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MBP123

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 26, 2006
192
0
I am in the need of a 750GB hard drive to replace my 500GB western digital myBook HD. I don't think anyone (ie lacie or WD) makes a single 750 gb hard drive that can be used with FW 400/800, only USB 2.0. Those are my only requirements. Must be a single drive (no double drives like the big disk extreme), and must have at least fw400.

should i buy this http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST3750640AS/ and then put it in a case myself? Will it work with my macbook pro (can i boot from it?) I usually run my mbp off the external so id need to boot from it. any other suggestions as to what to do? could someone recommend me a case to house that drive? thanks
 
a drive is a drive (generally) regardless of who makes it - the firewire/usb/etc interfaces on the enclosure all go through a chipset to either an IDE or SATA interface on the other side that the drive plugs into, so usually, that's the only thing to worry about.

Reliablity, noise, heat disapation and chipset quality aside, most enclosures (and drives) work in pretty much an identical way, and will alow you to format them for Mac and boot from them.

I did have one enclosure for which the 120GB fitted easily but a 200GB was a bit of a squeeze, so that may be an issue.

I like Seagate, never had an issue with them. I'm pretty sure Hitachi also do a 750 now. and both of them are available in either IDE or SATA.

If you do need a new enclosure (and I don't think you do) - MacPower do nice ones - the IceCube 'Pleiades' are fanless and goodlooking
 
should i buy this http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST3750640AS/ and then put it in a case myself? Will it work with my macbook pro (can i boot from it?) I usually run my mbp off the external so id need to boot from it. any other suggestions as to what to do? could someone recommend me a case to house that drive? thanks

You were almost there... http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/800+USB2/
Choose whatever fits your needs, you get a 2 year warranty on the unit PLUS 3 year warranty on the drive (directly from Seagate). I don't think you'll find a better deal that equals the quality of this product. Putting a drive in a case is no big deal but, in this case, is it worth the savings? Will you get a cheaper case as good?
 
You were almost there... http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/800+USB2/
Choose whatever fits your needs, you get a 2 year warranty on the unit PLUS 3 year warranty on the drive (directly from Seagate). I don't think you'll find a better deal that equals the quality of this product. Putting a drive in a case is no big deal but, in this case, is it worth the savings? Will you get a cheaper case as good?


and thats a seagate drive

wont have any problems booting off it to my macbook pro?
 
yeah not partitioning it....just want to boot off of it while im at my desk
 
I priced out Seagate drives and cases that I would trust over at Newegg, and the OWC pre-fab kits always came out cheaper. So I went with OWC. Got the 250GB Mercury with Seagate 7200.9.

Man, just the cheapest case alone is more expensive than a 250GB HDD... they sure are nice looking though.
 
Man, just the cheapest case alone is more expensive than a 250GB HDD... they sure are nice looking though.
It doesn't make any sense to me putting a good HD inside a cheap enclosure. They use top quality chipsets in a machined aluminum enclosure, and the prices for the HDs alone are very good. How much would you be saving by getting a cheaper, not so good enclosure? 20~30 bucks? Is it worth it?
 
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