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Cabbit

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 30, 2006
2,128
1
Scotland
ok simple enough is the Seagate Momentus 7200.2 ST9200420ASG macbook friendly, form reviews it seems about the fastest and most durable hard drive available with a big capacity and low noise.
 
if its sata.

id opt for the wd 250 5.4k or hitachi's 200gd 7.2k

that being said i have the wd 250gig one and it is faster than my old one. i ran both geekbench and xbench before and after. geekbench stayed the same since it didnt test hd but xbench caused a 20pt jump overall in my score.

i know people dont like xbench but for comparisons on the SAME machine i thought it was a good indicator
 
Considering the bay in the MacBook is only 9.5mm high, and that drive is approximately 10.16mm high (never seen them in that height, usually it's 11.5mm), probably not. ;) However, if you managed to squeeze one in, it looks like a decent drive.

jW
 
Considering the bay in the MacBook is only 9.5mm high, and that drive is approximately 10.16mm high (never seen them in that height, usually it's 11.5mm), probably not. ;) However, if you managed to squeeze one in, it looks like a decent drive.

jW

I'm looking at the datasheet now and it says 9.5mm:

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_7200_2.pdf

Thanks for making me look though! I forgot to consider that before deciding on a new drive. The built-in Hitachi sucks - tiny cache, its NCQ is broken and performance is miserable. I'm hoping for a big boost with this one.
 
Have you finished your upgrade? I wanted to use the same drive for a clean install of Leapard. Just wondering what luck you had.
 
Just got this drive for my MacBook Pro going to stick it in shortly.

Once it's formatted what free space do you get?

I got the one with G-Force it was only a couple quid more, does the drive has a sensor inside itself? or is this feature not worth it in a MacBook Pro?
 
installed this drive but get only 186.31 GB of capacity! and you?

I installed this drive ST9200420ASG but I get only 186.31 GB of capacity!
What about you?
Here is what the system profiler tells me:


ST9200420ASG:

Capacity: 186.31 GB
Model: ST9200420ASG
Revision: 3.AAA
Serial Number: 5SH09CW0
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Untitled:
Capacity: 185.99 GB
Available: 165.44 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
 
I installed this drive ST9200420ASG but I get only 186.31 GB of capacity!
What about you?
Here is what the system profiler tells me:

Yeah, that's what happens with all hard disks once they are formatted.
 
I really like Seagate hard drives. They, to my ears are much quieter than Hitachi or Fujitsu drives. And they are quick.

So purchased the 200 GB 7200 RPM Seagate drive and hated it. It was much louder than the 160gb version. The vibration was much more noticeable. I did only lose about 11-15 minutes of battery life (unscientific tests!). And I did feel the interface elements were faster (may be placebo).

So I actually sent it back and am either going to get the 160 gb seagate which I loved in my prior macbook or wait for the new 200 gb 5400.4 from Seagate (or one of the 5400.4 drives coming soon).

Note that I weight silence pretty high in my laptop, and especially hate the clicking of hard drives when I am writing.
 
I just installed this drive in my Macbook Pro. Install went pretty easily - better than changing and ipod battery. System is noticeably faster - xbench scores:

pre-seagate with standard 5400 120GB Fujitsu

Disk Test 33.09
Sequential 50.95
Uncached Write 59.34 36.43 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 63.99 36.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 29.85 8.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 79.87 40.14 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 24.50
Uncached Write 8.30 0.88 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 63.67 20.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 62.41 0.44 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.91 16.87 MB/sec [256K blocks]


test with seagate drive:

Disk Test 34.33
Sequential 57.40
Uncached Write 78.45 48.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 53.74 30.41 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 39.56 11.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 76.62 38.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 24.48
Uncached Write 7.89 0.84 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 83.08 26.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.68 0.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.17 16.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]

The only bad thing is that I'm now getting noticeable vibration where I had none before. It's right under the heels of my palms resting on the keyboard. It's pretty light and I'm going to just try it for a few days to see it bothers me. I think it will be ok. Been meaning to get an external keyboard anyway. On the plus side I would hear the occasional click on the Fujitsu and haven't heard that at all.
 
Great Upgrade

Just finished replacing my 17" MBP's 100GB Seagate 7200.1 original drive with a new Seagate 7200.2 200GB unit from OWC. Using the tutorial from ifixit, it was actually a breeze. I didn't need to disconnect either the keyboard ribbon cable nor the hard drive cable from the logic board: there was room enough to swap out the drive, and the upper case just stood and leaned against the screen while I swapped the drive.

I used CCC to completely copy the original drive, which is now housed in a sleek OWC Mercury On-the-Go enclosure.

Hard drive prices are as good as they've ever been. The whole kit (drive and enclosure) was WELL UNDER $200 - even with expedited shipping and the cost of a new Torx T-6 screwdriver.

Clean off your work area, and keep removed screws in an orderly fashion, and give yourself an uninterrupted 30 minutes for the surgery.

Clint Bradford
http://www.clintbradford.com
 
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