HD upgrade for my 2 yr old Blackbook...+ more ?'s...plz help!

[edcoche]

Hello Everybody,

First off, I really do appreciate all input. I am wondering what would be a good HD to upgrade to. I have the 160 GB HD that came with the SR 2.2 Blackbooks that came out shortly after Leopard's release in October of 2007. Not quite sure what I can upgrade to. I do have 4 gb of ran from crucial which makes her fly (for how old she is.)

Also, I was planning on buying a 1 TB external HD, specifically, the Western Digital My Book Mac Edition 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1U10000AN for use with time machine.

5400 / 7200 really matter much? Can I do 500 gb? Is that recommended for my older model? Last time I check, hitachi had some really good 7200's. Is that still the case?

Thanks again!

-Ed

 

[bartzilla]

Hello Everybody,

First off, I really do appreciate all input. I am wondering what would be a good HD to upgrade to. I have the 160 GB HD that came with the SR 2.2 Blackbooks that came out shortly after Leopard's release in October of 2007. Not quite sure what I can upgrade to. I do have 4 gb of ran from crucial which makes her fly (for how old she is.)

Also, I was planning on buying a 1 TB external HD, specifically, the Western Digital My Book Mac Edition 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1U10000AN for use with time machine.

5400 / 7200 really matter much? Can I do 500 gb? Is that recommended for my older model? Last time I check, hitachi had some really good 7200's. Is that still the case?

Thanks again!

-Ed

The only hard and fast requirements are interface type (SATA II/SATA 300), drive size (2.5" obviously) and in particular the height (which is not so obvious). You need a 9.5mm high drive, the alternative size is 12.5mm or something like that, which is perfectly fine to buy and put into an external drive caddy, but simply physically won't fit internally on a macbook. Any reputable dealer will note the size of the drive in the product spec.

That aside, 7200RPM, 500Gb, the machine will work with any combination that your pocketbook can purchase. The 7200RPM drives will obviously generate more heat (not seen anyone mention this causing an issue) and potentially more noise but this simply becomes a matter of your personal preferences.

For the general use most people do with laptops, I'd personally buy a 5400RPM drive with a good reputation and as large as possible amount of cache ram so I had a good balance between speed, performance, and environment (heat/noise), but keep in mind this isn't a case of one selection being "right" and the other "wrong" but rather just fitting what uses you want for the computer.

Are you in the UK? I find www.span.com to be pretty good. Not the cheapest perhaps but good at reccomending the right drive for your needs if you tell them what you have and what you want to do with it.

 

[DDave]

I just upgraded my MBP to a 320 7200 rpm drive. I got them from Other World computing OWC. They are a great company. check them out at macsales.com

 

[edcoche]

anybody else have a suggestion?

 

[flopticalcube]

I have a 320GB Seagate 7200RPM drive. It improved access maybe 10-20%. It doesn't generate more heat and actually draws less power than the WD 250GB it replaced but that was a less than impressive drive. It does vibrate a little more but nothing you don't get used to. I would say that given the same generation of drive, the 5400RPM would be more efficient and a better value but 7200RPM are faster but only a little bit.