Harddrive replacement for Macbook?

[ktbubster]

Hey.

I am getting a new macbook tomorrow via apple in the mail (if you noticed I went from a macbook pro to a blackbook and now... to whitebook... long story short, I changed my mind on the 2.16 blackbook when someone offered me more then I paid for it last week, and I could get the 2.2 whitebook for 150 less then I paid for the blackbook in the first place! +200 dollars for me.)

Anyway... with the 200 dollar savings between getting paid an extra 70 bucks for the blackbook and saving money, I wanted to upgrade the 120gb drive, because I for that one week I was really enjoying the 160 internal as I was close to filling 120 already.

I've been doing some searching of the forums, but before I buy anything I want to get opinions.

Since I am switching out the harddrive anyway, I think i'm going to go with a 7200 rpm drive, for a little added quickness. I'm thinking I want to keep the 120 drive from the macbook and put it back into an external enclosure and sell it or give it to my BF who is in need of an extra small external for random storage.

I was looking into getting one of these - I have to find the link, but I found one in an external enclosure already for 180.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/10/hitachis-2-5-inch-travelstar-7k200-200gb-7-200-rpm-bulk-encr/

and taking it out of the case and swapping them. Would that be good? Are there any other better solutions people came up with for this?

If anyone can provide me with some names of better drives... 160+ 7200 rpm for better prices, more reliable... perhaps without an enclosure, but a link to a good enclosure to get as well (USB or Firewire 400)...

I'd like to do this for under 200 dollars.

THANKS so much. and sorry if I repeated some stuff.

My computer will be a 2.2 Whitebook 120 gb internal and 2gig of ram (I swapped out my mbp ram with the macbooks ram... hehe before selling it - don't worry, I made sure the buyer new that!)

 

[walnuts]

Hey- check out post number 10 in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/424420/

This person posted this idea for me (I am considering upgrading the harddrive in my same macbook.)

Do you happen to know if replacing the hard drive voids the warrantee?

Edit- Sorry, I'm not sure that the hard drive the person recommended was faster, just that it was bigger.

 

[tersono]

Do you happen to know if replacing the hard drive voids the warrantee?

Not in a MacBook - the HD is designated user-replaceable. A MacBook Pro is another matter, though.

 

[Neil321]

No it wont void your warranty in a macbook as its considered
user replaceable,in a pro it only voids the warranty if you screw
something up

 

[ktbubster]

I'm really looking for suggestions for good 7200 rpm drives. I know some people say you won't notice the difference, but a lot of people seem to, and when I used friends macbooks they upgraded they always feel peppier to me. Besides, I may as well go for the best if I'm popping a new one in anyway

Any suggestions ala my first post?

Perhaps this one.. I have heard a few contradictory things about seagate recently though.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...tails.asp?EdpNo=3572285&body=MAIN#detailspecs

something about drives dying or something. I have yet to have a harddrive ever die on me, including the one from the 6 year old powerbook i had.

And I know the harddrives on macbooks are user replaceable. I'm not worried really. I've taken apart about 5-6 macbooks to replace lcds and screen parts as well as a few macbook pros. It's a little nerve wracking after you put it back together waiting to see if everything works again, but still ok The macbook is a synch compared to ... oh... any other mac laptop EVER. Love the battery accessible harddrive!

 

[gnasher729]

It seems you are looking at an old 200 GB hard drive.

If you are looking for speed and nothing else then remember RPM isn't everything. Data density is important as well. Higher density means more bytes per track, more bytes transmitted per rotation, fewer moves from one track to the next. And when your 200 GB disk is close to full, it will be slower than a 250 GB or 320 GB 5400 RPM drive with the same amount of data on it.

If you are looking for speed _and_ storage - well, 250 GB is 25 percent more, and 320 GB is 60 percent more storage.

I would seriously compare prices and look for some benchmarks before going blindly for 7200 RPM.

I just checked: In the UK, a 200 GB 7200 RPM and 320 GB 5400 RPM drive cost the same money. For the same price, you would be mad to go for the 200 GB.