after long time using this MBP I finally plan to upgrade HD. After read several reviews, it shows despite 10000rpm HD was out, but the price is a bit expensive. So finally 'Western Digital 320GB 2.5" Hard Drive Scorpio Black SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache' came in to my eyes. But all the reviews I've read are relatively old. So here comes the question, which HD is most recommendable solution recently (better than WD 320GB one) which match the requirement on value for money and good performance? Thanks for the answer
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Best HD Upgrd for MBP MA895LL/ 2.2G?
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How much are you willing to spend? Most SSDs are pretty expensive but much faster than 10,000 RPM drives. You can get a OCZ Vertex (120 GB) or an Intel X-25 M (80 GB) for a little more than 300 dollars.
I just bought that drive yesterday from Amazon.com for $76. Looks like it's $78 right now but still a pretty good deal.
I chose this drive because it's a perfect balance of speed, space and affordability. Unless you're looking to spend more, this is probably one of the best drives you can put in your MBP.
It should be arriving today (I have amazon prime
). I'll install it and post my impressions of it and how it compares to the 120GB 5400rpm drive that is currently in my MBP later on today.I just put in that 320GB 7200RPM WD Scorpio drive in the exact same machine, along with 4GB of RAM, and I can see a very significant performance increase. It's like a new computer. In fact, my two year old machine has a better HD and more RAM than the base MBP now...you'd have to spend another $300 or so if you bought from Apple, to match what I have in my 2 year old MBP.
i upgraded to the 320GB 7200RPM WD Scorpio as well. it is pretty amazing. i wanted the seagate momentus 7200.4 500GB but they are all sold out at the moment.
The WD 500g Scorpio Blue (5400rpm) is not much more $, and it performs as fast as the WD 320g Scorpio Black (7200,) and in some cases a little faster, other than access time and Windows booting. Check the review/charts here. There are 7 pages, including several charts comparing a number of drives, including the WD 320g Scorpio Black and the WD 500g Scorpio Blue. You might just be surprised at the results. I have one, and wouldn't trade the extra space for the difference in performance. I've already got 242gigs of space used up on my 500gig drive that replaced a 120g drive. If I had gone for a 320g drive, I'd be regretting it already.
Drive installed successfully! So far I haven't really noticed any performance boost, but I'm digging all the extra free space I now have.
I took some pictures of the installation
Pic 1: Using CCC to clone my drive to the scorpio
Pic 2: all the screws nice and organized
Pic 3: Ok, this was very strange. When I pulled my hard drive out of my MBP, there were only 3 out of 4 rubber bumpers on the drive. When I went to install the new drive, I figured oh well, it's survived this long with only 3 bumpers so I installed the new drive as is.
Pic 4: Success
I took some pictures of the installation
Pic 1: Using CCC to clone my drive to the scorpio
Pic 2: all the screws nice and organized
Pic 3: Ok, this was very strange. When I pulled my hard drive out of my MBP, there were only 3 out of 4 rubber bumpers on the drive. When I went to install the new drive, I figured oh well, it's survived this long with only 3 bumpers so I installed the new drive as is.
Pic 4: Success
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Great as always Flint.
that is some great info. it's really impressive that the WD Blue 5400 can perform as well and in some cases better than the 7200. just a sign of great quality i guess. you always make me wish i had gotten the WD Blue 500GB 5400. damn you!!
but im happy with the WD Black 320GB 7200. size is as big a deal for me cause i got a 1TB external hooked up thru FW800.
I'm debating between that drive and the seagate momentus. any reason you didn't go with the seagate?
http://www.silentpcreview.com/500gb_laptop_drives
this site seems to give the seagate a slight nod....
I started upgrading my MBP to a 120Gb OZC Core Series V2 SSD, but got tired of slow writing times..
I'm running the 7200Rpm WD Scorpio you mention, and i gotta say that i'm satisfied.. Runs like a charm, and won't poduce more noise.
I'm running the 7200Rpm WD Scorpio you mention, and i gotta say that i'm satisfied.. Runs like a charm, and won't poduce more noise.
It's a good question, and I hadn't seen the link you gave, but to answer your question fairly, here's how I decided.
When I was first looking for a new drive, I initially considered the 500g 7200rpm Seagate that a lot folks here were excited about. While a lot of people were happy and reported great increases in performance, a few people reported more vibration than the stock drive, and a few said their drives failed... so I became hesitant. Then the 'out of stock' issues arose, furthering my doubts about the fast 7200rpm Seagate 500g drive. After doing some more research, it was between the Seagate 500g 5400rpm drive, the WD 500g Blue 5400rpm and the WD 320g Black 7200rpm, and I decided to stick with Newegg.com as the retailer based on reputation. I checked out Seagate's corporate website and WD's website for some insights, and after a lot of back and forth between these drives, (and re-reading Toms Hardware review,) I came to the conclusion that there was a higher level of Newegg customer satisfaction with the WD500g Scorpio Blue than the other drives. A much higher percentage of users rated it 5 stars (excellent) and a significantly lower percentage of buyers rated it 1, 2 or 3 stars overall compared to the other drives. Based on these user experiences, and the very competitive price ($89 after a 10% email discount) which included a free usb external enclosure - I took the plunge. So far, so good! I don't have anything bad to say about the other drives, since I haven't actually used them, and to be fair, if I had gone for the Seagate 500g 5400 drive, chances are it would have been just fine also. In the end for me... space was a big factor, more than speed. With the drive I got I didn't have to sacrifice much speed, as it turns out.
Edit: Postscript: I just read the article you linked. It's fairly informative, and seems a bit more focused on the "noise" levels in their conclusion. I'll just say for the record that I don't detect any obvious vibration from the WD500g drive in my previous generation MBP. It's very quiet and I honestly don't hear much out it at all, other than in a very quiet room when I'm really listening for it, and then I'm not sure if it's the drive or my MBP fans on super-light speed -certainly not anything annoying at all. Read and write noise is almost a non-factor, the drive runs very cool (75-80F) and I do not hear the heads parking with an audible "click" like some people have reported. That's just my honest experience. So, it's possible that individual sample variation can account for this. One good thing about Newegg is the exchange/return policy if you're not happy - so I wouldn't hesitate to buy either of these drives, Seagate or WD. Cheers. -pdx
No, it's not. It's actually very quiet, or at least my sample is. Read my edit on the previous post, where I added a comment.
Dude, thanks for the extremely insightful addition to the review. I am set on one of those drives because I don't think the power/noise issues with a 7200rpm drive is worth it. I'll see what happens to the price/deals in the next few weeks and get one or the other but from what you're saying it seems that both are very similar. I think I would have made the same buy as you if I got a free enclosure AND it only cost 89.99!
If you register on Newegg for their newsletter, they often provide discount codes for subscribers which you can apply even to their sale prices. The Scorpio Blue is still listed at $99 (as is the Seagate 500g Momentus 5400) and the WD is available in several 'combo' deals, including the 'free' enclosure. You do have to pay shipping (around $5) just for adding the enclosure, and it's not the most high-end enclosure, but it came in handy for me for cloning, and for a place to store my original drive, which I haven't reformatted yet (just in case I have to send my MBP in for service...and want to make things all original, including my old memory, which is also stored in my desk.)
Anyway, good luck, and happy drive hunting.
I've also found a nifty site called www.diskcompare.com that graphically shows how the prices at newegg fluctuate on a daily basis. for example, the seagate momentus mentioned earlier appears to drop $10 two days per week!