new hard drive advice?

[izzy0242mr]

My mom's 2010 MBP (7,1) hard drive has basically failed. She's looking to get a replacement for around $115 at the most.

I'd like to find her a decent SSD, since I know those are faster. I found one on Amazon: the SanDisk SDSSDHP-128G-G25. 128 GB is plenty for her, but idk whether this will work with her model. I've heard there's an issue with 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s something or other, but I'm not sure as to the details since I've never replaced a hard drive before.

Optionally, does anyone have any other reliable and fast hard drives they recommend? Hybrids maybe if you know of any in that price range.

 

[glenthompson]

If she can live with 120gb, you can get the Samsung 840 Evo for $100. For instructions on how to make the swap, check out ifixit.com.

 

[endlightend]

My mom's 2010 MBP (7,1) hard drive has basically failed. She's looking to get a replacement for around $115 at the most.

I'd like to find her a decent SSD, since I know those are faster. I found one on Amazon: the SanDisk SDSSDHP-128G-G25. 128 GB is plenty for her, but idk whether this will work with her model. I've heard there's an issue with 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s something or other, but I'm not sure as to the details since I've never replaced a hard drive before.

Optionally, does anyone have any other reliable and fast hard drives they recommend? Hybrids maybe if you know of any in that price range.

Stick with a SSD instead of the Hybrid as the performance is way better.

MBP 7,1 is compatible up to SATA 2.0 which means that 3Gb/s is the fastest connection you can get with that motherboard. SATA 3.0 supports 6Gb/s, but most users say that the difference only shows up in benchmarks and not in everyday use. The Sandisk you're looking at supports SATA 3.0 which will work just fine on her MBP, but won't be able to take advantage of the max connection speed. You can still go for it because you can always remove the SSD in the future if you want to install it onto a different machine. The other alternative is to buy a SSD that supports SATA 2.0 and invest the difference into more capacity. Ebay has great deals on Intel X-25M and Intel 320's, which both have excellent reviews.