should i put a 7200rpm drive in my black macbook?

[bob2131]

4gb ram.

Not made too much diff.
Closing/quitting apps is super fast.
Opening apps seems same as before on 2gb.

I still get the spinning icon often....even though i have lots of free ram....
so i think the spinning icon is not entirely about amount of ram....i thought it was...when swap and paging occurs due to low ram available.....

 

[dubhe]

I would sell the BlackBook on eBay, you'd be surprised how much you'll get for it, then add the money for the HDD and you'll have enough for a new MB!

 

[bob2131]

I would sell the BlackBook on eBay, you'd be surprised how much you'll get for it, then add the money for the HDD and you'll have enough for a new MB!

yeah thats my long term plan...to sell it....and get a top spec mabook pro....
i NEED the illuminated keys.... and the bigger screen would be helpful....

HDD? you mean sell the macbook....and buy a 7200rpm Macbook Pro?

 

[ChrisA]

I still get the spinning icon often....even though i have lots of free ram....
so i think the spinning icon is not entirely about amount of ram....i thought it was...when swap and paging occurs due to low ram available.....

Modern OSes don't swap pages out of RAM, well at least they don't do much of that. Most pages in RAM are exact copies of executable code that is on the disk. There is no need to copy this back to the disk. The OS just re-uses the RAM without saving because it can always go back to the same executable file and re-load the same code.

The spinning icon spins for as long as it takes to read the executable code off the disk and how long it takes depends on the speed of the disk not on how much RAM you have because as I said the OS is likely not having to copy stuff back to disk to make room

 

[sagnier]

hi,

i installed a new 7200 drive in my blackbook a few weeks ago. im finding that there are fewer little hangs, and i haven't had an overload message in logic since, although admittedly i dont push it to the limit very often. i had already installed 4g of ram so cant tell you about any differences there - ive never run logic in this machine with less.

this is the drive i bought:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=320046&CatId=0

(i only paid for the cheapest delivery option and it came the next day - if the item is in stock and you order in the morning i expect anyone else would have the same experience)

i believe that the bigger system drive, the better! im sure that the more empty space you have, the smoother your system will run. it seems to be the case here, at least. im not experiencing any problems with heat, in fact i dont feel any difference whatsoever. the drive is as quiet as the stock fujitsu drive that came in the laptop. Battery life (iv just checked it) is still very good and the meter is currently showing 4:44 on a full charge, which is probably less than before but good enough. i now have my old drive in a el cheapo case that i ordered at the same time, made by Sweez. its working fine in that enclosure.

my process was to fit the 7200 drive in the case and plug in using both usb ports (the appropriate cable came with the case) then create a single GUID partition on it using Disk Utility, then clone my system drive to this using CarbonCopyCloner. This took about 3hrs with 120Gb to clone. Next i checked the new drive and its system (without removing it from the enclosure) by selecting it as the new Startup Disk in system preferences, and restarted. No problems. Finally i swapped them over, a procedure which was easy and took about 10min. Laptop has been working fine ever since, and im using the old drive as an external. Im keeping my original system on there for backup, and iv added a slim version of my BFD2 samples, which is working out surprisingly well.

So i have a faster computer with more space than i need, and a new (old) external for backups etc, and it only cost me £75. Pretty good, i think. I hope that description helps you decide whats best for you.

 

[dubhe]

HDD? you mean sell the macbook....and buy a 7200rpm Macbook Pro?

No, I mean if you have $200 or whatever set aside for buying the HDD, you can add that to the money you get from the MacBook for your new one, it is all about budgets

 

[bob2131]

No, I mean if you have $200 or whatever set aside for buying the HDD, you can add that to the money you get from the MacBook for your new one, it is all about budgets

thats waht i said.....

eg...i have money for hard drive..... so if i sell black macbook .....
i can just buy a new macbook Pro........right?

BUt.... they are all 2.4ghz roughly.....
its cheaper if i upgrade.....instead of buying a new one for £1500 roughly.... almost double my original..... for waht? a coupla small improvements? ..... doesnt seem worth it...... my mate bought a Pro for almost double mine....and all he has is an illumiated keys.....we both have firwire....etc....

its cheaper if i upgrade the internal drive.....

 

[bob2131]

Modern OSes don't swap pages out of RAM, well at least they don't do much of that. Most pages in RAM are exact copies of executable code that is on the disk. There is no need to copy this back to the disk. The OS just re-uses the RAM without saving because it can always go back to the same executable file and re-load the same code.

The spinning icon spins for as long as it takes to read the executable code off the disk and how long it takes depends on the speed of the disk not on how much RAM you have because as I said the OS is likely not having to copy stuff back to disk to make room

yeah that makes sense....cause when i sometimes have no apps open...and i simply try to open a pdf...it takes few secs with spinning icon ....to open acrobat...the first time....

speed of disk....yeah.....(memory stick app manual said its all about ram)

 

[bob2131]

hi,

i installed a new 7200 drive in my blackbook a few weeks ago. im finding that there are fewer little hangs, and i haven't had an overload message in logic since, although admittedly i dont push it to the limit very often. i had already installed 4g of ram so cant tell you about any differences there - ive never run logic in this machine with less.

this is the drive i bought:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=320046&CatId=0

(i only paid for the cheapest delivery option and it came the next day - if the item is in stock and you order in the morning i expect anyone else would have the same experience)

i believe that the bigger system drive, the better! im sure that the more empty space you have, the smoother your system will run. it seems to be the case here, at least. im not experiencing any problems with heat, in fact i dont feel any difference whatsoever. the drive is as quiet as the stock fujitsu drive that came in the laptop. Battery life (iv just checked it) is still very good and the meter is currently showing 4:44 on a full charge, which is probably less than before but good enough. i now have my old drive in a el cheapo case that i ordered at the same time, made by Sweez. its working fine in that enclosure.

my process was to fit the 7200 drive in the case and plug in using both usb ports (the appropriate cable came with the case) then create a single GUID partition on it using Disk Utility, then clone my system drive to this using CarbonCopyCloner. This took about 3hrs with 120Gb to clone. Next i checked the new drive and its system (without removing it from the enclosure) by selecting it as the new Startup Disk in system preferences, and restarted. No problems. Finally i swapped them over, a procedure which was easy and took about 10min. Laptop has been working fine ever since, and im using the old drive as an external. Im keeping my original system on there for backup, and iv added a slim version of my BFD2 samples, which is working out surprisingly well.

So i have a faster computer with more space than i need, and a new (old) external for backups etc, and it only cost me £75. Pretty good, i think. I hope that description helps you decide whats best for you.

good info...thanks.
i think i read that for us....its better to buy a drive WITHOUT the G protection thing on....as it clashes with the mac internal protection.....
ahhh man...i always get the logic audio overload message....initially...but then it stops.......

yeah im gonna buy a bigger faster internal soon....and use similar method to you...carbonCC or superduper....

the case you bought.... can you show me? or explain what it is exactly? is it called an enclosure? .... "plug in using both usb ports"...i dont understand....

youre saying youre keeping your system on the old drive for back up.... but...can you use this as a back up? or did you clone the new system from new drive BACK onto the older drive?

cheers....


yeah.... more sensible and cheaper/practical to buy a better internal drive...rather than pay almost DOUBLE for a new macbook Pro (which may or may not have 7200rpm and may or may not have 4gb ram)

 

[dubhe]

thats waht i said.....

eg...i have money for hard drive..... so if i sell black macbook .....
i can just buy a new macbook Pro........right?

BUt.... they are all 2.4ghz roughly.....
its cheaper if i upgrade.....instead of buying a new one for £1500 roughly.... almost double my original..... for waht? a coupla small improvements? ..... doesnt seem worth it...... my mate bought a Pro for almost double mine....and all he has is an illumiated keys.....we both have firwire....etc....

its cheaper if i upgrade the internal drive.....

The new MB Pro will be a lot faster than your MB, it has a faster FSB, DDR3 memory and faster graphics, which will speed up a bit now, but when Snow Leopard comes out will make a dramatic improvement.

 

[sagnier]

good info...thanks.
i think i read that for us....its better to buy a drive WITHOUT the G protection thing on....as it clashes with the mac internal protection.....
ahhh man...i always get the logic audio overload message....initially...but then it stops.......

yeah im gonna buy a bigger faster internal soon....and use similar method to you...carbonCC or superduper....

the case you bought.... can you show me? or explain what it is exactly? is it called an enclosure? .... "plug in using both usb ports"...i dont understand....

youre saying youre keeping your system on the old drive for back up.... but...can you use this as a back up? or did you clone the new system from new drive BACK onto the older drive?

cheers....


yeah.... more sensible and cheaper/practical to buy a better internal drive...rather than pay almost DOUBLE for a new macbook Pro (which may or may not have 7200rpm and may or may not have 4gb ram)

hi, here's the case is was referring to:


http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=337227

it was cheap, and listed on the same page as the drive so i bought it. you need one if you want to use a hard disk outside of your laptop, i.e. if you want to clone the drive thats inside your laptop already to a new one, prior to swapping them. the case has a usb port on it (different cases may have others as well) with which you can connect the drive to the laptop. if you dont have a case, you're left there holding a drive in your hand and trying to magically move data from the laptop to it! the combination of the enclosure + hdd = external drive. any external drive you buy like eg lacie porsche or wd passport is just a case with certain ports, and a drive (or two) inside.

after swapping the drives you can put the old hdd from laptop into the enclosure and voila! new external, portable drive. works a treat. the two ports thing - each usb on your laptop gives out a certain amount of power, and you might need the power of both to run the drive thats in the case. the case comes with the appropriate cable with a double usb on one end so you can do this. i dont need both for the 5400 thats in there now, but during the cloning i did because, obviously, i had the 7200 in there.

there are other methods when i comes to the swapping, namely you could simply install the new drive and put OSX on it after creating a partition, then install a time machine backup on it... i may be wrong about that, and in any case i went with the method i described which worked fine.

after cloning and removing the old hdd, the system remains on that hdd - there's no need to put it back on there. and i can boot from that old hdd, now in the enclosure, if i want. not that i need to because the laptop works fine, but if the new drive died...



overall, upgrading in this way is a sensible option, and MUCH cheaper than a new mbp... although i wish i had illuminated keys. very useful.