Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

WD 500GB WD5000BEVT 5400rpm vs. Seagate Momentus 320GB HD 7200rpm (Macbook Aluminium)

Y

YOKOJP

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 25, 2008
81
0
Hi All

Wanted to upgrade my Macbook HD and just wanted your comments or suggestions on the new WD 500GB 5400rpm or the SG Momentus 320GB 7200rpm for Macbook Aluminium. Which one is better?

I want something that's no noise, less heat or no heat and no vibration.
I heard that the Momentus 320GB produces a lot of vibration and other posted that is quiet. I'm just little confused. :confused:

any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

Is this new? I mean I've yet to hear of the WD 500gb. There has only been one post that I've seen here where someone reported minimal vibration from the seagate drive. I would venture to guess if that 500gb does exist then it'll take more power and produce at least some vibraition. I didn't look the drive up because I'm on my phone not my pc.
 
jessica. said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

Is this new? I mean I've yet to hear of the WD 500gb. There has only been one post that I've seen here where someone reported minimal vibration from the seagate drive. I would venture to guess if that 500gb does exist then it'll take more power and produce at least some vibraition. I didn't look the drive up because I'm on my phone not my pc.
Click to expand...

sorry, it's WD500GB 5400rpm and not 7200rpm. so 7200rpm will produce a lot more vibration than 5400rpm?

Thanks
 
i just upgraded my macbook pro to the 320 gb seagate momentus 7200.3 hard drive. i'm very happy with it. theres almost no noise unless you stick your ear onto the case. there might be a TINY bit more vibration, but nothing too noticable. i can't comment on the battery use since my battery has been on a slow death for the past few weeks anyway. however all the reviews online indicate very little impact on battery life for the 7200 rpm drive.
 
I have the Seagate drive and it produces a small amount of vibration. Its not a lot, mind you, but it is noticeable over 5400 drives I have used. It produces no extra heat (less, in fact) and no noise. Not a big fan of WD drives, sorry to say. Not had much luck with them. :(
 
flopticalcube said:
I have the Seagate drive and it produces a small amount of vibration. Its not a lot, mind you, but it is noticeable over 5400 drives I have used. It produces no extra heat (less, in fact) and no noise. Not a big fan of WD drives, sorry to say. Not had much luck with them. :(
Click to expand...

thanks for the info. do you feel the vibration when you put the macbook on your lap?

Thanks again.
 
I have the Seagate Momentus drive in my new MB and I can't say I noticed any vibration problems. So far, I've been pleased with this upgrade, its fast, quiet, it runs cooler and more space is always a good thing.
 
YOKOJP said:
thanks for the info. do you feel the vibration when you put the macbook on your lap?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Not really. Only in the palmrests and then mostly when the MB is on a hard surface like a desk. It also seems that the vibration (more like a slight buzz or hum without the noise) is greater when the laptop is horizontal. If its angled up in any way, the vibration decreases.
 
Hard drive options

Hello Everyone,

I am currently the proud owner of my dinosaur, a 667mhz PowerPC G4 Powerbook. I still have the factory installed 30gig hard drive. I just maxed out my ram to 1 GB SDRAM. Does anyone know if this particular HD in question would work in my powerbook??? If not, what are some recommendations...>?

Thanks in advance
A
 
u2willsmile1 said:
Hello Everyone,

I am currently the proud owner of my dinosaur, a 667mhz PowerPC G4 Powerbook. I still have the factory installed 30gig hard drive. I just maxed out my ram to 1 GB SDRAM. Does anyone know if this particular HD in question would work in my powerbook??? If not, what are some recommendations...>?

Thanks in advance
A
Click to expand...

Look up the specs on your pb. Does it use sata ide, or what?
 
People who have gone from a 5400 to 7200; have you noticed much of a speed increase ?
 
clyde2801 said:
YES. Boots faster, cold apps launch faster, transfers noticably lessened. I bought mine at Best Buy; if I hadn't noticed a difference, I would have returned it. Personally, I think that made more of a difference that doubling the ram.
Click to expand...

Sounds great. I just ordered the Seagate and it should be delivered tomorrow.

I bought the WD 500 gig drive mentioned earlier, but as an external Passport drive and haven't been that impressed with the performance. Probably more to do with the USB connection than the drive though. I will continue to use it as my TimeMachine backup after my Seagate arrives.

I was considering spending the extra money for a SSD, but they are just so expensive for only 128gb right now.
 
YOKOJP said:
Hi All

Wanted to upgrade my Macbook HD and just wanted your comments or suggestions on the new WD 500GB 5400rpm or the SG Momentus 320GB 7200rpm for Macbook Aluminium. Which one is better?

I want something that's no noise, less heat or no heat and no vibration.
I heard that the Momentus 320GB produces a lot of vibration and other posted that is quiet. I'm just little confused. :confused:

any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Apparently, all the 320GB 7200rpm hard drives produce quite a bit of vibration compared to the 5400rpm. I got a Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200rpm hard drive, and although it was fast, the increase in the amount of vibration was too noticeable (on both palm rest) and annoying compared to the stock Toshiba 5400rpm hard drive, so I had to return it.
 
I think people place too much emphasis on laptop hard drive rotation speed.

Storage density can compensate for the slower spindle speed as more data can be accessed for a given area.

There are 7,200RPM desktop hard drives right now that have reached a storage density point that they have faster transfer speeds than old 10,000RPM raptor hard disks.

So my guess is that a laptop 500GB 5,400RPM western digital hard disk will outrun some smaller laptop 7,200 RPM hard disks; up to what size I don't know.

And you'll get more storage capacity, theoretically lower power usage, vibration and heat output with comparable hard disk performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back