I'm looking to upgrade the hard drive on my first gen Macbook Pro but I want to find one that is compatible with the sudden motion sensor. A while back I found a site that sells such hard drives but can't seem to find it again... Anyone know of a site that sells them or knows of hard drives compatible with the sudden motion sensor? I work in video production and need something with atleast 7200 rpm and between 320-500 storage.
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Macbook Pro hard drive upgrade
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WD scorpio black has one with and without a motion sensor. WD3200BEKT They sell this particular model at best buy if you want to go brick and mortar.
I bought mine from OWC (www.macsales.com) because they are the best Mac supplier out there. Great prices, they have install videos that show you how, and they stand behind their stuff. I bought the 320GB 7200RPM WD Scorpio and it improved the performance tremendously in my MBP (original was a 120GB 5400 RPM drive), mostly because it's less full probably. I think I paid $100 about 3 months ago.
I could tell a difference after putting a 320 gig seagate 7200 in my 2.33, and it still had 40 gigs left. Boots up faster, quicker cold start on applications, and a night and day difference on anything that's disk intensive.
Tom's hardware compared the new seagate and WD digital drives. The seagate was a little faster when it came to prolonged hard drive usage, and the wd had an advantage at reading and seeking smaller bits of info on the disk. Because of lower power usage, the seagate was rated a little higher, with the scorpio black a very close second. I ultimately chose the seagate because of the 5 year warranty; the wd only had three.
Tom's hardware compared the new seagate and WD digital drives. The seagate was a little faster when it came to prolonged hard drive usage, and the wd had an advantage at reading and seeking smaller bits of info on the disk. Because of lower power usage, the seagate was rated a little higher, with the scorpio black a very close second. I ultimately chose the seagate because of the 5 year warranty; the wd only had three.
Thanks for the help. I think im gonna go with the Scorpio Black . Hard drive and enclosure for under $100 bucks, I think is a good deal. Now if I could upgrade up to 4gb of ram on this first gen MacBook Pro. 
Gotta warn ya', you're going to be spoiled. Next time you're in front of a notebook with a 5400 drive, you'll catch yourself thinking while it's booting, "God, this thing is so slow!".
You can, sort of....
Running two matched 2GB DIMM's will improve memory performance by about 6 to 8 percent. And with RAM so cheap now you can pick up 2GB chips for around $20 to $25 a piece.
....Now if I could upgrade up to 4gb of ram on this first gen MacBook Pro.
Running two matched 2GB DIMM's will improve memory performance by about 6 to 8 percent. And with RAM so cheap now you can pick up 2GB chips for around $20 to $25 a piece.
If it's a first gen (core duo) macbook pro, it should only take 2 gigs, period. If it's a core 2 duo, then you could benefit from the 4 gigs, even though the first models would only take 3 and change.
That would work on a core duo MacBook Pro? I have to tell you I was pretty upset when I found out my once $3000 laptop was limited to 2GB, when my friends $500 pc laptop came with stock 4GB RAM... but I guess you can never win with technology.
Does anyone know if applecare would replace my MBP with the same model if something happened to kill it....
No they would give you a new one if you still have a warranty and it can't be repaired, but don't count on it if it "died on its own".
Yes you are limited to 2GB. If your friend's PC notebook came before 2007 it probably maxes out at 3.3GB especially if using a 32bit OS even today.
FYI, buy from Newegg for $79.99, no tax, and free shipping. Then take away $5 and 2% cash back. Keep in mind that you will be taking out a whole lot of screws to get the the HDD. Technically your warranty would be void by doing the exchange but it's fine if you don't screw anything up.