD 320GB 7200 RPM?
 
No, I'm saying there may be less difference than apparent between a WD 320GB 7200 RPM vs. a 500GB 5400 RPM for read/write/seek speeds.
 
hmmm, if i come across two HD's like that around the same price than i may be in a pickle.

Either way i'm definitely purchasing an HD by the end of the day, along with 4GB of RAM.
 
01jamcon said:
That's a great price, I recently paid the equivalent of $130 for a 320gb, 7200rpm Hitachi hard drive for my Macbook, so $115 is brilliant for 500gb. Just a few things to bear in mind; warranty should be 3 years for WD hard drives IIRC, so if you're picky Seagate have 5 year warranties on theirs (just in case you find a comparably priced seagate). Another is the speed, 5400rpm is what you're used to, but there is a noticeable speed difference if you buy a 7200rpm drive when transferring large files (or re-installing leopard). For me, the worst thing I've noticed from my new hard drive is more noise, although it can only be heard in a silent room, it does annoy me slightly (not sure how the WD will fare, should be just as quiet as your current hard drive though). Finally, I'm not sure if you have the new alu-Macbook or old, but if its the older version, you'll need a Torx T8 screwdriver to pop the hard drive out from its special case-thing.

Sorry for the essay, hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The price is amazing which is why I posted this thread, seemed to good to be true. From the reviews I read, it seems like a solid HD. I do have an older MacBook so thanks for the heads up about the screw driver as well.
 
OrangeCuse44 said:
I'm thinking about upgrading my HD in my Macbook Core 2 Duo. I found this HD on Newegg at a pretty good price. Has anyone here installed this in a Macbook? Would like some feedback if possible. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
Click to expand...

Great price $115 is not bad considering that for $95 you can get a 320GB at same 5400rpm. I see the drive is a 5 stared rated item which I think puts me at ease. I think I will buy this drive now that I see it. Besides it's Wester Digital, it come form a solid line of HDDs...
 
So a few hours ago I was planning on purchasing a 320GB WD HD for $100, but since then signed up for Live.Com's Cashback thing so could now purchase that same HD for $59.... That HD has 7200RPM....

...But since then found a 500GB WD HD for the same price at $59!!!!! It's at 5400RPM, so I think i'll go for this one instead!

Didn't think it would come to this but wouldn't mind the 500GB!!!

Thanks!
 
HappyDude20 said:
So a few hours ago I was planning on purchasing a 320GB WD HD for $100, but since then signed up for Live.Com's Cashback thing so could now purchase that same HD for $59.... That HD has 7200RPM....

...But since then found a 500GB WD HD for the same price at $59!!!!! It's at 5400RPM, so I think i'll go for this one instead!

Didn't think it would come to this but wouldn't mind the 500GB!!!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

How do you use that of Live Cash Back? Do you sign up or anything?
 
jav6454 said:
How do you use that of Live Cash Back? Do you sign up or anything?
Click to expand...

gotta sign up for a hotmail or live account at live.com...

then go to the cashback section and search for something like "macbook" ... on the results you'll see sites with a coin icon. this indicates that site is elegible for discounts. most are 5% but ebay gives you 30% off. along with the 10% off already for existing ebay account holders, thats a sweet deal.

all you gotta do buy the items during your cashback session, one hour, and when you pay, must pay with paypal and you'll get you're $40 refund or however much within a few weeks, days, or so.
 
HappyDude20 said:
gotta sign up for a hotmail or live account at live.com...

then go to the cashback section and search for something like "macbook" ... on the results you'll see sites with a coin icon. this indicates that site is elegible for discounts. most are 5% but ebay gives you 30% off. along with the 10% off already for existing ebay account holders, thats a sweet deal.

all you gotta do buy the items during your cashback session, one hour, and when you pay, must pay with paypal and you'll get you're $40 refund or however much within a few weeks, days, or so.
Click to expand...

I bought an HP charger for my old HP, it costed me $24 on eBay with the 10% off. I highly doubt Livecash back would have given me the $40 off, but I would have nit mind the 30% off.

Edit - Already have a hotmail account...
 
HappyDude20 said:
So a few hours ago I was planning on purchasing a 320GB WD HD for $100, but since then signed up for Live.Com's Cashback thing so could now purchase that same HD for $59.... That HD has 7200RPM....

...But since then found a 500GB WD HD for the same price at $59!!!!! It's at 5400RPM, so I think i'll go for this one instead!

Didn't think it would come to this but wouldn't mind the 500GB!!!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Wow, nice, I think I need to look into getting this too!

My boss at work ordered a 2.4GHz MacBook using that live.com cashback deal. I don't think this is quite what Microsoft expected. 😉
 
The 500GB Scorpio Bluee BEVT Model is almost as fast as Hitachi´s 7200rpm drive, the 7K320 or WD Scorpio Black. I´d recommend the 2 platter 500GB BEVT.
 
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