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MacBook Pro 7200RPM Vibration thread

1

10k300

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 10, 2010
27
0
Hello

Sorry for the quick thread, but I do have some information which is valuable, as it cost me a lot of money (>6 disks) to get all this data.

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody 2.4 c2d
MacBook Pro 17" i7

this data applies to the above notebooks per my direct hands-on experience

VIBRATION :

* Seagate 7200.4 500GB AS & ASG model 8/10 - MAJOR vibration which resonates badly especially when placed on a wood table or desk, it's __HORRIBLE__

- First disk, 8/10 vibration
- Second disk, 8/10 vibration
- Third try, 10/10 vibration

That's when I put that disk in my MacBook Pro 3,1 non-unibody, and imagine, NO VIBRATION in that machine. obviously the damping system is better on the old unit.

Next drive

* Western Digital Black 500GB 7200 (BEKT)

10/10 vibration, forget about this drive
You know what else was annoy9ing about this drive, they went through so much effort to completely eliminate all seek noises, but they absolutely were not concerned about vibration control and resonance. I much rather would hear the clicking, than feel this absolutely sickening vibration resonating through everything the machine touches. This drive was the king of vibrators. Shame. (but was very fast, I'll admit that.. faster than the 7200.4)

Next drive

* Hitachi 5K500.B

0/10 vibration - perfect

* AND NOW THE KICKER

HITACHI 7K500 TRAVELSTAR / MFR data OCT 2010
INSTALLED TODAY in i7 MacBook Pro

Guess what

Vibration 0/10

SYNOPSIS: If you want a 7200rpm disk, and you can't stand feeling like you're typing on a vibrating surface, make sure you buy a Hitachi Travel star 7k500 from a reputable vendor who packs the drives well and ships them in a very well made box.

This may have something to do with the BEKT WD disk, but in regards to the 3 x 7200.4's I bought, all were delivered in a very well packed box. No chance of shipping damage there - and all 3 were shipped separately after RMA';ing them one by one.

Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 HTS725050A9A364 = BEST HARD DISK for this machine

Take care & regards

ps -- edited

also worth saying, that in the process I purchased a Toshiba 7200RPM 500G disk, the new model they just released, but it never arrived, apparently was lost in the post. So, never got to test that -
 
10k300 said:
Hello

Sorry for the quick thread, but I do have some information which is valuable, as it cost me a lot of money (>6 disks) to get all this data.

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody 2.4 c2d
MacBook Pro 17" i7

this data applies to the above notebooks per my direct hands-on experience

VIBRATION :

* Seagate 7200.4 500GB AS & ASG model 8/10 - MAJOR vibration which resonates badly especially when placed on a wood table or desk, it's __HORRIBLE__

- First disk, 8/10 vibration
- Second disk, 8/10 vibration
- Third try, 10/10 vibration

That's when I put that disk in my MacBook Pro 3,1 non-unibody, and imagine, NO VIBRATION in that machine. obviously the damping system is better on the old unit.

Next drive

* Western Digital Black 500GB 7200 (BEKT)

10/10 vibration, forget about this drive
You know what else was annoy9ing about this drive, they went through so much effort to completely eliminate all seek noises, but they absolutely were not concerned about vibration control and resonance. I much rather would hear the clicking, than feel this absolutely sickening vibration resonating through everything the machine touches. This drive was the king of vibrators. Shame. (but was very fast, I'll admit that.. faster than the 7200.4)

Next drive

* Hitachi 5K500.B

0/10 vibration - perfect

* AND NOW THE KICKER

HITACHI 7K500 TRAVELSTAR / MFR data OCT 2010
INSTALLED TODAY in i7 MacBook Pro

Guess what

Vibration 0/10

SYNOPSIS: If you want a 7200rpm disk, and you can't stand feeling like you're typing on a vibrating surface, make sure you buy a Hitachi Travel star 7k500 from a reputable vendor who packs the drives well and ships them in a very well made box.

This may have something to do with the BEKT WD disk, but in regards to the 3 x 7200.4's I bought, all were delivered in a very well packed box. No chance of shipping damage there - and all 3 were shipped separately after RMA';ing them one by one.

Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 HTS725050A9A364 = BEST HARD DISK for this machine

Take care & regards

ps -- edited

also worth saying, that in the process I purchased a Toshiba 7200RPM 500G disk, the new model they just released, but it never arrived, apparently was lost in the post. So, never got to test that -
Click to expand...

I have to say, I got the Seagate 7200.4 500 drive - and I haven't had any vibration issues with it.
 
I have the WD 320GB BEKT Scorpio Black in a 2010 13" MacBook Pro. Zero vibration here as well. And I love that they also completely eliminated the seek noises.
 
Mine came with a 250gb 5400p Hitachi, it was fine, but I wanted more speed. I normally trust Seagate drives. So I got a 320gb 7200rpm Seagate and was shocked by extra noise and vibration, replaced it with 320gb 7200rpm Hitachi and it was much better then Seagate but still very loud and still had noticeable vibration.

Disappointed, I put the new drive into an enclosure for backup duties and kept the stock drive in the mbp until I bought an SSD a few months later.
 
smeg36 said:
I have the WD 320GB BEKT Scorpio Black in a 2010 13" MacBook Pro. Zero vibration here as well. And I love that they also completely eliminated the seek noises.
Click to expand...

Same drive, basically same computer. Vibration is a non issue here. When I first installed it there was a bit, but that has significantly decreased to being no more than what my 5400 RPM drive was before.
 
I also have the Seagate 7200.4 500 drive, but in a 2007 MBP (non-unibody but aluminum still) and I don't have any issues with it so far.
 
10k300 said:
Western Digital Black 500GB 7200 (BEKT)

10/10 vibration, forget about this drive
Click to expand...

I have a 320 GB WD Scorpio Black, and I'd have to agree with 10k300 on the vibration issues. I know there's worse, and the seek noises are indeed virtually nonexistent but... I replaced a stock 120 GB drive in a Macbook Pro 2,1 (non-unibody) and the thing is never quiet now. I double-checked the install of the rubber feet on the drive and even put the metal dampener disc from the original drive onto the Scorpio- no improvement. The drive performs well, but the vibration is annoying, especially on a wood surface which tends to amplify the vibration.
 
I received my Hitachi 7K500 500GB drive today (HTS725050A9A364). Seems fine so far. Absolutely ZERO vibration!

Is there a recommended hard drive benchmark program out there for Macs?
 
Could the 320GB black drive be a single platter maybe?

I'm upgrading a 13" MBP, want speed and quite and not a huge hit to battery life. Is the hitachi still the recommendation
 
how

how does one TELL which Hitachi 7K500 drive one is getting? I see about four models, all look the same, all 2.5" SATA II, 500GB, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, etc. all with different boxes and model numbers.
 
tivoboy said:
Could the 320GB black drive be a single platter maybe?

I'm upgrading a 13" MBP, want speed and quite and not a huge hit to battery life. Is the hitachi still the recommendation
Click to expand...

None of them are single platter, that's far more expensive to do. The 320GB black is plenty fast, doesn't use much more power if any at all, and is about as quiet as the stock drive.
 
Strange, I've had my 7200.4 AS (no G-sensor) in an optibay but I don't notice that much of a vibration at all, at least like you describe it ...

How did you install the drive?
 
I have the WD and it vibrates abit if you line the disks resonance up with whatever you've put it on.

Otherwise a perfect drive.
 
tivoboy said:
how does one TELL which Hitachi 7K500 drive one is getting? I see about four models, all look the same, all 2.5" SATA II, 500GB, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, etc. all with different boxes and model numbers.
Click to expand...
The drives inside the boxes *should* all be the same. I don't know why, but Hitachi sells the same exact drive in a bunch of different packaging schemes.
 
I put a Samsung HM500JJ HD and it's vibration and noise drove me nuts (7200RPM, 500gb). I put a Hitachi 500GB 5400 and no issues. But i'm now reading from you guys the 7200 is fine... very tempted to switch back to faster HD, but the noise and vibration bothers me.

For the ones not having any vibration issues, are you using it in your 13" MBP? I wonder why apple doesn't let you customize that model with a 7200rpm HD.
 
Great thread, there is so much confusion around the internet about replacement harddrives.

Me myself, I swapped a stock 5400 120 gb Samsung for a 7200 WD 320 scorpio black in my 2007 SR MBP. The speed increase is inmense (despite the SATA 1,5 limit), with no noticable additional battery drainage.

However, the stock HD is dead silent and doesn't vibrate the slightest. The WD vibrates a lot, althou not much louder than the fans at 2500 rpm, but I can hear it, especially on a wooden surface. Also, at completely random occassions the hard drive suddenly bleeps somehow. I have yet to find a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon but I grew over it.

This weekend I'll try to isolate the WD completely with very thin rubber strips, lefover from some desktop HD's, on all sides. I'll post it if that completely solves the vibrating problem
 
happy2000hk said:
I put a Samsung HM500JJ HD and it's vibration and noise drove me nuts (7200RPM, 500gb). I put a Hitachi 500GB 5400 and no issues. But i'm now reading from you guys the 7200 is fine... very tempted to switch back to faster HD, but the noise and vibration bothers me.

For the ones not having any vibration issues, are you using it in your 13" MBP? I wonder why apple doesn't let you customize that model with a 7200rpm HD.
Click to expand...

Yes, I put a WD Scorpio Black 320GB in my 13" 2010 MacBook Pro. As I said earlier in the thread, no vibration at all. If I put my hand on the palm rest right above the hard drive and actually think about feeling the movement I can notice it. But if I'm not thinking about it I don't.
 
I also have a 2010 13" MBP 2.4 GHz C2D and I'd rate the vibration as (zero being best):

Stock 5400 RPM 250 GB HDD: 0/10
WD 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD (Scorpio Black): 10/10
WD 7200 RPM 320GB HDD (Scorpio Black): 2/10
Hitachi 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD (7K500): 0/10

I actually did try all 4 of these in the same MBP.
 
I have the Hitachi Travelstar 500GB 7200rpm and have no vibrations. It was asteal on Newegg for $50 after rebate.
 
I'm in the exact same situation. The stock is dead silent with no vibration and almost no noise, but the Samsung 7200 had vibration over both palm rests and makes noise enough to be bothersome. I just bought a new 13" mbp 2 days ago, so I'm probably more sensitive about it and was actually wondering if it was my mbp making all that noise.

A.W.E.S.O.M.-0 said:
Great thread, there is so much confusion around the internet about replacement harddrives.

Me myself, I swapped a stock 5400 120 gb Samsung for a 7200 WD 320 scorpio black in my 2007 SR MBP. The speed increase is inmense (despite the SATA 1,5 limit), with no noticable additional battery drainage.

However, the stock HD is dead silent and doesn't vibrate the slightest. The WD vibrates a lot, althou not much louder than the fans at 2500 rpm, but I can hear it, especially on a wooden surface. Also, at completely random occassions the hard drive suddenly bleeps somehow. I have yet to find a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon but I grew over it.

This weekend I'll try to isolate the WD completely with very thin rubber strips, lefover from some desktop HD's, on all sides. I'll post it if that completely solves the vibrating problem
Click to expand...
 
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