Which brand internal HD

Sairo · Jul 1, 2012

Hello guys,

Im new to the Mac world (used them before at school, but never owned one) and I'm looking for some advice. I already tried the search function, but I don't get the information I'm looking for out of the threads.
I also tried google, but most of the information is outdated.

I own a mid 2010 MBP, with currently the stock 250GB Hitachi hard drive and I'm looking for an upgrade.
At first I was looking at the 500GB drives but then I bought why not go to 750GB for a little bit of extra?
I'm a graphic designer so the extra space won't hurt.

Then came the first complication; do I buy a 5400 rpm or a 7200 rpm?!
I know most of you will say the difference isn't that noticeable, but it will improve my boot time of apps like photoshop and lightroom.
Will the 7200 be a noisy battery sucking drive? Or does the power consumption of 7200 drives these days almost equalizes the 5400's?

The second complication is; what brand? I was looking at Seagate disks (the Seagate ST9500325AS |500GB 5400RPM| & Seagate ST9750420AS |750GB 7200RPM|) because of the pricing and reviews.
I have a Windows pc running and always been into the Western Digital disks, but I can't find positive feedback on those drives for the MacBooks so that brand is a doubter. The Samsung disks didn't impress. Then I bought to be a smart guy and put a Hitachi in it like the stock, but I could only find the Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 (750GB 5400RPM).

So basically I'm looking for help and opinions.

1. Will I notice that I'm running a 7200rpm disk? (sound & battery drain)
2. Which brands work well with the MacBooks?

An SSD is not affordable for me when it comes to 500GB.

Thanks in advance!

miles01110 · Jul 2, 2012

All platter-based hard drive brands are the same. Get the one with the best warranty for your size requirements and budget.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

miles01110 said:
All platter-based hard drive brands are the same. Get the one with the best warranty for your size requirements and budget.

They all fit in the budget and warranty.
But this doesn't answer my questions.

miles01110 · Jul 2, 2012

Sairo said:
They all fit in the budget and warranty.
But this doesn't answer my questions.

It answers #2 perfectly well.

2. Which brands work well with the MacBooks?

An SSD is not affordable for me when it comes to 500GB.

JTToft · Jul 2, 2012

Question 1: There is a difference, but you're most likely not going to notice it. At least not without looking at numbers.

Question 2: As the previous poster said, there really isn't much difference. I have had the most experience with Western Digital and never had a problem with them, so that's my recommendation.
If you're looking for a high performance disk, take a look at the Scorpio Black. It comes with 5 years of warranty.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

JTToft said:
Question 1: There is a difference, but you're most likely not going to notice it. At least not without looking at numbers.

Question 2: As the previous poster said, there really isn't much difference. I have had the most experience with Western Digital and never had a problem with them, so that's my recommendation.
If you're looking for a high performance disk, take a look at the Scorpio Black. It comes with 5 years of warranty.

So a 7200 won't be that noisy as people say it is? And the difference in performance isn't noticeable unless I look at numbers as you say?

Whats really the difference between the blue and the black series?
Cant seem to figure that out.

Btw, is there a limit to the storage the macbook can handle?
I know that the ram on mine is maxed at 8GB, but I don't know if he hd is maxed at 750GB?
Thanks.

whitedragon101 · Jul 2, 2012

Sairo said:
So a 7200 won't be that noisy as people say it is?

7200rpm notebook drives will be audibly indistinguishable from 5400rpm drives. The time you really notice an HD is when the read heads click back and forth and that won't change between a 7200rpm and 5400rpm.

The idea of noisy 7200rpm drives (vs 5400) is very very out of date now.

Sairo said:
And the difference in performance isn't noticeable unless I look at numbers as you say?

The difference in performance is not huge considering the speed difference from HD to SSD. But if the cost difference is not great I always go 7200rpm.

Sairo said:
Whats really the difference between the blue and the black series?
Cant seem to figure that out.

The blue is 5400rpm with 8mb cache the black is 7200rpm with 16mb cache.

If you want a little bit of extra speed the black is faster.

Sairo said:
Btw, is there a limit to the storage the macbook can handle?

No.

Recommendation

Go with the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB. It is a hybrid drive which means it has a small 8GB SSD in it with 750GB of HD. The drive intelligently places frequently used files on the SSD to speed up performance. It will launch apps and boot in very similar times to an SSD but at massively lower cost.

Anand Lai Shimpi is probably the most respected hardware reviewer out there and it gets his seal of approval. If you can't afford an SSD, its the next fastest thing.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5160/seagate-2nd-generation-momentus-xt-750gb-hybrid-hdd-review/2

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

whitedragon101 said:
7200rpm notebook drives will be audibly indistinguishable from 5400rpm drives. The time you really notice an HD is when the read heads click back and forth and that won't change between a 7200rpm and 5400rpm.

The idea of noisy 7200rpm drives (vs 5400) is very very out of date now.

The difference in performance is not huge considering the speed difference from HD to SSD. But if the cost difference is not great I always go 7200rpm.

The blue is 5400rpm with 8mb cache the black is 7200rpm with 16mb cache.

If you want a little bit of extra speed the black is faster.

No.

Recommendation

Go with the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB. It is a hybrid drive which means it has a small 8GB SSD in it with 750GB of HD. The drive intelligently places frequently used files on the SSD to speed up performance. It will launch apps and boot in very similar times to an SSD but at massively lower cost.

Anand Lai Shimpi is probably the most respected hardware reviewer out there and it gets his seal of approval. If you can't afford an SSD, its the next fastest thing.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5160/seagate-2nd-generation-momentus-xt-750gb-hybrid-hdd-review/2

He thanks for the help! This is really useful.
I checked out the Hybrid drive and its a little over my budget(which is 100).
The 500GB version with 4gigs on the other hand is in my budget.

So if I line them out;
Seagate 750GB 85
Seagate XT 500GB 95

Trade in 250GB of space for a faster disk? Im seriously doubting this.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

I just did some research on the xt drives. Everytime an update comes for the firmware, I have to pop it out and connect it to Windows?

Mojo1 · Jul 2, 2012

As far as I am concerned speed isn't everything... But the average Macrumors forum member apparently thinks it is and is willing to waste money chasing benchmarks.

whitedragon101 · Jul 2, 2012

Sairo said:
I just did some research on the xt drives. Everytime an update comes for the firmware, I have to pop it out and connect it to Windows?

You don't have to. Firmware updates are optional unless you have issues.

Also you can do this via bootcamp.

Also for such a small difference in cost unless you are totally strapped for cash the 750gb has double the SSD size of the 500xt and will therefore operate at SSD speeds more of the time and has oodles of HD space.

----------

Mojo1 said:
As far as I am concerned speed isn't everything... But the average Macrumors forum member apparently thinks it is and is willing to waste money chasing benchmarks.

The difference between 5400 and 7200 is indeed not that great in practice and daily use. However, the jump to SSD (or hybrid SSD) makes a big real world difference.

For example Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Illustrator etc load in 3 seconds on the Seagate Momentus 750xt hybrid drive but on the old 250gb 5400 drives it takes around 16 seconds. Thats a huge practical difference if you are working with them every day. Once you jump to SSD the difference is even greater.

applesoundgear · Jul 2, 2012

Sairo said:
He thanks for the help! This is really useful.
I checked out the Hybrid drive and its a little over my budget(which is 100).
The 500GB version with 4gigs on the other hand is in my budget.

So if I line them out;
Seagate 750GB 85
Seagate XT 500GB 95

Trade in 250GB of space for a faster disk? Im seriously doubting this.

The XT runs really really well. If you want improved boot times for the OS and frequently used programs, go for the XT. Once it figures out what you use the most, those programs will open and run at almost near SSD speeds. The XT 750GB actually has several more features than the 500GB that are hard to explain. Going by exchange rates, you can get the Momentus XT 750GB (the fastest model available) for about 120. If you're willing to spend that extra 20, you'll get great capacity and incredible speeds once it learns what you do.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

applesoundgear said:
The XT runs really really well. If you want improved boot times for the OS and frequently used programs, go for the XT. Once it figures out what you use the most, those programs will open and run at almost near SSD speeds. The XT 750GB actually has several more features than the 500GB that are hard to explain. Going by exchange rates, you can get the Momentus XT 750GB (the fastest model available) for about 120. If you're willing to spend that extra 20, you'll get great capacity and incredible speeds once it learns what you do.

And where did you find that price?
The cheapest I found on dutch websites is 135.
What are the extra features on the 750GB? Im really curious, except for the 4GB flash and 250GB extra storage.

----------

Mojo1 said:
As far as I am concerned speed isn't everything... But the average Macrumors forum member apparently thinks it is and is willing to waste money chasing benchmarks.

Are you willing to explain yourself?

cube · Jul 2, 2012

The new Momentus XT is 750GB and has double the amount of flash.

You don't need Windows to update the firmware. Seagate provides an .iso that you burn to a disc and then boot from it.

It is faster because the platters are more dense and more stuff will be put in the flash to be read from there than the previous generation.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

cube said:
The new Momentus XT is 750GB and has double the amount of flash.

You don't need Windows to update the firmware. Seagate provides an .iso that you burn to a disc and then boot from it.

It is faster because the platters are more dense and more stuff will be put in the flash to be read from there than the previous generation.

Hmm thats a fact.
Isn't it so that SSD's get slower over time because they store all the information in the flash? I know this is a hybrid and not a full SSD, but I just wondered.

cube · Jul 2, 2012

Sairo said:
Hmm thats a fact.
Isn't it so that SSD's get slower over time because they store all the information in the flash? I know this is a hybrid and not a full SSD, but I just wondered.

The flash here is a cache, not permanent storage that gets fragmented as files get deleted.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

cube said:
The flash here is a cache, not permanent storage that gets fragmented as files get deleted.

Allright understood.
The drive says its 2,7 mm.
The extra 0,2 mm won't have fitting problems in my 13"?

cube · Jul 2, 2012

You mean 9.7mm

I have put the gen1 and gen2 in the 15" 2008 unibody, and the gen2 in the 17" early 2011 MBP.

AFAIK these can actually take a 12.5mm drive.

I think it's the same for the 13", but you have to check.

boomhower · Jul 2, 2012

The momentus is a great drive. It's an awesome compromise between the drive techs. I've got one of the first generations in an older notebook and love it.

applesoundgear · Jul 2, 2012

I have a 13 inch and the XT fits in perfectly. Same size as the stock HD.

I guesstimated the price based on the exchange rate, that's all. I got it for $150 which is about 120.

The difference is first the size. You said yourself in the post why not go for 750GB. The 8GB flash memory is a big improvement over 4GB. It might not seem like it but that's twice the amount of data or programs that your computer can operate at those near-SSD speeds.

Also, there doesn't seem to be a 500GB model with the SATA 6Gb/s. It only seems to come with SATA 3Gb/s, meaning it's not quite as fast/powerful as the 750GB which does have the 6.

Finally, based on the specs, the 500GB is from the generation before the 750GB model. The previous generation had several more problems that Seagate itself acknowledged. The newer 750GB model is just a much better product than the older 500 model. Seagate itself admits this along with most of the reviewers.

Sairo · Jul 2, 2012

applesoundgear said:
I have a 13 inch and the XT fits in perfectly. Same size as the stock HD.

I guesstimated the price based on the exchange rate, that's all. I got it for $150 which is about 120.

The difference is first the size. You said yourself in the post why not go for 750GB. The 8GB flash memory is a big improvement over 4GB. It might not seem like it but that's twice the amount of data or programs that your computer can operate at those near-SSD speeds.

Also, there doesn't seem to be a 500GB model with the SATA 6Gb/s. It only seems to come with SATA 3Gb/s, meaning it's not quite as fast/powerful as the 750GB which does have the 6.

Finally, based on the specs, the 500GB is from the generation before the 750GB model. The previous generation had several more problems that Seagate itself acknowledged. The newer 750GB model is just a much better product than the older 500 model. Seagate itself admits this along with most of the reviewers.

Ok so the extra 0,2mm don't hurt. Good 2 know.
So the 8GB is like upgrading my ram from 4GB to 8GB.
Giving the MBP more space to handle stuff.

Do you really notice the difference in the SATA 3 and 6? Do you have an example?
So they didn't call back the old 500GB's to tweak and fine tune it to release them again with more stability?
Instead of that, the went with a bigger and faster version?

Ill guess ill be sitting out my stock 250GB for an extra month (maybe 2) then and put the money aside for the 750 XT.
Time to sell some stuff in my room lol!

Did you notice any difference in your battery life coming to think of it? Or noticeable noise?

cube · Jul 2, 2012

The XT1 went through several firmware updates.
The XT2 seems quite trouble-free as there haven't been any updates yet.

The cacheing is reportedly smarter on the XT2 too.

definitive · Jul 2, 2012

here's what i did in your situation:

1 main 256ssd and 2 external 5400 usb backup drives (2.5" each). i have lion and adobe apps installed on the ssd, and projects are loaded off of the external drives (both are clones of each other). i'm planning on switching to raid 1 mirrored drives at some point as it would be easier to work with compared to my current setup.

applesoundgear · Jul 2, 2012

My battery life appears to be the same. It's probably slightly lower than with the stock. When I'm not running anything I'll get a full 7 hours+. I currently have a few applications running with several Firefox tabs open and I have 3:45 remaining with 69% battery.

Supposedly the 7200's are faster than 5400's but I haven't noticed a thing. Unless you have your face to your laptop or you're in some setting with complete silence, you won't notice the sound, but that's the same with 5400's. Most people who are really sensitive about the sound issue say that there's not really much of a difference and they often don't notice.

I never had the old XT so I can't give you an experience on the different between the 3Gb/s and the 6Gb/s. I read about a dozen reviews when looking into this drive before buying and almost all of them said that there was just a considerable difference in every aspect of the newer model.

Chances are Seagate will release something new towards the end of 2012 or sometime in 2013 but the price-tag on it will be much higher. The price of the current 750GB will probably go down when a newer model is released but it's really only speculation on when something will come out.

throAU · Jul 2, 2012

5400 vs 7200 isn't so cut and dried.

Spinning disk read/write speed decreases as you move from the beginning of the disk to the end, and this drop off increases dramatically as you go beyond 50% capacity.

So with that in mind - a 5400rpm drive that is using only half its capacity may be faster than a 7200rpm drive that is 80% full - for the hot data that you are actively working on which will be at the end of the consumed space.

For the best speed, buy at least 2x as much space as you need, and then if you can afford/find a drive that is higher rpm of that size, go for that.

Conversely, if your option is only a 750gb 5400rpm or 500gb 7200rpm (as mine was), work out how much you can keep OFF your disk. If you're going to need say 400gb of space, the 750gb drive may well be faster for the "hot" data you are currently working on (which being new data, will be at the end of the disk).

see here:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-WhyYouNeedMoreThanYouNeed.html

and

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-BiggerIsBetter.html

I suspect that if you "need" 400-500gb of space, a 750gb drive will be faster, even if it is only 5400rpm, vs a 500gb 7200rpm drive. If you can get a 1tb 5400rpm, even better.

Al other things being equal (same size drives) - 7200 rpm will be faster, particularly when multitasking, swapping to disk, etc. It can simply seek to different locations on the disk faster. It just depends if you're willing to pay the extra for the faster drive.

With all that in mind, for 400-500gb of data i'd be looking at the Seagate Momentus XT 750gb hybrid, if you can afford it.

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