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Upgrade MBP Internal HD to 1Tb

A

adityashah1989

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 11, 2008
363
5
So I want to upgrade my MBP internal HD to 1Tb & my RAM as well.

Questions:
- What brand HD is best suitable for this?
- How do I go about the whole process? Any guides?
- Similar info for RAM

Currently I am using the 320Gb HD & 4Gb RAM that I got with my Mac. Also I think I have two HD slots. So can should I put two 500Gig HD's or just one 1Tb?

Also can I contemplate adding two 1Tb HD's?

Thanks.
 
I bought WD 750GB, 7200rpm, 16MB cache here
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD7500BPKT/
still waiting for delivery. I think this is the best, because it has 7200rpm on 750GB, that's is the maximum of the speed now for 750GB drives.

Take a look to the guides on www.ifixit.com and on a http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
(choose your model). I never did it before, but I gonna do it soon, look pretty easy.

You can add only one extra HDD (SSD) into your MacBook Pro. One most important thing is speed of the drive and volume.
 
You can add two hard drives if you remove the current dvd drive and replace it with an optibay. Its fairly low cost and allows you room for a second hard drive inside your laptop.

If you don't mind you can use an external hard drive to add more capacity and still keep your optical drive. Those are the only two options for your laptop.

Oh, and there are 1tb laptop hard drives available. Just make sure the one you pick has a 9.5 mm height. The 12.5 mm drives do not fit as well.
 
They don't make a laptop 1tb drive that is 9.5mm.

I believe there are currently only 2 drives out there, a western digital which is a 12.5mm and another brand that is 15mm. So you're limited to western digital currently.

I'm not quite sure about the optibay, but it fits fine in the normal hdd slot.
 
cloroxbleach4 said:
They don't make a laptop 1tb drive that is 9.5mm.

I believe there are currently only 2 drives out there, a western digital which is a 12.5mm and another brand that is 15mm. So you're limited to western digital currently.

I'm not quite sure about the optibay, but it fits fine in the normal hdd slot.
Click to expand...

not true, samsung just released the 2.5" spinpoint M8 1TB drives which use two 500gb platters and are 9.5mm thick. They retail for $129

here is the news story and press release - http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-spinpoint-m8-puts-1tb-drives-on-a-diet-just-in-time-for/

To the OP - do a google search, youtube, or on apples site there are tutorials for how to replace hard drives and ram on the macbook pros. It's very simple, just a few screws and a couple cables.

I would go with a samsung, wd, seagate, etc. just get a reputable brand, hdd's are cheap enough anyways, might as well get a good name brand.

you only have one hdd slot, you can make for a second if you are fine with removal of the optical disk drive.
 
cloroxbleach4 said:
Thanks! Any idea where to buy it?
Click to expand...

i'm not sure, they just did the press release a day or two ago but said it's shipping now for $129. Maybe their website will have it? If not i'm sure you will see it in stores and online before the end of the month. I'll look around and see if i can't find it.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
i'm not sure, they just did the press release a day or two ago but said it's shipping now for $129. Maybe their website will have it? If not i'm sure you will see it in stores and online before the end of the month. I'll look around and see if i can't find it.
Click to expand...

Are Samsung HD's as reliable as Hitachi & WD? Also are WD expected to release a similar HD soon?
 
adityashah1989 said:
Are Samsung HD's as reliable as Hitachi & WD? Also are WD expected to release a similar HD soon?
Click to expand...

yes

I don't know... i'm sure that they may follow suit, but who knows when. If you want to put it in the regular HDD slot, it can accomodate a 12.5mm drive though. You only need 9.5 if you want to put it in the optibay.
 
Last edited:
i had a samsung 1tb 12.5mm drive and it worked great.

it fit in with no issues but it was overkill so i swapped in a 750gb 7200rpm seagate. my old samsung is on ebay if youre looking for a deal ;)
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
yes

I don't know... i'm sure that they may follow suit, but who knows when. If you want to put it in the regular HDD slot, it can accomodate a 12.5mm drive though. You only need 9.5 if you want to put it in the optibay.
Click to expand...

Now you lost me. What's the difference between the normal slot and the optibay?
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
not true, samsung just released the 2.5" spinpoint M8 1TB drives which use two 500gb platters and are 9.5mm thick. They retail for $129

here is the news story and press release - http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-spinpoint-m8-puts-1tb-drives-on-a-diet-just-in-time-for/

To the OP - do a google search, youtube, or on apples site there are tutorials for how to replace hard drives and ram on the macbook pros. It's very simple, just a few screws and a couple cables.

I would go with a samsung, wd, seagate, etc. just get a reputable brand, hdd's are cheap enough anyways, might as well get a good name brand.

you only have one hdd slot, you can make for a second if you are fine with removal of the optical disk drive.
Click to expand...

It just sucks though that it's only 5400rps.

@adityashah1989 Optibay is the location of your optical-drive that can be switched for a hdd with a max height of 9.5mm.
 
92x faster than a regular hard drive

Why put a cheap and old concept device with moving parts when you can have a real killer SSD :confused:

Replace your conventional hard drive with a reliable solid state drive. Unlike traditional hard drives, OWC SSDs have no moving parts, resulting in a quiet, cool, highly rugged storage solution with faster system responsiveness. Go for OWC 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD for only $1,279 and be assured you've got the best.

The traditional hard drives with moving parts are for birds, lol, lol,....

RF,:apple:
 
RoyalFlushAK(s) said:
Why put a cheap and old concept device with moving parts when you can have a real killer SSD :confused:

Replace your conventional hard drive with a reliable solid state drive. Unlike traditional hard drives, OWC SSDs have no moving parts, resulting in a quiet, cool, highly rugged storage solution with faster system responsiveness. Go for OWC 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD for only $1,279 and be assured you've got the best.

The traditional hard drives with moving parts are for birds, lol, lol,....

RF,:apple:
Click to expand...

Can you direct me to a good 1Tb one. I am planning to replace my conventional HD and not the optibay.
 
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