HDD Upgrade (macbook)

[krewelement394]

So since my HDD is failing, i am going to upgrade my HDD from 160GB to 640GB which i hear is the max my macbook can take. As of now i am confused on which to buy. i was looking around Newegg and amazon, and found many. should i get this one: Amazon

or any of these from Newegg

do not really know what the differences are other than the prices.

does all this matter:

Cache: 16MB
Average Seek Time: 8.9ms
Features: Reduced power consumption - WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives with the combination of WD's IntelliSeek, NoTouch, and IntelliPower technologies IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid...

not sure what to look for, and what to avoid. what is SATA since it says 3.0GB. and lastly why is the western scorpio blue cost more if it seems to have the same specs as cheaper models there; it also tends to lack on RPM with only 5400. wouldn't that make it slower? or in this case it is better? i use photoshop a lot so im pretty sure more RPM is good.

thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

So since my HDD is failing, i am going to upgrade my HDD from 160GB to 640GB which i hear is the max my macbook can take. As of now i am confused on which to buy. i was looking around Newegg and amazon, and found many. should i get this one: Amazon

This is a 2.5" HDD, the size that you have to use in notebooks. Also the maximum height for MacBooks is 9.5mm. So this drive will work OK.

or any of these from Newegg

do not really know what the differences are other than the prices.

This is a 3.5" HDD, only suitable for desktop computers and maybe the PowerBook G5 due to its (3.5" HDD) height and size in general and power consumption.

Comparison 2.5" vs. 3.5" HDDs:

not sure what to look for, and what to avoid. what is SATA since it says 3.0GB. and lastly why is the western scorpio blue cost more if it seems to have the same specs as cheaper models there; it also tends to lack on RPM with only 5400. wouldn't that make it slower? or in this case it is better? i use photoshop a lot so im pretty sure more RPM is good.

thanks.

SATA is a storage device interface, the successor of PATA (also know as IDE), it allows more bandwidth (1.5Gbit/s and 3.0 Gbit/s).
More RPMs doesn't always mean faster access times, because those higher capacity drives (500GB or 640GB or 750GB) have such a high density on their small platters that they are almost as fast or even faster than 7200RPM HDDs.

I have a 500GB 7200rpm and a 500GB 5400RPM drive, the 7200rpm drive is 20MB/s faster in a benchmark. In real life you will not feel much difference.

 

[sidefx]

lol a powerbook g5...

 

[krewelement394]

This is a 2.5" HDD, the size that you have to use in notebooks. Also the maximum height for MacBooks is 9.5mm. So this drive will work OK.



This is a 3.5" HDD, only suitable for desktop computers and maybe the PowerBook G5 due to its (3.5" HDD) height and size in general and power consumption.

Comparison 2.5" vs. 3.5" HDDs:

SATA is a storage device interface, the successor of PATA (also know as IDE), it allows more bandwidth (1.5Gbit/s and 3.0 Gbit/s).
More RPMs doesn't always mean faster access times, because those higher capacity drives (500GB or 640GB or 750GB) have such a high density on ther small platters that they are almost as fast or even faster than 7200RPM HDDs.

I have a 500GB 7200rpm and a 500GB 5400RPM drive, the 7200rpm drive is 20MB/s faster in a benchmark. In real life you will not feel much difference.

oh wow! thanks for letting me know! i was really going to buy the 3.5" :O if i haddnt of checked back here to read, i would have boughten it...:|