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Upgrading uMBP HDD to Seagate with G-force protection

Pegasus665

Pegasus665

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 6, 2009
35
0
Bristol, UK
Good morning all.

Well, after being a long standing PC/Windows user, I've ordered my very first mac book pro 13.3" with 2.26Ghz C2D, 160GB HDD & 2GB ram. Looking forward to recieving and tinkering with it.

I've been reading the various posts and review of internal 2.5" SATA HDDs with the WD Blue 5400rpm 500GB HDD toping the Seagate 7200rpm equivalent. But I am considering a Seagate HD Momentus 7200.4GP 2.5'' 500/SATA/16MB (ST9500420ASG) with the G-Force Protection.
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=B177992

Firstly will this G-protection work in the uMBP 13.3"? (I know it's more of a hardware feature, independent of the OS so no conflicts?)

Secondly, when I get the larger HDD, should I before even turning on the MBP, change the HDDs and then use the OS disc to sort out the new harddrive i.e. reformating and installing the OS. Or not?

Thirdly, has anyone with a 7200rpm 500GB HDD noticed excessive heat, vibration, detrimentto battery life? (In XP, see approx decrease of battery life 10-15 minutes). Furthermore, I've noticed that Apple themselves when configuring the 13.3" uMBP, have only options for the 5400rpm HDD and no option of 7200rpm thus indicating one should fit a 7200rpm HDD?

Thank you

Sam
 
A built-in feature, I can't seem to find it on the spec list.

Does anyone have the service manual for the 13.3" uMBP?

To miles, quoi? So you do have this drive, at all any problem you've noticed?
 
Pegasus665 said:
Thirdly, has anyone with a 7200rpm 500GB HDD noticed excessive heat, vibration, detrimentto battery life? (In XP, see approx decrease of battery life 10-15 minutes). Furthermore, I've noticed that Apple themselves when configuring the 13.3" uMBP, have only options for the 5400rpm HDD and no option of 7200rpm thus indicating one should fit a 7200rpm HDD
Click to expand...

I have a 7200.3 Seagate installed atm and did notice an increase in heat, negative impact on battery life and more vibration vs the stock Fujitsu that came in my uMBP, but I have iTunes running most of the time, thus my HDD never spins down to sleep mode.

I just ordered the 500 GB Scorpio Blue yesterday after reading the positive reviews. I think its the best choice right now.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4954
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Skip the Seagate. Get the WD.
 
I read the techreport article comparing the various 2.5" SATA HDDs which did point to the WD Blue.

I know that when getting a 3.5" HDD for storage/backup solutions it's worth getting the 1TB/1.5TB solutions from Samsung/Seagate/WD with 5400rpm as to prevent excess heat, energy conservation & increase longevity. So I guess, I will be using my MacBook Pro more than I did with my current 15.4" notebook i.e. on my lap.

From personal experience, I replaced my Windows XP 15.4" from 100GB 7200rpm to 250GB 5400rpm (both seagate) and noticed HDD running cooler.

The notebook review pits the 5400rpm 500GB vs 7200rpm 320GB WD HDD's, which is really an unfair comparision. In some instances the higher disc density of slower HDD will be of the same speed (read/write) to the 7200rpm HDD.

Does the uMBP have the G-protection innately?
 
I have the Seagate 7200 500gb drive in my 1st generation MBP and it runs even more quiet than the stock drive it replaced it seems. No excessive heat either. I've extended the life on my old MBP

I was sure to get the model without G-force protection.
 
I have had both in a unibody MB. Originally got the non-G version and it failed on me within a week. RMA'd it and Seagate sent me a G-version as a replacement.

And the 7200 RPM HDD Apple ships has G-force protection. (at least mine does)
 
I'm running the Hitachi 320gb 7200rpm'er. runs great. i've noticed no additional heat or vibration. it is slightly louder. battery life seems teh same to me
 
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