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7200 rpm HDD vibration in MacBook Pro 13'?

L

Lucagfc

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Hi everyone

What I want to know is that if I replace my 160 GB 5400 RMP HDD with a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD in my MacBook Pro 13' the noise level and vibration become much stronger ? Thanks a lot
 
Lucagfc said:
Hi everyone

What I want to know is that if I replace my 160 GB 5400 RMP HDD with a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD in my MacBook Pro 13' the noise level and vibration become much stronger ? Thanks a lot
Click to expand...

I've been running the whole time with a 320gb 7200 rpm (I didn't even boot the 160gb once, I removed the bottom and replace the drive out of the box with my old 320gb one from my unibody 13.3) I haven't noticed much vibrational issues. but I never use it on my lap, mostly on desks. so I'm sure that dampens any that might be there.
 
Get the 500GB WD Scorpio Blue

I did a little research on this subject as I'm in the same boat as you...I ended up reading that the 5400rpm 500gb WD Scorpio blue was almost as fast as the 7200rpm WD Scorpio black....i just bought the Scorpio Blue from best buy lastnight for my 13" MBP...it's on sale right now but backordered online...you may be able to get it for in store pickup though (that's what I did).
 
Lucagfc said:
Hi everyone

What I want to know is that if I replace my 160 GB 5400 RMP HDD with a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD in my MacBook Pro 13' the noise level and vibration become much stronger ? Thanks a lot
Click to expand...

You will definitely notice your the HDD if you replace it. Your tolerance is another issue. Some feel that it is way too noisy or it vibrates too much. Others will say they don't mind it while the rest will say they don't have such issues. No one here can give you a definite answer. You're going to have to get one and try it for yourself. There are a few 7200 RPM HDD's out there so if you find one that doesn't meet your needs, you can choose another.
 
If you do it right, the difference will be minimal. Sometimes people don't put the bracket down back right, or they will skip out of a few of the torx screws (I've seen this happen 🙁 ), and then it causes it to vibrate much more.
 
I had a 320GB Hitachi in mine, and the vibration was too much for the extended periods of time that I type on the laptop itself. I ended up going back to the stock drive for the time being, and throwing the 320 in an external enclosure.
 
I just replaced my 160GB 5400RPM with a 500GB 7200.4 Seagate. Definitely feels snappier overall, and I've noticed less beachballing in Firefox.

I did a clean install of Snow Leopard and then used migration assistant to copy all the settings/apps over.

Vibration wise, I definitely feel it 'more' than the 5400rpm, but I don't mind it at all for the perceived increased speed.

Re: Noise level - I don't notice a difference between the 2 drives as my work environment isn't completely silent.
 
i have the black WD 320GB and used the stock 250 for some time before i switched. i did notice a very slight difference in the noise and vibration after i switched but i mean very very very slight. if i handed the Macbook to someone that didnt know what it was like before i switched they wouldn't notice the noise or vibration.

it was worth it though as i saw an improvement in performance with the WD Black 7200 versus the stock 5400 so it was more than worth it to me.
 
dlewis23 said:
If you do it right, the difference will be minimal. Sometimes people don't put the bracket down back right, or they will skip out of a few of the torx screws (I've seen this happen 🙁 ), and then it causes it to vibrate much more.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Some just vibrate more than others and no amount of feasible mounting is going to take it away. You can screw the mount as often or as hard as you like and it still vibrates to make your hands tingle.

I tried everything including adding rubber mounts and padding the case and it made little difference. It doesn't help that the drive sits right under the palm rest either.
 
NC MacGuy said:
Not necessarily. Some just vibrate more than others and no amount of feasible mounting is going to take it away. You can screw the mount as often or as hard as you like and it still vibrates to make your hands tingle.

I tried everything including adding rubber mounts and padding the case and it made little difference. It doesn't help that the drive sits right under the palm rest either.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Also, I don't know how it is pre-unibody models but I'm really having a hard time believing that someone can not put the bracket correctly - it's foolproof and only one way of screwing back in place - if it fits, it fits.
 
Just got a macbookpro 13" (unibody). I swapped out for the Seagate 7200.4, nearly stripping a screw in the process... checked with apple store geniuses, screw is still fine. .it's my crappy screwdriver. Getting a decent 00 screwdriver shortly. Don't forget to have a good Torx T6 handy. Thanks to the apple store genius, who also reseated my hard drive.

Initially I thought it had a lot more vibration, so much that I had a new drive shipped to me today (which I will try soon). I have the first 7200.4 although the vibration seems slightly less after the genius touched it. 😉

What I noticed... if I put my rest my hand lightly on the right-side palm-rest. I definitely feel the vibration (not too annoying), but very noticeable. I also noticed that my desk is also not flat, so that rubber foot (on the bottom of the laptop) is not touching the desk. When I put both hands on the laptop to start typing, the vibration drops off to nearly nothing. I am still suspicious, because I thought it was running hot (and there was strange discolorations on the circuit board underneath the drive.. like corrosion). To be fair, it was getting hot during the OSX re-install and the bootcamp install. 😛
 
I had swapped in my 7200.3 320 gb drive and it ran fine in my 13 mpb. It was a little faster. Rated 5.9 in windows 7 disk tests. It did have a little bit more vibration spinning up, but not enough to really bother me.

I did do some testing though, the battery life was siginificantly shorter. I was getting about 5:15 on my battery and I couldn't figure out why (1/2 dimness and light browsing) I swapped ram back to the standard 2gb and power consumption dropped a little (like 10-15mins worth). but then I swapped in the old 160gb it came with and got 6:30. I checked the power consumption on the about my mac power section and it would average about 1100->1200 ma on the 7200 rpm drive and 900-1000 on the 5400 rpm drive. So I then went and bought a hitachi 500gb drive of the same model and I have the long battery life without the extra vibration. However it only benches 5.8 in windows 7 now.

I looked at the power profiles of the seagate 7200.4 500gb, the WD blue 500gb and 640gb, Seagate 5400.6 500gb Fujitsu 5400rpm 500gb, Samsung 5400rpm 500gb and the hitachi 5k500.B is the best for power consumption. Check it out yourselves, most sites have a detailed list of power specs for their drives. Also samsung is the worst. Sucks down more power than many of the 7200 rpm drives for a 5400 rpm.

just some thought if battery life is important. 5.5 hours is alot of time. Not everyone needs 6.5+
 
Ok... just wanted to update, since most people never seem to do it after solving a problem. 🙂

I received a new hard drive from newegg... manufacture data 2009 May 22 (previous one was one day earlier, May 21). The bottom does not have the discoloration of the previous one.

I waited until I got a 00 philips head driver (today) and I already have a T6 torx driver. Just swapped it out and it's reinstalling osx now... almost no vibration, which was definitely not true of the previous one. Looks like it's about 10% in. I can't talk about heat yet, because it's not been on that long, but it is cool so far. Thank goodness I swapped, because I was beginning to second guess myself.

Now looking forward to using my 500gb momentus 7200.4 in the 13" mbp. 🙂 Hope that helps. 🙂
 
I've seen it definitely vary between new MBPs having handled a few. One was atrocious - felt vibration over whole of macbook. You'll likely get some whether 5400rpm or 7200rpm, but if you're installing youreself you have more ability to dampen it.
 
You'll have to confirm (google it)... but from what I remember... the GForce in the drives interferes with the built in shock prevention in the MBP. So mine is a non-GForce model and I think that is the recommended. Although, you may be able to turn off the setting somewhere? Not sure...

FYI... my mbp is still running great with the replacement 7.2k drive...
 
Lucagfc said:
Hi everyone

What I want to know is that if I replace my 160 GB 5400 RMP HDD with a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD in my MacBook Pro 13' the noise level and vibration become much stronger ? Thanks a lot
Click to expand...

I doubt it. its not always spinning at full RPM...
 
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