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Anyone know the model of Factory Fitted 320gb Hard drives?

S

Soundburst

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 4, 2006
691
20
Hello, I have an early 2007 MacBook Pro Core-2-Duo 2.16Ghz and i'm looking to upgrade my 120GB hard drive to a 320GB one.

I am concerned that this will result in increased noise and heat and was wondering does anyone know the model of the hard drive I could have upgraded to (320gb) so as I know i'm getting an Apple Authorized one?
 
If you're upgrading your HD, you can choose any compatible drive... brand is irrelevant, since Apple doesn't make drives.
 
Yeh but I presume Apple use good quality drives hence their quietness?

Or are all notebook drives practically the same.
 
One of my external drives is a Hitatchi 200GB 7200rpm drive that I bought from OWC. It's exactly the same drive as the one that came in my MBP. You just have to read reviews and comparisons of drives to see which ones have less noise, heat and power consumption and better performance. That varies not only between manufacturers, but between models as well.
 
aaronon said:
Hello, I have an early 2007 MacBook Pro Core-2-Duo 2.16Ghz and i'm looking to upgrade my 120GB hard drive to a 320GB one.

I am concerned that this will result in increased noise and heat and was wondering does anyone know the model of the hard drive I could have upgraded to (320gb) so as I know i'm getting an Apple Authorized one?
Click to expand...

My stock 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive in my MBP Unibody is a Hitachi 5K320 (HTS543232L9SA02). But as far as I know there's a couple of different brands in the Macbooks, there's not a specific authorized one.

However, it's not warm at all (iStat is currently displaying 36˚C HDD temperature) while surfing in my bed. Noise wise it's similar to the fans at 2000rpm, just a tad louder.. but that's probably due to the fact that it's closer to my ear than the fans. :)

All and all my machine is almost dead silent so it doesn't matter if it's a bit louder then the fans.

I hope that it helped you in your quest for a new drive. As a small notice I did upgrade my girlfriend's 100GB 5400 RPM disk to the same drive as mine (the Hitachi 320GB) and according to HD Tach it showed a 30% increase in transfer speeds, which is really good. Her computer sure does feel snappier now. I guess that you'll see similar performance increase.

Take care,
bolen
 
I've ordered it. . .it seems to be 300 SATA. Is that alright for my computer? I have no idea what it means.
 
ggjstudios said:
One of my external drives is a Hitatchi 200GB 7200rpm drive that I bought from OWC. It's exactly the same drive as the one that came in my MBP. You just have to read reviews and comparisons of drives to see which ones have less noise, heat and power consumption and better performance. That varies not only between manufacturers, but between models as well.
Click to expand...

I put that drive in my MBP (Jul 2007), and it's noticeably louder than the 160 GB 5400 RPM drive it replaced. I recognize that 7200 RPM drives may be louder, but I think there must be quieter 7200 RPM 2.5" drives out there.
 
darwinian said:
I put that drive in my MBP (Jul 2007), and it's noticeably louder than the 160 GB 5400 RPM drive it replaced. I recognize that 7200 RPM drives may be louder, but I think there must be quieter 7200 RPM 2.5" drives out there.
Click to expand...
Mine is so quiet, I can barely hear it, even with my ear on the wrist pad.
 
I put in a 500 GB, 5400 rpm Seagate drive. Works fine. At a certain point in the MBPro manufacturing history the SATA controller went from 150 GByte/sec to 300 GByte/sec, though most drives (including Seagate, which I got) have a jumper that will let them work in 150 mode. It turns out when I had to have my MBPro 15" serviced a few months earlier due to the NVidia graphics chip failing, they went ahead and replaced the motherboard so I had the 300 controller already there.

The drive cost $110 from Newegg.com. I went ahead and paid $250 for an Apple-authorized service tech to do the replacement for me, both to preserve warranty and because I didn't have the half-day and the tools to do it myself. THere are also outfits on the web that advertise hard drive upgrades for around $350, where you ship the laptop to them and they ship it back.
 
aaronon said:
I've ordered it. . .it seems to be 300 SATA. Is that alright for my computer? I have no idea what it means.
Click to expand...

It seems that you bought "older" technology. If you are taking the time to upgrade, you should have gone the latest and greatest.
 
mobi said:
It seems that you bought "older" technology. If you are taking the time to upgrade, you should have gone the latest and greatest.
Click to expand...

I've bought older :eek: Nooooo.

I didn't know my computer was compatible with newer stuff.

Oh well. Bolen says its fine and that'll do me.
 
I had to cancel my hitachi hard drive due to delivery being unavailable.

I went for a WD Scorpio drive with whisper quiet. Are these reasonably good?
 
aaronon said:
I had to cancel my hitachi hard drive due to delivery being unavailable.

I went for a WD Scorpio drive with whisper quiet. Are these reasonably good?
Click to expand...

Some people hate em, others love em. I have Seagate, WD & Hitachi 2.5 (and 1 Samsung) inch SATA drives in 4 different laptops and 6 external housings including 120GB, 160GB, 200GB, & 320GB (some are 5400rpm and others 7200rpm). They are all reasonably quiet and work very well for me. Modern drives work pretty well but with the millions of units out there, some fail. Keep good backups and you'll be fine.

Cheers,
 
aaronon said:
Hello, I have an early 2007 MacBook Pro Core-2-Duo 2.16Ghz and i'm looking to upgrade my 120GB hard drive to a 320GB one.

I am concerned that this will result in increased noise and heat and was wondering does anyone know the model of the hard drive I could have upgraded to (320gb) so as I know i'm getting an Apple Authorized one?
Click to expand...

Seriously, why would you want to fit another drive that's identical to Apple's default, I don't know. Usually the drive they install is the cheapest bulk drive they can lay their hands on. Besides, even if you were to install the same model or brand, it still won't bare the Apple logo on the label. I would suggest you buy whatever brand you prefer or can afford. Performance wise there's not much init compared to desktop counterparts.

I have Western Digital branded HD's in all my systems, mostly because I found them to be reliable and i usually get them cheaper.
 
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