New MBP Core 2 Duo HDD

[lowercaseperson]

Hey all,

I have a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MBP with the factory drive in place. Needing more space. I have 4Gb RAM, and was looking for a new HDD. I don't see why I shouldn't go ahead and get a 750 Gb drive, so I have two major questions.

1.) My SATA is 1.5 Gbits/s and most of the drives out there are 3.0 Gbits/s. Will these 3.0 models work with my MBP?

2.) RMP/Cache: I have a 5400/8mb HDD installed...would it be worth paying the extra for a 7200/16mb HDD? I don't do anything special. I have a pretty large collection of movies, and listen to a lot of audiobooks/music. I don't play any video games, and although I have a lot of photos...I don't really do anything with them.

Also any suggestions on a "best drive" and/or a "best value" would be great. I'm about to go to grad school and this computer has to last till I finish.

--Thanks--

 

[macuserx86]

Yes it should work. Sometimes, SATA 3.0Gbit/s drives will come with a jumper that tells the drive to behave at 1.5 speeds, but this is usually not necessary.

A 7200RPM HDD will be faster than a 5400RPM drive at the expense of slightly more noise, vibration and heat. Theoretically, battery life wouldn't be affected since even thought the 7200rpm disk is using more power, it can complete its writes faster which means it can go idle faster. Of course, the real world doesn't always follow theories. That said, 7200rpm is the way to go; you will notice an improvement.

You should be fine with any Western Digital or Samsung HDD. I'm not that familiar with 2.5" laptop HDDs and haven't been in the market for a while so I can't offer any better recommendation than that.

P.S. When you remove the old disk, you should install it in an external Firewire or USB enclosure to use as a backup/storage disk. This also has the benefit of allowing you to clone your current boot drive directly to the new HDD via CarbonCopyCloner or some similar software. Saves a lot of hassle.