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I guess i'll settle for the WD 320GB.
Cause i would rather have the fast 7200RPM
than just an extra 100 GB.

fab5, never settle! I have a Seagate Momentus 500GB @7200 and it is butter....no noise, no vibrations. Installed it myself in February.....I got it from Tigerdirect. (no shock protection)
 
I would recommend to upgrade it to it. I own the no shock protection too. Very quiet and no beeping. So far, no problems at all for me. Best thing to have as a college student for space :)
 
Mine works perfectly. Just don't get the one with the G-shock sensor and you'll be fine.

not always true. I bought the ST9500420AS drive for my MBP and cannot even get OSX installed onto it. It doesn't matter what I try and I AM on the newest HD firmware for that model. I'm guessing it is the result of the EFi firware update as there are many others with the same drive (as well as those with the ASG drive) that are also experiencing similar issues. It is a hit-or-miss getting these drives to operate under OSX (with the EFi 1.7 firmware update).
 
I just bought this drive yesterday, put it in and used superduper to clone my old drive over and I couldn't be more happy with it so far. I definitely see a difference in overall performance from the drive. Even with a OS X install that has a few issue. Probably will get better when I do a full reinstall when SL comes around.
 
I have one, and it didn't freeze or beep, but it vibrates like mad. So I removed the Hitachi (which I'm generally not a fan of the brand) from my OWC Mercury FW drive and put the Seagate in there, and the Hitachi in my MBP.......totally silent, and the same performance.

I also had issues with the Seagate 320GB 7200 that was in here before. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I haven't had a whole lot of luck lately with Seagate.
 
I bought the Retail box from Fry's for my Macbook and it is working fine. In fact I have noticed more battery life. Sure, so far I've only used 65 GB of the total (400 GB free), but if I didn't do the upgrade I'd be half way full with the HD that came with my Macbook. I've heard that WD came out with a larger drive, but it's 5200 RPM and I heard it's the larger form factor - 12.5mm I believe, so it won't fit in my Macbook.
 
I have the WD 320 7.2k and it too vibrates. I think the Unibodies just don't handle 7200RPM drives in general. Its not a BAD BAD vibration and im even becoming accustomed to it but its still there and noticeable

Also the WD whilst relatively quiet and doesn't beep/click/grind has this hum similar to when the fans are running at 2500-3000rpm

Cant wait for SSDs to become cheaper cos thats really where its at
 
Bad Rap

I think that the Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM drives, “AS” version, were given bad reviews with the initial lots. I purchased later (late May from Tiger Direct, OEM pack) and installed into my late 2008 15.4 uMBP. The drive ran great and was quite without noticeable vibration.

In mid-July (about a month ago) I pulled it and swapped it into my new 17” uMBP and it is running great. My machine is used everyday for 8 to 12 hours and goes where I go. The drive is performing well as I would expect. I do bump off a Superduper copy once a week for disaster recovery.

Neil
 
I got a 13" MacBook Pro last Wednesday and after the first boot, transferred a 500GB Scorpio Blue from the MacBook it was replacing. I've been very happy with it so far. Performance and battery life are good and it makes almost no difference to vibration and hard disk noise.
 
I have the WD 320 7.2k and it too vibrates. I think the Unibodies just don't handle 7200RPM drives in general. Its not a BAD BAD vibration and im even becoming accustomed to it but its still there and noticeable

Also the WD whilst relatively quiet and doesn't beep/click/grind has this hum similar to when the fans are running at 2500-3000rpm

Cant wait for SSDs to become cheaper cos thats really where its at


Not sure I agree with that part, but YMMV
 
Not sure I agree with that part, but YMMV

What i mean by that is that the unibody construction makes for more pronounced vibrations since its a one-piece part compared to previous gens which had gaskets and other component parts
 
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