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

750gb hdd @ 7200 rpm

Tadros

Tadros

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 29, 2007
378
23
New Jersey
Hey guys,

I am looking to replace my 500GB HDD in my 2011 Macbook Pro with something that has more storage capacity. Ideally I would love to put a TB HDD in my MBP, but as no TB HDD run at 7200 RPM and are 2.5inches, I am looking at 750GB HDD.

The two i have noticed are

Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM 2.5-Inch Mobile Hard Drive

and

Hitachi Travelstar 2.5-Inch 750 GB 7200 RPM SATA II 16 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive

The Hitachi is cheaper, but I am wondering if anyone has used either of these drives, or both, and knows which is better. Currently my MBP has a Hitachi, but I've heard good things about Western Digital.

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Dave
 
Don't count out the 1TB drives. People are reporting decent results with them as they use a higher density platter, enabling more data read per spin.
 
Tadros86 said:
The two i have noticed are

Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM 2.5-Inch Mobile Hard Drive

and

Hitachi Travelstar 2.5-Inch 750 GB 7200 RPM SATA II 16 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive
Click to expand...

They should both be good drives ... nothing much wrong with Hitachi's.

I do have one of the WD Scorpio's but it was pulled out of my machine mbp 2011 ( replaced with SSD ). It will go back in this weekend as 2nd drive once my optibay replacement shows up at home.
 
squeakr said:
Don't count out the 1TB drives. People are reporting decent results with them as they use a higher density platter, enabling more data read per spin.
Click to expand...

I mostly do audio/video editing on my machine so a 5400RPM drive wouldn't work well as I sometimes get crash messages from Protools that my internal 7200 RPM can't keep up. I'd love the TB for space, but the write speed just isn't there.
 
I'd suggest the Hitachi, as they seem to have a very good reliability record, at least with their 500 GB 7200 RPM drives--there have been several members here commenting that they are more conservatively engineered and built, which may explain why.

The WD Scorpio Black is also reputed to be a good drive, although when I tried one it created a fair bit of vibration in my MBP, which I abhor (and am apparently very sensitive to). I have a Hitachi on the way, if you haven't orderedby the time I receive it I'll post my impressions.
 
Personally, I have the WD Black Scorpio 750GB 7200RPM on my 2011 MBP i5 and it works perfectly. Sure it doesn't compare to a SSD but it has never let me down and works perfect.
 
Tadros86 said:
does the drive cause your computer to vibrate?
Click to expand...

I own a 2010 13" and mine doesn't vibrate. Late at night, when it's completely silent, I can hear the hard drive spinning. When I'm on my MBP, I'm either watching TV or have my iTunes going, so the noise doesn't bother me though.
 
Tadros86 said:
I mostly do audio/video editing on my machine so a 5400RPM drive wouldn't work well as I sometimes get crash messages from Protools that my internal 7200 RPM can't keep up. I'd love the TB for space, but the write speed just isn't there.
Click to expand...

You're wrong on HDD performace, I/O performance is an DIRECT PRODUCT of THE PLATTER DENSITY vs SPIN SPEED.

a 1TB HDD Performs i/o at twice the speed of an 512GB HDD both at 5400 RPM, a 512GB HDD will need to SPIN @ 10K RPM to reach that performance.

Other factors as cache size does matter on ramdom read, but on data write is brute performance that accounts.
 
I'd go with the Western Digital or a Seagate. I had a Hitatchi and it died on me. I almost lost all my data. I'll never go with Hitatchi again.
 
If your priority is speed: Scorpio Black
If your priority is silence and battery life: Hitachi
 
guys, great info.

can i put the WD scorpio black 750GB in my 5,1 model (late 2008 mbp 15") and also get a fire wire enclosure and use the existing 250GB as an external hard drive?

mbp currently has 8GB ram... would this set up be ok to edith HD videos? Aslo I'm getting a expresscard since the 5,1 model doesn't have and SD card reader, if i do the HDD upgrade myself, will it void the 3 year warranty? . It is still good till nov,2011

Thank you.
 
Last edited:
yes, the WD Black will work in your macbook. and yes, you can get a firewire external for your current drive.

as for will it edit hd videos, i have no idea.


as long as you don't break anything installing it, you won't void your apple care...
 
Mago said:
You're wrong on HDD performace, I/O performance is an DIRECT PRODUCT of THE PLATTER DENSITY vs SPIN SPEED.

a 1TB HDD Performs i/o at twice the speed of an 512GB HDD both at 5400 RPM, a 512GB HDD will need to SPIN @ 10K RPM to reach that performance.

Other factors as cache size does matter on ramdom read, but on data write is brute performance that accounts.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true. It depends on partition, aka where the data itself is located. You see a larger difference with the first few allocations (aka the outer portions of the platter). e.g. 1mm vs 2mm for the outer portion, versus like 20mm vs 21mm.
 
Philflow said:
If your priority is speed: Scorpio Black
If your priority is silence and battery life: Hitachi
Click to expand...

So the WD eats up battery life? How badly? And are you saying it's also loud or just louder than a Hitachi?

----------

Seagate Momentus 7200 750 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Internal Notebook Hard Drive

I just noticed this one too, how good or bad is this option?
 
Tadros86 said:
So the WD eats up battery life? How badly? And are you saying it's also loud or just louder than a Hitachi?
Click to expand...

Idle about 1.3 watt, active about 3.7 watt.
http://nl.hardware.info/productinfo/benchmarks/4/harddisksssds?products[]=117299&specId=8015
http://nl.hardware.info/productinfo/benchmarks/4/harddisksssds?products[]=117299&specId=8016

I've tried two Blacks, both of them were not that loud but they had noticeable vibrations.

My current XT 500GB is dead quiet and leaves no vibration at all.
 
WD Blue 1TB 9.5mm 5400RPM drive is getting read/writes of almost 100mb/s, and it's only $130! Faster than most 7200RPM drives and lots of storage for cheap!
 
Sequential performance of the WD 1TB is alright, but real world performance is way slower than the faster 7200rpm drives.
 
Thunderbolt

I'd love to just get a thunderbolt hard drive and be done with it. Taking forever to get one on the market that is consumer friendly. I can't afford a five rack thunderbolt hard drive RAID setup.
 
Tadros86 said:
Hey guys,

I am looking to replace my 500GB HDD in my 2011 Macbook Pro with something that has more storage capacity. Ideally I would love to put a TB HDD in my MBP, but as no TB HDD run at 7200 RPM and are 2.5inches, I am looking at 750GB HDD.

The two i have noticed are

Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM 2.5-Inch Mobile Hard Drive

and

Hitachi Travelstar 2.5-Inch 750 GB 7200 RPM SATA II 16 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive

The Hitachi is cheaper, but I am wondering if anyone has used either of these drives, or both, and knows which is better. Currently my MBP has a Hitachi, but I've heard good things about Western Digital.

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Dave
Click to expand...

my first early 2011 13" mbp I installed the western scorpio 750GB HDD 7200 rpm, the battery life decreases and it has really bad vibration noticeable.

i went and bought another 13" 2011 last night and installed the 750GB 7200rpm Hitachi.. It's like the stock 320GB, quiet, battery life is about the same. Get the HITACHI cheaper and reliable!! plus I bought both from newegg, I did not like the "oem" package of the western scorpio
 
Unfortunately the Hitachi is not being sold by Amazon any longer. But the Seagate and WD are. I'm not really looking to buy the WD anymore since so many have said it vibrates a lot and kills battery life. Does anyone know anything about the Seagate?
 
The Seagate is rather slow for a 7200rpm drive as you can see in several reviews (Notebookreview, Techreport). I wouldn't buy it.

Seagate Momentus XT 500GB is very fast though.

The will be a new XT 750GB with 8GB cache before the end of the year.
 
ataboc said:
Whynot an ssd and an external?
Click to expand...

SSDs are crazy expensive. I'm looking for a happy medium between space/speed/price. I have a 500GB 7200 RPM right now, just not enough space between Mac/Windows both being on here.

I am definitely buying a lacie HDD with thunderbolt when they come out.
 
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