Western Digital Scorpio Blue vs. Seagate Momentus

[tnsmart]

I am about to order a 15" (non-retina) MBP. Rather than getting an upgraded hard drive and RAM from Apple, I plan to buy them myself and install them. For the hard drive, I am trying to choose between the Western Digital Scorpio Blue and Seagate Momentus. They both appear to have the same specs, same price (at least on (Amazon), and high ratings.

Is it better to have a "bare drive" or not? Is there any other advantage that one has over the other?

Also, Stevie L. on the Apple Store chat has told me that upgrading these myself will not void my warranty. Can anyone confirm for me that that is their experience?

Thanks!

 

[MacDawg]

Both are good drives, and no, it won't void your warranty

Why not consider an SSD?

 

[tnsmart]

Why not consider an SSD?

Thanks for the reply. I would love to have an SSD, but I'd like at least 750GB under $150.

I've also considered a 7200rpm drive, but I'm not convinced that the speed increase is worth the money, loss in battery life, and extra heat.

 

[MacDawg]

You won't go wrong with either drive
I had a Scorpio in my MBP before my MBA and it performed well
Both have their fans with personal preferences

 

[ECUpirate44]

I've also considered a 7200rpm drive, but I'm not convinced that the speed increase is worth the money, loss in battery life, and extra heat.

I really think thats a myth. I've had 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives at some in my MBP and I noticed a difference in speed, not heat or battery life.

 

[spdntrxi]

I like WD personally.. I've had very good luck with them. 1 failure in 10 years.. I've had 3 seagate failure in the sometime frame.

 

[TLewis]

Also, you might want to look into the hybrid Seagate Momentus drive. Yeah, it's $150, but it's a hybrid drive, 750GB, and 7200rpm. While an SSD is best, they're expensive at the 500GB level and up, and this seems to be a decent compromise:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1374314/

You do have to do a few reboots to get the improved speed, though. You won't see any improvement at first; you have to give the drive time to learn how the mac boots and what programs you use.

 

[wytwolf]

7200rpm is not always faster then 5400rpm when it comes to read and right. My external Seagate 1TB 5400rpm scores a faster read and write (about 100MB/s for read and write) in blackmagic then my internal momentus XT 500GB (about 85MB/S). From what i've read is both are 2 platter drives so the 1TB has more bits per platter so is able to read and write faster.

Make sure you read reviews before purchasing.

 

[Ifti]

Ive used many of both types of drives and both are very reliable.
You cant go wrong with either - when it comes to these drives the deciding factor for me would simply be the price. Go for the cheaper one as quality and reliability of both types is great.

 

[tnsmart]

Thanks for all the replies!

Also, you might want to look into the hybrid Seagate Momentus drive. Yeah, it's $150, but it's a hybrid drive, 750GB, and 7200rpm. While an SSD is best, they're expensive at the 500GB level and up, and this seems to be a decent compromise:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1374314/

You do have to do a few reboots to get the improved speed, though. You won't see any improvement at first; you have to give the drive time to learn how the mac boots and what programs you use.

This thing seems pretty cool. I'm thinking about getting one of the drives I listed in my original post for now and then upgrading to something like this later. Any ideas on when there might be a 1TB version or when the price might fall?

7200rpm is not always faster then 5400rpm when it comes to read and right. My external Seagate 1TB 5400rpm scores a faster read and write (about 100MB/s for read and write) in blackmagic then my internal momentus XT 500GB (about 85MB/S). From what i've read is both are 2 platter drives so the 1TB has more bits per platter so is able to read and write faster.

Yeah, I've read some stuff about the data being denser and so the disk doesn't have to spin as fast. I do want to make sure that my read and write speeds won't decrease from my 320GB 7200rpm drive that I use in my Macbook now to my new MBP (which I've already ordered).

 

[tnsmart]

Well I went with the Western Scorpio Blue drive thinking that I could upgrade to a different drive in a couple years if I want to. Does anybody have any ideas as to when there might be a 1TB version of the Seagate hybrid drive?