Gonna buy an internal HD today...

[321estrellas]

I've crossed out any 1TB drives as their $/GB rate is high, 500GB is too little space so I think the 750GB drive is just right.

I think I've narrowed it down to two. For the cheapest 750GB drives out there, both of these seem to get the most positive feedback, but of course a small share of bad experiences. Anyhoo, they are:

- Samsung Spinpoint F1 (http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8YourMac.cfm?ID=10423&Item=SAMHD753LJ) - $150, or

- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500KSRTL 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA-300 Hard Drive - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136222) - $160

I intend to get two of these drives, one for Boot Camp and all my Windows stuff and one for my media files in Mac OSX (from Final Cut Studio and such). The Mac OS itself and apps will go in the stock 320GB drive.

To sum, some questions:

1) which hard drive should I get? (feel free to suggest another)

2) is replacing the stock hard drive with another hard drive (which I've read that quite a few people seem to do) really all that beneficial and worth considering?

3) here's kind of a dummy question but why not ask...I know Mac Pro's use SATA hard drives...is SATA2 different and can I use those in Mac Pro's? If there's anything else I should know or consider about hard drives, please let me know (not too knowledgable on the technical side of hard drives).

Thanks in advance. I know there are multiple topics about hard drives but all the info I need are all scattered around that I lose track easily...

 

[cenetti]

I installed WD Caviar SE16 750gb couple days ago.
made it my booth drive, and kept 320gb stock HDD as my second. So now I have about 1TB all together...

its faster, more space, cheap. you cant go wrong with it...its a nice drive. Highly recommend it..

installation was also very easy.

-put the drive into the bay
-format it
-install os x
-select "transfer info from another volume" (it copies every file/setting from your stock HDD to the new one)
-select it as your "boot drive" from "start up prefs" menu

thats it...

 

[seany916]

Have 3 for the open slots in addition to the 500 that came with the machine.

reliability (#1), price, speed

 

[mperkins37]

I got 2 Seagate's

I have 2 Seagate 1 TB & 1 WD 320 GB stock HD, The Seagates I spent $219 & $262 with shipping from Ebay. Great deal.

 

[tuxtpenguin]

I like WD drives.

 

[321estrellas]

Crazy! No votes for the Samsung...that's the one I thought a lot of people liked and I was just about to get that. Now I gotta rethink my decision...hehe...

I think I'll use one 750GB for the OS and apps now, and use the stock 320GB for Boot Camp/Windows/games instead....unless the 8mb cache will make a difference with running the games???

 

[Canoehead2]

Between Mac Pro, NAS Box and Tivo S3 I have 9 of the WD SE16 750GB AAKS drives - wow that is a lot, I think I may need therapy. In the Mac Pro I have 2 of them in a Raid 0 as my main OS X disk. The other has a 600gb Win/Boot Camp partition (also accesible as a virtual machine in VM Fusion) and a small 120gb FAT32 shared drive. The third bay is empty - I gave away the Seagate 320 with its 8mb ram. All of these drives have been great for me, though the oldest is only 7 months old. When you get a new disk, always do a thorough test - I've yet to have a problem, but I'd rather return it before it is filled up with my data. Last one I bought was zipzoomfly for $154 free shipping.

 

[fridgeymonster3]

I'll vote for the Samsung F1 750. I have had one installed for 3-4 weeks and I love it. I'm actually going to purchase another one sometime soon (my wife is getting fed up with my constant mac pro addition purchases so i have to convince her we need another). It is a great drive, very fast, very quiet, and it runs much cooler than the stock drive.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Get the WD 750 AAKS. The link you're pointing to is for the RETAIL drive. Get the OEM drive. You don't need the cables the retail kit comes with. Other than that, they are the same exact drive. OEM is $154.99

 

[deathshrub]

FWIW, I bought 1TB and 750GB versions of the Samsung. Very fast and so quiet I cannot even hear them.

 

[aaronw1986]

I have 2 Seagate 1 TB & 1 WD 320 GB stock HD, The Seagates I spent $219 & $262 with shipping from Ebay. Great deal.

Have you been satisfied with your seagate drives?

 

[GotPro]

Cant say enough about the Hitachi 32 meg cache 7k1000 drives... Insanely fast... Inaudible... Perfection.