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battery

can anyone comment on battery life expectations with the HITACHI 7K500? Is there big hit?
 
OK, here we are a week later

a) the hitachi 7k500 I bought is perfect in my mbp i7 17 - running 24/7 no issues
b) the seagate 7200.4 i had, i put in my thinkpad x61s 12" notebook, no vibration, so that's good at least I don't waste the disk
c) I put the 5k500.B that came with my i7 in my wife's MBP 13" c2d, perfect disk
d) I gave the 500g WD to my brother, and he put it in a MBP 15" unibody, he can't tell any vibration nor would he care
e) I now find myself using the thinkpad as I can't bear to think that I'm carrying around a $2500 laptop everywhere I go

overall it's amazing, it's like a loop - you upgrade to the best possible system, and then feel bad for using it for silly tasks and refuse to travel with it, so you keep using the same thinkpad you had for 2 years already...

anyway - the 7200.4 isn't a bad disk - it's just bad in unibody macbooks (sometimes, I guess..)

I will add something else, the perceived performance difference between the 5K500.B original i7 drive, and the new 7K500 disk, is minimal. I do the following nonstop;

a) 17GB Outlook 2011 open at all times, connected to exchange
b) 1 x VMware fusion XP x64 VM

and of course the daily work flow -

I don't see any *big* difference between the 2 disks - but the 7K500 was cheap enough that it was worth doing this, especially since I am almost inclined to say it's quieter/less vibration prone than the 5k500.b disk.

ps - the guy that asked about battery life, there's no difference, just keep in mind the 5K500.B is probably the most power efficient disk you can find today
 
Hitachi

Well, I picked up one of the 7K500 Hitachi drives, planning to do the upgrade to a fresh OOTB MBP 13". MAN, it was a PIA to find this drive though. At the local micro center, the LITERALLY had THREE Drives that were all Hitachi 7K500 500GB 16MB Cache, 3MBS, etc. THREE DIFFERENT boxes, one in a bag - OEM, one in a blue box, one in a white box. What gives? Why would a company have so many at least PACKAGING varieties for this one drive? It makes the end customer experience poor when all they want is to get the RIGHT drive.
 
vibration is a very subjective matter.
some people are just more sensitive that others to vibration and noise.

but i have to agree with the OP.
the hitachi drives are vibration free.

although i have found the seagate momentus xt 7200 but with a small amount of ssd is almost as silent and vibration free as the hitachi 7200 travelstar
 
I picked up a Hitachi 7k500 (7200 500gb).
And although yes, I am not noticing any vibration, this drive is LOUD with the seeking sounds, constant chatter when it accesses the hard drive plus the little pings when it parks the head (the 5400 did this).
Much louder then the 5400 Hitachi 250 it replaced.
Is anyone else noticing this? I have a late 08 unibody MBP.
This may be a deal breaker for me.
Whats your experiences in this regard.
Thanks
 
I have no problems with vibrations with the 500GB scorpio black. That's what the rubber mounts are for that they mount the drives with.
 
I just replaced a vibration-free WD Scorpio Black (320GB) (which I had been running for over a year), with a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB. It too is vibration-free, and actually quieter than the WD (not that the WD was particularly noisy).

I've only been running it a few days, but I would say it's easily the quietest drive I've ever owned. No WD head load cycle click, either :) .

I have to add it took a couple of exchanges with WD to get a drive which was both vibration-free and had an acceptable head load cycle noise level. Even at that, I heard it from time to time. Recently, i found out it could always be heard when having an audio chat - which makes sense, since the mic is on the same side. That's actually one of the reasons I was looking to replace it - I didn't really need the space, but the hybrid technology was intriguing and I thought I could rid myself of the WD head click. It could, and the XT's performance improvement is well worth the small investment over a standard issue 7200 RPM drive.

(Installed on an Early 2009 UB 17" MBP.)
 
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Great thread, there is so much confusion around the internet about replacement harddrives.

Me myself, I swapped a stock 5400 120 gb Samsung for a 7200 WD 320 scorpio black in my 2007 SR MBP. The speed increase is inmense (despite the SATA 1,5 limit), with no noticable additional battery drainage.

However, the stock HD is dead silent and doesn't vibrate the slightest. The WD vibrates a lot, althou not much louder than the fans at 2500 rpm, but I can hear it, especially on a wooden surface. Also, at completely random occassions the hard drive suddenly bleeps somehow. I have yet to find a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon but I grew over it.

This weekend I'll try to isolate the WD completely with very thin rubber strips, lefover from some desktop HD's, on all sides. I'll post it if that completely solves the vibrating problem

Update: isolating with rubber nulified the vibrations alltogether. It takes some work cutting and fitting the rubber strips in, but it's totally worth it.
 
This thread really helped me out. I got myself a Hitachi 5k700 500gb 7,200 rpm drive after reading this thread. The drive is fantastic, little vibration (just like the original drive).

My applications load quicker, boot up times have come down and an extra 250gb! Overall, I am very happy. Thank you.
 
Update: isolating with rubber nulified the vibrations alltogether. It takes some work cutting and fitting the rubber strips in, but it's totally worth it.

Can you upload a photo of the result or a little how-to?
Thank you in advance
 
Another vote for the Hitachi 7K500. I put a new one in a 2.4 GHz unibody and it's terrific--quick, no vibration, and quiet.
 
Agreed about the Hitachi drive. Apple shipped it as the BTO 7200RPM drive in my i7 and it's the best 7.2KRPM drive i've ever owned (WD being the worst), it's as quiet if not quieter than the 5400 RPM drive in my Late 08 MBP.
 
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