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Which of the Three 500Gb Hard Drives from newegg.com?

P

phil83

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 4, 2006
129
0
Washington, DC
I'm sorry this has probally been hashed over and over, but which of the three hard drives should I get from newegg for my MBP2.3 15":
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380 1309740009&name=500GB

*Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $109.99

*Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $109.99

*SAMSUNG Spinpoint M6 HM500LI 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $104.99

They all seem pretty much the same, I'm just not sure if they will fit in my macbook pro 2.3 15".

Any thoughts please?
 
click on view all reviews and have them display as many reviews per page as possible and hit apple-F (or command-F) and search for macbook pro

newegg customer reviews are actually useful since they are purchased by people in the know (computer-people) vs Joe-Blow at Walmart.

(Sorry, if I offended anyone named Joe. But I do shop at Walmart. every week!)

but just going by brand, in the past seagate had the 5 year warranty whereas everyone else had a 3 year warranty.
 
If the longer warranty means that the drive is built better then i would agree, but if it doesn't (and we really don't have a way of knowing) then i go for the one with the best reputation and specs.

Personally i don't care about hard drive warranties because i would never send in a faulty hard drive as i would worry about them obtaining sensitive information on the drive, unless i had a way of wiping it but if it's broken that may not be possible.
 
phil83 said:
I'm sorry this has probally been hashed over and over, but which of the three hard drives should I get from newegg for my MBP2.3 15":
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380 1309740009&name=500GB

*Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $109.99

*Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $109.99

*SAMSUNG Spinpoint M6 HM500LI 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $104.99

They all seem pretty much the same, I'm just not sure if they will fit in my macbook pro 2.3 15".

Any thoughts please?
Click to expand...

Western Digital drive only uses 2 platters and has pretty good reviews from other sites. Don't buy a hard drive based on the warranty.
 
They are all 5400 RPM drives... that's slow. I'll stick with the 250GB 7200RPM drive that my MBP came with, and get an external drive for extra storage. ;)
 
I am replacing the hard drive in my MBP 15" as well. My current drive just died and is 2.5yrs old (came with the MBP).

The specs on my machine are:
Vendor: Intel
Product ICH7-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

Capacity: 93.16GB
Model: ST9100824AS
Revision: 7.01

I don't know much about hard drives but I know that the HD has to be compatible with the controller. Will any of the three mentioned drives work even though they are SATA 3.0Gb/s? I think that the Intel ICH7-M AHCI will only support up to 1.5Ghz transfer rates.
 
I am thinking about upgrading the HD in my MBP, but I'm a bit put off by the whole opening of the case. How difficult was it? How likely do you think a first time opener of an MBP be to damage it?

I watched the video on OWC and it seems the only real issue is the one clip that I think holds the keyboard to the case...how easy is that to break?

I do have AppleCare and would have to put back in the old HD if the MBP ever had to go in for service. Can they tell that you've opened it up (assuming you don't mess something up)?

I would slightly rather have them do it, but I asked a Genius today at the store and he said they don't do hard drive upgrades for MBPs after you've already purchased it.

I have a 2.2 GHz 15" MBP (santa rosa)...so that means 2.5" sata right?
 
clickit22 said:
I am replacing the hard drive in my MBP 15" as well. My current drive just died and is 2.5yrs old (came with the MBP).

The specs on my machine are:
Vendor: Intel
Product ICH7-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

Capacity: 93.16GB
Model: ST9100824AS
Revision: 7.01

I don't know much about hard drives but I know that the HD has to be compatible with the controller. Will any of the three mentioned drives work even though they are SATA 3.0Gb/s? I think that the Intel ICH7-M AHCI will only support up to 1.5Ghz transfer rates.
Click to expand...

ya i was wondering about this too. My interpretation is that my computer will not be able to benefit from the 3.0Gb/s spec of the drive, since the bottle neck seems to be inboard of the hard drive, built into my computer, limited at 1.5Gb/s.
 
I just replaced my HD and bought this one from Newegg:

*Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM $109.99

I've never had a problem with any WD drives in the past, and this one is no exception to that. It's been performing beautifully since I've installed it, quiet, no heat issues or anything else yet. Only been running for about a month, but so far so good. For the record, I have a MB Pro Santa Rosa 2.2. I also ordered 4 gigs of ram to go with it, got the 2 sticks of 2 gigs for $15.99 each and it's also been working wonderfully.
 
MBHockey said:
I am thinking about upgrading the HD in my MBP, but I'm a bit put off by the whole opening of the case. How difficult was it? How likely do you think a first time opener of an MBP be to damage it?

I watched the video on OWC and it seems the only real issue is the one clip that I think holds the keyboard to the case...how easy is that to break?

I do have AppleCare and would have to put back in the old HD if the MBP ever had to go in for service. Can they tell that you've opened it up (assuming you don't mess something up)?

I would slightly rather have them do it, but I asked a Genius today at the store and he said they don't do hard drive upgrades for MBPs after you've already purchased it.

I have a 2.2 GHz 15" MBP (santa rosa)...so that means 2.5" sata right?
Click to expand...

I have the exact same MBP and did the configuration with the WD drive. Taking apart was not as hard as it looks, follow the instructions from ifixit.com.

I'd recommend to keep track of the screws, what I did was had a napkin with a line drawn through in half. I would write step 6 on one half, step 7 on the next, etc for every step that involved removing screws. This makes it easier when you're going backwards and need to put the screws back in, just grab the screws on the napkin or paper and put those screws back. It took me a total of 45 minutes to replace my drive. Part of the reason was that I kind of knew what I was doing since I had done this before, but if I didn't know what I was doing, I can't imagine it taking more than an hour and a half from start to finish.

Regarding applecare, they might be able to tell if you took it apart because there's some yellow tape that you have to remove, and it doesn't quite go on the exact same way (I left mine off, but it's past warranty anyways). I'd say overall it's a very safe procedure, just take it slow, and make sure to use a static mat or at the very least make sure you touch the side casing of the computer to discharge any static before you grab the hard drive, boards, etc.
 
jeffy.dee-lux said:
ya i was wondering about this too. My interpretation is that my computer will not be able to benefit from the 3.0Gb/s spec of the drive, since the bottle neck seems to be inboard of the hard drive, built into my computer, limited at 1.5Gb/s.
Click to expand...

jeffy, you may be right.

I found this post on the discussion of the HD I'd like to buy:
There is some confusion about installing a jumper on this drive when using older SATA I controller cards. (My MacBook Pro uses the Intel ICH7-M chipset, which is SATA I/1.5 Gb/s.) I installed the drive with no jumpers and the machine had no problems recognizing the drive. Some people have reported having to put jumpers on the outermost set of pins to get their older Macs to recognize the drive, but I had no such issue.

I'm not sure what a jumper is or how to do it, however it seems as though the SATA 3.0Gb/s drives will work.

This begs the question, is it worth buying the 3.0Gb/s drive if you don't benefit from the extra transfer rate?
 
GREAT! i was really wanting a 7200 RPM 500gb drive, but i just settled for the 500gb WD. Now i dont know what i should do. SHould I return it and wait for the seagate to come out?
 
JLatte said:
I have the exact same MBP and did the configuration with the WD drive. Taking apart was not as hard as it looks, follow the instructions from ifixit.com.

I'd recommend to keep track of the screws, what I did was had a napkin with a line drawn through in half. I would write step 6 on one half, step 7 on the next, etc for every step that involved removing screws. This makes it easier when you're going backwards and need to put the screws back in, just grab the screws on the napkin or paper and put those screws back. It took me a total of 45 minutes to replace my drive. Part of the reason was that I kind of knew what I was doing since I had done this before, but if I didn't know what I was doing, I can't imagine it taking more than an hour and a half from start to finish.

Regarding applecare, they might be able to tell if you took it apart because there's some yellow tape that you have to remove, and it doesn't quite go on the exact same way (I left mine off, but it's past warranty anyways). I'd say overall it's a very safe procedure, just take it slow, and make sure to use a static mat or at the very least make sure you touch the side casing of the computer to discharge any static before you grab the hard drive, boards, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that information. I'm trying to decide if possibly voiding my warranty would be worth it. Hmm.

Would you say the speed gains in real-world tasks are noticeable?
 
MBHockey said:
Thanks for that information. I'm trying to decide if possibly voiding my warranty would be worth it. Hmm.

Would you say the speed gains in real-world tasks are noticeable?
Click to expand...

To be honest... I got it more for the disk size than the speed gains. Speed gains I don't notice as much of. They have benchmarks somewhere I read, but I don't have the links off hand.
 
Well...my inner nerd got the best of me. I found the 320 GB scorpio drive (you know, simply just curious about how much it was) for $84.10 shipped from ewiz.com yesterday, so I ordered it. Newegg was out of stock and $5 more. I know the last time I looked at this drive (this past summer) it was going for around $200...I couldn't pass it up :)

I'll post back after I (with any luck) successfully install the drive in about a week or so :eek:

I've got the instructions from ifixit printed out and have all the tools I need. I just don't want to break anything :)
 
from what i know

Hitachi 500GB cannt fit in cause it;s thicker

Samsung SpinPoint 500GB using 3 platter technology, thus a little bit slower and need more power consumption.

so this will let you with 2 option

Seagate 500GB

and

Western Digital 500GB

actually there's one more but it's not available yet

Seagate 7200rpm 500gb HDD.

anyway after thinkin and browsing several reviews site
i decided to get the seagate 500GB and i'm pleased by it
it's silent, ad i've been loyal costumer ffor seagate in the past couple of year.

it runs slightly hotter than my 250 GB seagate though.
but i haighly recommend them.
 
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