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bt22

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 15, 2009
309
19
Alabama
I purchased a 13" MPB on Dec 26th 2009. I got the entry level 2.26 C2D with 2GB or Ram and 160GB HD. i have since upgraded the ram to 4gb and just updated the HD to a 500 GB Seagate Momentus. My laptop originally came with a Seagate Momentus HD. I first tried the WD Scorpio Blue 320 GB but it was very sluggish. The Seagate causes a VERY noticeable vibration and too me it is very annoying. i just double checked to make sure it was properly installed and everything seems correct. i stayed with a 5400 rpm since i have read the 7200 rpm model caused a noticeable vibration, but it seems i also have this problem with a 5400 rpm. is there anything i can do at this point...?
 
Not much you can do except exchange the new hard drive for another one if it bothers you.

In my experience, Seagates tend to be rather noisy and vibrate considerably more than the competition. My 2009 13" MBP also came with a Seagate drive; it vibrated excessively, so I had the local Apple Store swap it out with a replacement the day after I bought the machine. They would've given a me a new machine, except I had bought it through my University computer store, so the next best thing they could do was perform a same-day replacement of the drive. I got the notebook back with a Hitachi drive - no vibration and minimal noise.

My current 2010 15" MBP has a Toshiba drive, and there is no discernable vibration.
 
Not much you can do except exchange the new hard drive for another one if it bothers you.

Yep, that about sums it up.

You could try a larger WD Scorpio Blue drive. They are very nice drives. Not sure why yours seemed sluggish, but some of the larger drives should seem faster from my experience.

I have a 750GB WD Scorpio Blue drive on the way for my 2010 MBP 13". I can't wait. :D
 
Yep, that about sums it up.

You could try a larger WD Scorpio Blue drive. They are very nice drives. Not sure why yours seemed sluggish, but some of the larger drives should seem faster from my experience.

I have a 750GB WD Scorpio Blue drive on the way for my 2010 MBP 13". I can't wait. :D

Cool, 750GB in a 13" MBP, is there a link for the website or did you buy it off Amazon? if there a certain specification i should be looking for if i upgrade my HDD?
 
I put my 160 GB that came with my computer back in. Decided to leave well enough alone for now. Will continue to research. Thanks for all the replies, I always appreciate all the help I get from MacRumors.
 
I put my 160 GB that came with my computer back in. Decided to leave well enough alone for now. Will continue to research. Thanks for all the replies, I always appreciate all the help I get from MacRumors.

If I recall, the consensus here on macrumors a few months ago was that the Hitachi Travelstar is both fast and quiet. Look it up.
 
Understand that hard drive noise and vibrations are extremely subjective. There are literally hundreds of threads on here that contain arguments regarding whether or not one drive is louder or causes more vibrations. Yes 7200rpm drives spin faster and seem to be more susceptible to vibrations in the mbp chasis. Honestly, the only way you'll know what's best and won't drive you insane is to find a retailer (preferably local) with a generous return policy, and then buy 2-3 drives and try them out. I ended up doing this when I bought my 500gb drive for my mpb. I had a hitachi 5k500, wdc blue, and a seagate drive. The hitachi was by far the quietest and produced the fewest vibrations for my machine, so that one was the keeper! The only way to end this problem once and for all is to go the SSD route. But many do not want to sacrifice the convenience of a large capacity for speed. But man oh man, those ssd's drives are so sweet.
 
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