Upgrading MBP to Scorpio Blue - my experience

[MacDawg]

I decided to upgrade the 160 GB 4400 HD in my 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor - Santa Rosa 17" MacBook Pro

After looking around, I narrowed my choices to:

Scorpio Black - 320 GB 7200
Scorpio Blue - 500 GB 5400

After reading a number of reviews comparing the two like this one, I decided to go with the Scorpio Blue

We were pleasantly surprised to see both the Western Digital Scorpio Blue and Scorpio Black drives benchmarked faster than their direct competition and ran cooler at the same time. That said, the "unpleasant" surprise is that the Scorpio Black wasn't much faster than the Scorpio Blue.

I followed this installation video and it was spot on

I only needed 2 tools:

#00 Philllips screwdriver
#T6 Torx screwdriver

I got them in a precision tool kit at my local Lowes home improvement store
I was surprised that Radio Shack didn't have anything close to help me

The installation went off without any issues whatsoever
I watched the video and just followed it without a single hiccup

Once the hard drive was installed, I popped in my Leopard disk and used it to access my Time Machine backup on my 1TB Western Digital MyBook
It restored flawlessly, and I was in business quickly and effortlessly

From there, I proceeded to restore my Boot Camp partition
That was a different story, and I will make a separate thread about that
Suffice it to say, it was a little challenging, but I learned a lot


So far, the Scorpio Blue is wicked fast for me
I would recommend it to anyone looking for an upgrade


Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[angemon89]

Yeah, I hear great things about that drive.

Did you have difficulty prying off the top case? That is always the hardest part when opening up a prev gen MBP.

 

[MacDawg]

Yeah, I hear great things about that drive.

Did you have difficulty prying off the top case? That is always the hardest part when opening up a prev gen MBP.

Not at all... once I got all of the screws out!
I left 4 in and was struggling till I finally realized what I had done

The installation was simple, straightforward and if I can do it... anybody can
The video is simple to follow

It was well worth the upgrade!

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[angemon89]

Must just be me then, because I always have to pull really hard in order to get the top case off from the front of the MBP near the latch area.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Must just be me then, because I always have to pull really hard in order to get the top case off from the front of the MBP near the latch area.

I did too.

 

[dan5.5]

How is the perfomance of the hard drive?

 

[MacDawg]

How is the perfomance of the hard drive?

I can tell a big difference on booting up
It is quick, quiet and seems to be running very cool

I wasn't expecting much of a performance increase... just size
But I have been pleasantly surprised by the speed

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[sm0]

sounds like a great drive - best price point atm.

have you noticed any vibration or clicking?

i'd be keen to hear from someone who has upgraded to the blue scorpio from the standard unibody drives. is the speed bump significant?

cheers

 

[MacDawg]

sounds like a great drive - best price point atm.

have you noticed any vibration or clicking?

Actually... no

It has been very quiet and solid
It is quite an upgrade from the 160 GB 4400 Fujitsu

I will be putting the old drive in an external enclosure and using it for a backup disk

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[iammike1]

Wow, I had no idea the 160GB was only 4400 RPM.

 

[Ploki]

congrats!
i have the black one.
great disks, all my disks are WD

 

[GoCubsGo]

That video made it look real easy. I wish the MacMini was that easy. I'm terrified to do it.

 

[MacDawg]

That video made it look real easy. I wish the MacMini was that easy. I'm terrified to do it.

It was far easier than I thought, because I usually find a way to screw things up
The video was excellent, and there were no surprises along the way

Don't get me wrong, I like surprises, but not when I am upgrading my HD

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[GoCubsGo]

That site has a Mac Mini Ram install. Based on the video I'd have to say it's the earlier model Mac Mini but it looks less daunting in the video. So thanks for linking the video because once I get the 250 GB HDD I just bought I think I'll do the RAM and HDD upgrade at the same time.