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Installing 250GB HDD - Western Digital or Samsung?

J

Jickel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2007
12
0
I'm about to buy a new HDD for my 15" MBP, but I'm unsure wether to choose a Samsung 250GB SATA (model# HM250JI) or a Western Digital 250GB Scorpio (model# WD2500BEVS)? Both are 5400rpm, just wondering if anyone has any experience with either. They ought to be just as fast as the Apple 160GB 5400rom drive, right?

Thanks
 
Jickel said:
I'm about to buy a new HDD for my 15" MBP, but I'm unsure wether to choose a Samsung 250GB SATA (model# HM250JI) or a Western Digital 250GB Scorpio (model# WD2500BEVS)? Both are 5400rpm, just wondering if anyone has any experience with either. They ought to be just as fast as the Apple 160GB 5400rom drive, right?

Thanks
Click to expand...

personally id go the samsung. i have a WD sitting right next to me, it works fine. but they just tend to have more problems. the samsun also haev a really good warranty system. id prefer seagate tho anyday, but thats preference

as for speed, if ur current drive is a 5400 and the new ones are 5400rpm, there shouldnt be any difference
 
seems to be only a firmware problem. they will have to fix it. i wasnt aware of the problem, its only on that model tho. the WD is still an option tho. they are actually quite snappy*tiger noise*
 
DoFoT9 said:
personally id go the samsung. i have a WD sitting right next to me, it works fine. but they just tend to have more problems. the samsun also haev a really good warranty system. id prefer seagate tho anyday, but thats preference

as for speed, if ur current drive is a 5400 and the new ones are 5400rpm, there shouldnt be any difference
Click to expand...

Ugh. Uninformed opinions.


The Western Digital 250GB drive outperforms the Samsung Spinpoint drive by a large margin. It's the third fastest drive on the market below the Hitachi 7K200 drives and the Seagate 7200.2 drives, both of which are 7200rpm.

Not to mention that the WD drive is only $200 WITH an external enclosure (do what you want with it -- put your old hard drive in it!).

Best Buy Link

The Samsung drive just doesn't cut it. It beat the WD to market, but the WD beats it in speed, energy usage, and price.

And yes, I do have the WD drive and it's great.
 
whateverandever said:
Ugh. Uninformed opinions.


The Western Digital 250GB drive outperforms the Samsung Spinpoint drive by a large margin. It's the third fastest drive on the market below the Hitachi 7K200 drives and the Seagate 7200.2 drives, both of which are 7200rpm.

Not to mention that the WD drive is only $200 WITH an external enclosure (do what you want with it -- put your old hard drive in it!).

Best Buy Link

The Samsung drive just doesn't cut it. It beat the WD to market, but the WD beats it in speed, energy usage, and price.

And yes, I do have the WD drive and it's great.
Click to expand...

well said :rolleyes:
 
whateverandever said:
The Western Digital 250GB drive outperforms the Samsung Spinpoint drive by a large margin. It's the third fastest drive on the market below the Hitachi 7K200 drives and the Seagate 7200.2 drives, both of which are 7200rpm.
Click to expand...

DoFoT9 said:
personally id go the samsung. i have a WD sitting right next to me, it works fine. but they just tend to have more problems. the samsun also haev a really good warranty system. id prefer seagate tho anyday, but thats preference
Click to expand...

Do you all have any links to back this up? I'm certain the performance comparisons are easily measured, but the long-term reliability comparisons would be more difficult.

Personally, I'd weigh the warranty and price factors before performance.
 
does changing the HD to a larger one (160 to a 250 for instance) void my Apple Protection Plan warranty?
 
noway said:
does changing the HD to a larger one (160 to a 250 for instance) void my Apple Protection Plan warranty?
Click to expand...

This is a sensitive area here.. TECHNICALLY, as long as you don't screw up your computer while swapping the drive, you will not void your warranty, as per apples terms. However, if the actual procedure of swapping or the drive itself screws up your computer some how, then you would not be covered. Kind of like Apple blames 3rd party ram on all problems.
 
I was thinking of doing this. I was going to order the 250GB drive from apple but it is only 4200rpm. Booo.
I've been inside a few laptops in my day... but never a MAC. I would be scared pooless that I might screw it up.

I also would like to go in to see how much thermal compound they used on my heatsinks. I've been reading some horror stories from people about how much apple slops on, and it actually raises the temperature of your cpu and GPU. Maybe I will go to the Applestore and pay them to do it. Booo

B
 
MaddieBrad said:
I was thinking of doing this. I was going to order the 250GB drive from apple but it is only 4200rpm. Booo.
I've been inside a few laptops in my day... but never a MAC. I would be scared pooless that I might screw it up.

B
Click to expand...

haha i saw a guide how to upgrade something. i think it was harddrive. very tedious work. make sure u haev a T-6torx screwdriver handy aswell.. otherwise u wont be able to get in !! the extra space will be worth it tho. im thinking of doing this myself. a nice big 250gb :)
 
iBookG4user said:
Yes, it does. The only user-serviceable part on the MacBook pro is the RAM.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't. You only void your warranty if you break the thing in the process. Just swapping the drive does NOT void your warranty, Apple simply won't cover a hard drive related problem since they aren't the ones who put it in. If they determine it's a logic board problem, you'll be fine, but you'll want to put the original drive in there in any case, especially if they swap the machine entirely.
 
DoFoT9 said:
haha i saw a guide how to upgrade something. i think it was harddrive. very tedious work. make sure u haev a T-6torx screwdriver handy aswell.. otherwise u wont be able to get in !! the extra space will be worth it tho. im thinking of doing this myself. a nice big 250gb :)
Click to expand...

After you've done it fifteen times it takes 15-20 minutes at most to swap drives. It's second nature to me now :]
 
MovieCutter said:
No it doesn't. You only void your warranty if you break the thing in the process. Just swapping the drive does NOT void your warranty, Apple simply won't cover a hard drive related problem since they aren't the ones who put it in. If they determine it's a logic board problem, you'll be fine, but you'll want to put the original drive in there in any case, especially if they swap the machine entirely.
Click to expand...

I've personally asked an Apple support representative about this, and he pretty much echoed your comments.
 
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