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Upgrading My MacBook Pro's Hard Drive

zachcheatham

zachcheatham

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 7, 2009
123
0
St. Louis, Missouri
I currently have a 160 GB HDD in my 13" MacBook Pro Mid 2009 and am currently looking to upgrade.

Current HDD Specs:
- Hitachi HTS545016B9SA02
- SATA
- 160 GB
- Queue Depth: 32
- 5400 RPM

I want to buy a 500 GB HDD to put in, but I'm not sure which specs to buy.

Any suggestions/links?
 
I'd make sure to stick to at least 5400rpm. I've heard from multiple people that the difference from 5200rpm to 5400rpm is noticeable. I personally prefer Western Digital just out of good experiences with them. Here are two that I'd recommend (one 5400rpm and one 7200rpm).

Western Digital Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s - $74.99


Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BPVT 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s - $59.99

Keep in mind these are both OEM versions, which come with no packaging or instructions, but it's also cheaper.
 
On newegg I saw some matching Hitachi drives but I didn't know of any reasons to go with another brand. I bought desktop WD drives before and loved them.

Also, do all 5400 drives have the same power consumption?
 
I personally wouldn't go with a 5400rpm drive... 7200rpm or higher. (Not sure if you can get the VelociRaptor in a 500GB version?)
 
CW Jones said:
I personally wouldn't go with a 5400rpm drive... 7200rpm or higher. (Not sure if you can get the VelociRaptor in a 500GB version?)
Click to expand...

Don't know that you can put a VelociRaptor in a MBP. Even if you could, it would get super hot, use a lot of power and cause way too much vibration.

As for OP's question about power; not all have equal power consumption. Actually I think my WD scorpio black (7200 RPM) uses less power than the fujitsu unit that it came with (5400 RPM). I have been getting a bit longer battery life since the upgrade, along with a mild-moderate increase in performance. It's nothing mind-blowing, but nor is it unnoticeable, it's enough that I appreciate it. I have also always had good experiences with Western Digital drives, so that's what I went with.
 
My recommendation is the new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive. It's a 7200 RPM drive with 4 GB of SSD. It manages itself so it puts the most frequently used files in the SSD portion of the drive, allowing some SSD benefits with a ton of storage (compared to an SSD). And it only costs $130.

The benchmarks and test are more than impressive, with it testing on the level of a VelociRaptor. It has the best performance/storage/price combination of any drive in existence in my opinion, for laptops anyway (and maybe desktops too). I ordered one this weekend.

I think SSD's are way overpriced and impractical for right now. I'm sure in 2 years time I'll probably be running one, but for right now I don't think they are worth it.

You can find it here.
 
green86 said:
My recommendation is the new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive. It's a 7200 RPM drive with 4 GB of SSD. It manages itself so it puts the most frequently used files in the SSD portion of the drive, allowing some SSD benefits with a ton of storage (compared to an SSD). And it only costs $130.

The benchmarks and test are more than impressive, with it testing on the level of a VelociRaptor. It has the best performance/storage/price combination of any drive in existence in my opinion, for laptops anyway (and maybe desktops too). I ordered one this weekend.

I think SSD's are way overpriced and impractical for right now. I'm sure in 2 years time I'll probably be running one, but for right now I don't think they are worth it.

You can find it here.
Click to expand...

+1...just put one of these drives in a few days ago and at the same time upgraded to 8gb of ram..

notice a big difference..just as advertised, the drive most certainly learns b/c my boot ups quickened from first run to third run, etc..would certainly recommend going that route.
 
RWil85 said:
+1...just put one of these drives in a few days ago and at the same time upgraded to 8gb of ram..

notice a big difference..just as advertised, the drive most certainly learns b/c my boot ups quickened from first run to third run, etc..would certainly recommend going that route.
Click to expand...

Also went with momentus xt in my core i5 macbook pro. A great HDD, very satisfied and much better than the stock Hitachi 5400 RPM drive.
 
Okay so after some looking at the WD scorpio blue on newegg. Some of the reviews state that the 500 GB has crashing problems and then it also has a weird driver problem that causes like a constant 5 second spin up/park. Shouldn't I just buy the same drive that apple puts in, just bigger?
 
I have a seagate 500 gb 7200 rpm in my mbp that I got from OWC. It was pretty affordable, no sound or heat issues.
 
zachcheatham said:
Cool, I dont understand why people are complaining about this thing parking several times a minutes and having to use something called hdapm to make it stop.

Also, do drives still work with the drop sensor?
Click to expand...

You should avoid getting the one with the sensor. The MBPs don't like it very well. Also, if you are looking at a WD Caviar, it won't fit in your computer. It has to be one of the scorpios (blue - 5400 RPM, black - 7200 RPM)
 
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