Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrading HDD and RAM on 13" MBP

M

MagikMonkey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2008
29
0
Hi all,

Just bought a 13" MacBook Pro (2.4Ghz) and am looking to upgrade to 500GB hard drive and 8GB RAM. Any suggestions on either of these (what + where to buy)? Cost would probably be my number one priority, but at the same time obviously keeping quality somewhat in mind...

Thanks!
 
MagikMonkey said:
That was quick :). Any reason you prefer the Scorpio Black over the Blue? Do you think the price difference is justified by the 7200RPM? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Trust me on this, the 7200RPM makes a significantly noticeable difference. The Scorpio Black is what I run in my 13"MBP. It is just sick compared to the factory 5400RPM drive.

*Granted it is no SSD, but you will be happy you chose it.
 
Dalton63841 said:
Trust me on this, the 7200RPM makes a significantly noticeable difference. The Scorpio Black is what I run in my 13"MBP. It is just sick compared to the factory 5400RPM drive.

*Granted it is no SSD, but you will be happy you chose it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I was originally drawn towards 7200RPM, but was discouraged by some reports of problems with heat/noise/vibrations/reduced battery life. Have you experienced any of these?
 
MagikMonkey said:
Thanks for the reply. I was originally drawn towards 7200RPM, but was discouraged by some reports of problems with heat/noise/vibrations/reduced battery life. Have you experienced any of these?
Click to expand...

I have the 500GB Scorpio Black and love the drive. The battery life difference isn't even noticable to me, my MBP still gets lots of time when unplugged; heat, yes it's warmer, comparing it to the stock Hitachi drive, the heat inside my notebook has gone up about 2 degrees. Woo. :rolleyes: Vibrations, haven't noticed anything screwy either, I'm very satisfied with the drive.
 
MagikMonkey said:
Thanks for the reply. I was originally drawn towards 7200RPM, but was discouraged by some reports of problems with heat/noise/vibrations/reduced battery life. Have you experienced any of these?
Click to expand...

What I've heard, the Scorpio Black is very good 7200rpm drive. Great performance but battery life and stuff like that are similar to 5400rpm drives
 
Neolithium said:
I have the 500GB Scorpio Black and love the drive. The battery life difference isn't even noticable to me, my MBP still gets lots of time when unplugged; heat, yes it's warmer, comparing it to the stock Hitachi drive, the heat inside my notebook has gone up about 2 degrees. Woo. :rolleyes: Vibrations, haven't noticed anything screwy either, I'm very satisfied with the drive.
Click to expand...

This was my suspicion, that the difference in heat, etc. caused by the 7200RPM is probably insignificant. I think I can endure a couple of degrees of heat, or a few minutes less battery life, for the sake of improved performance. Thanks for this, I think I will go for the Scorpio Black. I was originally debating between that and the Blue, but it seems worth going for the 7200.

Any thoughts on RAM? Or is it pretty standard across the board?
 
Neolithium said:
OWC RAM is well liked among board users here, I use Mushkin for my computers, and they've always been outstanding as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I think I'll just stick with OWC... One final question, what exactly do I need to upgrade the laptop? I've looked this up before, but I'm a bit lazy at the moment :eek:. Any suggestions for where to buy the tools?

Thanks again guys/gals.
 
I upgraded to a Scorpio Black, and while I'm very pleased with the speed, it has taken away about 2.0-2.5 hours of battery life off my Mac. Instead of seeing 7 hours of battery life, I typically get around 5 hours at best. Just something to consider. Personally, I think it's worth it.
 
dscuber9000 said:
I upgraded to a Scorpio Black, and while I'm very pleased with the speed, it has taken away about 2.0-2.5 hours of battery life off my Mac. Instead of seeing 7 hours of battery life, I typically get around 5 hours at best. Just something to consider. Personally, I think it's worth it.
Click to expand...

What do you run your brightness and backlight on?
 
dscuber9000 said:
it has taken away about 2.0-2.5 hours of battery life off my Mac.
Click to expand...
That's a pretty significant loss.

I bought my 13" Macbook Pro a few months ago and got the low end model because I planned on using the savings to upgrade the HD and RAM, like everyone else. I prefer the long battery life of this laptop, so getting the right HD is important to me.

I do have one question though, when replacing the HD how to you transfer all your old data to the new HD?
 
MagikMonkey said:
Thanks for the reply. I was originally drawn towards 7200RPM, but was discouraged by some reports of problems with heat/noise/vibrations/reduced battery life. Have you experienced any of these?
Click to expand...

Let's see, no vibration, battery life might have lost about 15-20 minutes, almost unnoticeable really. As far as excessive heat, I don't really notice any...I run alot of HandbrakeCLI and the hottest my laptop has ever gotten was about 81C, and that was while running HandbrakeCLI in 8 different tabs simultaneously, while web browsing and other stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back