A couple days ago I upgraded my mid 2010 MBP 13 stock hdd(Hitachi 5400rpm 250gb) to a new one (Hitachi 7200rpm 500gb 7k500). I am still amazed by how much faster and more responsive system has gone.
Some change in noise/vibration was expected, but now I am starting to get a bit annoyed by vibration and HDD noise. Vibration gets on my nerves- the levels are nowhere high, but there was no vibration in my stock HDD. In addition, the noise of the system on idle has roughly doubled- both fan and HDD are humming at the same level. The system is still very quiet, but I could not help noticing it anyway. Is this normal?
I tried replacing the old HDD and found out that the problems were not present with it (=I am not likely to have made some awful mistakes putting the hard drive in). Then I tried tightening all the screws as hard as possible and putting some rubberized washers on the corners of the HDD to ensure snuggly fit. All efforts rendered no change. Are there any other methods to reduce noise and vibration?
Furthermore, I still have one day to return the 7k500 without any loss. Should I get WD Scorpio Blue 500gb instead? I have read user reports of similar problems with WD SB 640gb drives as well. Since these drives are essentially the same, I would expect similar problems with 500gb as well.
P.S. Is there any chance that the stock HDD is slightly "downclocked" by Apple? It does vibrate a lot inside external cradle. Furthermore, I tested a couple laptops in the local Apple store. Both MBP 15" and MBP 17" where equipped with 500gb 5400rpm drives. However, MBP 17" was vibrating much more than the MBP 15" (maybe MBP 17 HDD runs at its native speed to increase the performance. The increased size of 17" makes the vibration effects less annoying). The stock HDD vibrates just like the current one until after 1-2s after the power button is pressed- as if some sort of regulation kicks in after that point.
Some change in noise/vibration was expected, but now I am starting to get a bit annoyed by vibration and HDD noise. Vibration gets on my nerves- the levels are nowhere high, but there was no vibration in my stock HDD. In addition, the noise of the system on idle has roughly doubled- both fan and HDD are humming at the same level. The system is still very quiet, but I could not help noticing it anyway. Is this normal?
I tried replacing the old HDD and found out that the problems were not present with it (=I am not likely to have made some awful mistakes putting the hard drive in). Then I tried tightening all the screws as hard as possible and putting some rubberized washers on the corners of the HDD to ensure snuggly fit. All efforts rendered no change. Are there any other methods to reduce noise and vibration?
Furthermore, I still have one day to return the 7k500 without any loss. Should I get WD Scorpio Blue 500gb instead? I have read user reports of similar problems with WD SB 640gb drives as well. Since these drives are essentially the same, I would expect similar problems with 500gb as well.
P.S. Is there any chance that the stock HDD is slightly "downclocked" by Apple? It does vibrate a lot inside external cradle. Furthermore, I tested a couple laptops in the local Apple store. Both MBP 15" and MBP 17" where equipped with 500gb 5400rpm drives. However, MBP 17" was vibrating much more than the MBP 15" (maybe MBP 17 HDD runs at its native speed to increase the performance. The increased size of 17" makes the vibration effects less annoying). The stock HDD vibrates just like the current one until after 1-2s after the power button is pressed- as if some sort of regulation kicks in after that point.
