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320GB hard drive for the macbook

E

elatirio

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 18, 2008
2
0
Hey all, nice to join the mac community.

i have a question related to upgrading the macbook 13" hard drive. i've found this 320GB Samsung HM320JI SpinPoint. I went through some user comments on the hard drive and they didnt seem very possitive.

Is there anyone who can give me some feedback about this drive?
-sound levels
-performance

Thanks in advance,
elatirio
 
There has been good feedback on the WD 320gb. This is the one I bought from newegg a few eeks ago. It's been great so far.
 
A number of people have bought the external WD320 (I think it's called a Passport, and is in a little black enclosure). Snap the case open, take the drive out of it, swop it into your MacBook and put your old drive in the enclosure. Instant backup (but it is only usb, not firewire). I did this on my MBP and it worked a treat. Search the forum for the relevant threads.
 
In most cases good feedback online means it is a good product, i have only used the WD 320GB and its fantastic. The MacBook makes it so easy to upgrade he hard drive, you will really have to try hard to mess it up.
 
Are the drives in the Passport cases the same as the bare drives sold? My understanding was that WD Passport drives have a much lower cache 2MB compared with 8MB of the bare drives. That seems to be borne out by the specs on dealer sites.
 
No, they use the same drive.


The only thing I'm unsure about with regards to the WD Passport drive is whether breaking into the external case and putting the drive into your laptop would completely void the warranty if it breaks. If it does, you may as well just purchase the internal version and have a warranty.
 
weckart said:
Are the drives in the Passport cases the same as the bare drives sold? My understanding was that WD Passport drives have a much lower cache 2MB compared with 8MB of the bare drives. That seems to be borne out by the specs on dealer sites.
Click to expand...

This was true for the 250 gb drive, but when I looked into it, WD only makes one 2.5" drive in 320 gb capacity, and it has the 8 Mb cache. That convinced me to go the passport route. At the time, I paid significantly less for the passport by getting it from a guy on craigslist ($125), but the passport was only marginally less expensive new than a bare drive. In that case, if you have any concerns at all, including about the warranty, you might as well just buy the bare drive along with one of the $10 external SATA 2.5" enclosures and call it good. The price difference isn't enough to worry about.
 
ahh great feedback. i think im gonna give this hard drive a try. btw i was asking for the internal version of the drive, as its gonna replace my existing internal one;.

thanks everyone :)
 
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