Need some advice from you seasoned APPLE VETS

[aauussttiinn]

Hey guys loving the switch over to mac (computers and smartphones all in one week ) i have the base 13in i5 and i am freaking loving the **** out of it. anyway i just ordered 8gigs of ram and im also in the market for a higher rpm HDD (7200rpm) because of this so called bottle neck effect that the i5 causes on the 5400rpm 320gig drive.

1.brand preference guys

2. opinions (and facts and insight) on the 2011 and heating/ do these 7200rpm drives incease heat and decrese batt life? and i know there are older threads but im looking for people to shout out whom have 2011's

3. words of wisdom (cause you guys freaking rock) most of you
thanks in advance guys and im totally loving this whole apple fan boy thing

 

[axu539]

I would recommend a WD Scorpio Black if you must get an HDD. 7200 RPM drives do generate more heat and use more power, but this also depends on brand.

That being said, I highly recommend you consider an SSD. They're orders of magnitude faster, and use less power. Plus they generate no noise at all, and are more resilient to drops.

 

[HBOC]

I would like to get an SSD, but they are so grossly over priced. $600 for a 500GB drive? I think I will wait.

As far as HDD brands, I have had great luck with my Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM drive, but it went with the old computer when Apple swapped me MBPs. Now I have a 750GB 5400rpm drive, but don't know what brand.

As far as RAM, Crucial, G-Skill, PNY, etc etc are all good. Newegg has the G-Skill 8 GB kit for $64.99 shipped currently, which it was $82.99 2 or 3 days ago.

 

[namethisfile]

i also would like to put an SSD in my MBP in the future, but, have heard from the forums here that there are issues with installing SSD's in Macs that are not the one's from Apple. just curious for future reference what the issues would be, if anyone, cares to answer.

but, to answer the OP's question, I have a BTO 7200RPM 500GB HDD in my mid2010 MBP, which i think is a seagate and is quieter than the 5400RPM drive in my 12" Powerbook (a seagate or toshiba i believe).

as for RAM, i have bought Mushkin rams from Newegg for my 2007 iMac and 12" powerbook and haven't had any trouble.

 

[snaky69]

i also would like to put an SSD in my MBP in the future, but, have heard from the forums here that there are issues with installing SSD's in Macs that are not the one's from Apple. just curious for future reference what the issues would be, if anyone, cares to answer.

but, to answer the OP's question, I have a BTO 7200RPM 500GB HDD in my mid2010 MBP, which i think is a seagate and is quieter than the 5400RPM drive in my 12" Powerbook (a seagate or toshiba i believe).

as for RAM, i have bought Mushkin rams from Newegg for my 2007 iMac and 12" powerbook and haven't had any trouble.

I don't know who told you that SSD's from other manufacturers problem but they told you BS. In fact SSDs from other manufacturers and leaps and bound ahead of apple's in terms of speed.

RAM should be bought from a reputable company with a good warranty, G-skill ram on newegg right now is cheap, and good quality, I'd go with that.

 

[aauussttiinn]

I did actually hop on the gskill ram hopefully i get the email saying it shipped soon (knocks on wood)

ive allready made the decision that at this time i do not want to fork up the money for a SSD as they are suuuupppeerr atractive with all the benefits, i just wondering if spending around 100$ for a 7200rpm drive is worth it and if any other companies have had more troubles than others...


on new egg there are alot of bad reviews about the 7200rpm samsung HDD but on macsales it is the highest priced......does this part of the spectrum not go by "you get what you pay for?" thanks so much for the imput guys

bottom line im down to samsung or western digital at least 320 gig 7200 rpm

BTW anybody reccomend the DIY kits from mac sales?

 

[namethisfile]

I don't know who told you that SSD's from other manufacturers problem but they told you BS. In fact SSDs from other manufacturers and leaps and bound ahead of apple's in terms of speed.

ok. that sounds good to me, then. i generally hear people recommend installing ssd's from other manufacturers, of which is the only choice for mac users who didn't have the BTO ssd option (like me). i was just curious if there are any issues with them.

 

[8CoreWhore]

I have the same MBP. In several months, I'm going to move the 320GB HDD to where the DVD drive is now, and install a 128GB SSD as my system drive with most used apps and files, and use the 320 HDD for overflow of data... iTunes, vidz, photos, etc.

I'll wait till a great 120/128 GB SSD is at $100USD.

I'll get a fast 16GB SD card to augment the missing optical drive. I'll take the DVD drive and install it in an EXT USB enclosure. I never need it outside.

 

[AppleGoat]

ok. that sounds good to me, then. i generally hear people recommend installing ssd's from other manufacturers, of which is the only choice for mac users who didn't have the BTO ssd option (like me). i was just curious if there are any issues with them.

They may be referring to the fact that Snow Leopard does not have TRIM support. In a nutshell, it has to do with SSD degradation and subsequent lag after years of use. Fortunately, it has been reported that OS X 10.7 (Lion) will have TRIM support.

 

[xxjudgmentxx]

+1 for WD Scorpio Black

Also, 7200rpm has essentially 0 effect on battery life given the faster seek/access times. My '07 Alu MBP maintained identical battery life when I swapped to a 7.2k drive.

 

[aauussttiinn]

how effectively would you guys say a 72k HDD will help the "bottle neck" effect due to the powerful i5 in the 13in?

 

[DarwinOSX]

That's not true at all regarding Apples SSD's. They are basically middle of the road in terms of performance. People don't usually buy them because of cost compared to 3rd party items. The new 15" MBP's have a 128GB for only $100 which is pretty good but for some reason its $250 for the 13 inch MBP.

Anyway to the OP, 7200 rpm drives have more noise, vibration, heat and battery usage. This used to be more significant than it is now so I wouldn't worry about it.

But once you go SSD its hard to go back. You may want to consider a small SSD for a boot drive and use an Optibay to remove your optical drive and install a hard drive for storage. If you do go SSD do some careful research to make sure that SSD has worked well for others. i see SSD's recommended here all the time that have many known issues.

A 7200rpm drive will help. Bit its not much compared to an SSD. Its getting odd that procs and memory are so fast these days yet people are still using spinning metal disks which really hobble the overall performance. SSD prices have gone down but not as fast as a lot of people would like.

I would slightly prefer Western Digital over other drives. Just to make this even more complicated, larger drives usually have fewer platters and therefore less seek time so the rpm doesn't make as much difference.

In fact SSDs from other manufacturers and leaps and bound ahead of apple's in terms of speed.