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320GB 2.5" Seagate Momentus 7200... is this a good HD for a MacBook?

For what it's worth, I bought 2 500GB laptop drives recently (I went with Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B drives based on various ratings, and avoided 7200rpm for fear of heat/noise/vibrarion issues). Anyway, they were both OEM, in the little silvery plastic envelopes...

The first one I bought from NewEgg and it arrived wrapped in bubble-wrap and stuffed in a box with some styrofoam peanuts. Which the manufacturer's website specifically says would be unacceptable for a warranty return (i.e. send it to us like this and we'll void your warranty). Poking around on NewEgg, I saw a *lot* of reviews (for all different drives) saying, "great drive but newegg's shipping for drives has really gone downhill", or, worse, "drive arrived broken!". *My* drive worked/works just fine (cross fingers), but that was a little worrisome.

The second, identical, drive, I bought from OWC (macsales), and it arrived in the recommended drive packaging, a box with purpose-built plastic spacers with shock-absorbing indentations (Hitachi's site says "sometimes referred to as a GeoSprings Kit"). Anyway, I paid $10 extra to buy the second drive from OWC, and was happier with that experience than I was with NewEgg.

My $0.02.
 
Thanks to both of you! The Newegg looks good, price wise, but now I'm a little concerned about the packaging. Also in some of the reviews it mentions the vibrations being really bad. Any ideas on this? Maybe the 7200 rpms? I just want to get the best drive for the money. I can get a 5600 with 8mb of cache or a 7200 with 16mb of cache. Seems like the latter is the better deal?
 
I've been looking as well

I've also been looking at upgrading my late 2006 MBP's 5400 RPM 120 GB drive.

I haven't decided to buy anything yet, but the Seagate drive CaptainChunk recommended (7200.4) looked promising, especially because of Seagate's claims regarding low power usage. Even though my MBP is usually used as a desktop, I'd rather not make it use more power than it needs to. The problem I saw with the WD Scorpio Black was their power consumption, for speeds only slightly better than Seagate.

The other thing I saw several times was complaints about both the Seagate and the WD Scorpio black- people said that they were significantly louder than the stock drives. Others said that they weren't louder at all, at least not noticeably, and that the loud drives were probably just installed incorrectly.

Any thoughts?

Also, what about Fujitsu? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822116160
It's the same price as the Western Digital and the Seagate, 7200 rpm, 320 GB, and seems to be rated a bit higher than either of those.
 
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15079

this article is helpful in deciding the performance gains.


I have a 7200rpm and i do admit it transfers alot faster than the 5400rpm. It still is only a few seconds saved on most daily tasks. unless you are transferring 40GB+ daily i dont think 7200rpm is too necessary.


The noise is noticable in terms of hearing it. Is it bothersome? no. At times, the fan is louder than the HD so it makes no real difference. I do notice higher temperatures on the 7200rpm but only a few degrees of difference that would not be a significant impact to the overall temperature.



One big plus with the WD is the blacks have a 5 year warranty which is quite the time for a small harddrive. Macbooks have been known to get that infamous question mark folder and that 5 year warranty will help if that situation does arise.
 
I replaced the stock drive (120GB@5400rpm) by the Momentus 320GB@7200 rpm and I can assure you: there is a big improvement in speed.
The system boots in 45 seconds instead of 70 seconds, Quark Xpress opens in 33 seconds instead of 50 and Garageband in 14 seconds instead of 28. My Macbook feels definitely faster.
I have no complaints about vibration, noise, power consumption or heat.
The upgrade Momentus 320 GB@7200.4 is highly recommended.
(7200.3 is not as good)
 
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