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what hard drive would YOU buy? 13.3" 2.4GHz macbook

J

jw112

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 28, 2008
4
0
just bought this today online:

13.3" white macbook (2.4 GHz , 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive)

i think i'm going to go Crucial for the memory and go to 4gb ram. are they ok?

i've been going through the posts here on this site about hard drives and it seems that someone has something bad to say about each Hard Drive manufacture. Obviously, every company is going to have a bad drive here and there but is there a safe bet to go with? Or one to stay away from?

looking for at least 320gb. would love a 500 if i'm not giving up anything.

i need it to be:

-Quiet
-Reliable
-not looking for extra heat
-not looking for extra vibration either
-fast would be nice

what i've gathered is:

7200 is fast but vibrates, uses up the battery and gets hot. So maybe a 5400 then?


on this board i've heard people dislike WD's, Seagate's, and i read on another board from a guy who runs a shop that Hitachi is really bad. So i don't know what to get. I haven't heard anything on Samsung but i bet if i keep digging i'll find people that don't like then either.

i think i would be good to here maybe from people who deal with a large number of hard drives (maybe from their job?).

So...... what would you get?

thanks in advance
 
If you discount WD, Seagate and Hitachi, then you're not exactly giving yourself a wealth of options. They sell a lot more than other brands, so they're going to have more failures - and people with failed HDs will shout louder than the overwhelming majority of people who have no problems with them at all.

My advice? Get the Western Digital 320GB/500GB — whichever you can afford — and backup. All the time, every time. If it fails, then the warranty'll cover it. This is from a lot of experience - a handful of problems, and typically DOA drives in those cases. Like I said though, backup like a maniac and the worst that can happen is that you'll be in for the hassle of getting it replaced.

As for the RAM, Crucial are great - excellent RAM and a lifetime warranty too. :)
 
jw112 said:
7200 is fast but vibrates, uses up the battery and gets hot. So maybe a 5400 then?
Click to expand...

If you can get it for not too much extra $, get the 7200. Vibrating shouldn't be an issue. Anything spinning that fast and still vibrating noticeably might not last too long.

on this board i've heard people dislike WD's, Seagate's, and i read on another board from a guy who runs a shop that Hitachi is really bad. So i don't know what to get.
Click to expand...

That's really curious, coz if someone asked me to recommend three manufacturers those are the three I'd name first. I've only ever had one drive go south on me, it was a Maxtor, and I blame the power failure for the crash, not the drive itself.
 
let me clear this up

sorry,

i understand those are the most popular.

i meant to say, in my research on this forum im finding both positive and negative about each brand. i'm not opposed to buying any of them if thats what you recommend.

sorry for the confusion.:)
 
All drives , whatever the brand, fail. Its just a matter of when, and how much of your data it takes with it.

Buy a named brand WD,seagate..etc and keep a back-up..

I personally prefer WD. I had a 250GB scoripo in my macbook and it was quiet, gave me no problems at all.

Just buy one thats at the right price and at the size you want, put it in and forget about it. There is probably not a lot of difference between the big manufacturers...
 
I'd go with SeaGate. 500GB should be around $200 or so. I'd say go for the 5400rpm unless you want to pay another ~$50 for extra speed; most people do fine with just the 5400rpms. WD has issues with Macs in the past. Hitachi is the OEM for Apple, so it might be safer to buy from them, since Apple uses them.
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
I'd go with SeaGate. 500GB should be around $200 or so. I'd say go for the 5400rpm unless you want to pay another ~$50 for extra speed; most people do fine with just the 5400rpms. WD has issues with Macs in the past. Hitachi is the OEM for Apple, so it might be safer to buy from them, since Apple uses them.
Click to expand...

Currently the 500gb is only available in 540o rpm, and you can find one for around $120 if you look around.
 
I heard that the SATA drive sensor in the Western Digital drives doesn't work well with the sudden motion sensor in Macs.

I am waiting for the 500gb Hitachi or Seagate 7200rpm sata laptop drive.

And if you got the 2.4ghz Mac Book, you have a 250gb hard drive in it.

I don't know if you can order it with a smaller 160gb hard drive as you stated.
 
I went with a 320gb 5400 rpm. I did try a seagate 7200 rpm but there was too much vibration for me and my battery took a small hit also. So I took it out and stuck it in my mbp and put the 5400rpm 320 gb hard drive that was in the pro in to my mb. I will be getting a ssd drive for the mb when the price drops a bit.
 
jw112 said:
Apple MacBook MB403LL/A

indeed a 160 gb drive
Click to expand...


Ooops. Didn't see that it was a white macbook. Hey that is a good machine. I almost opted for that over the al macbooks. Enjoy your firewire.

In that case, just get the 320gb 7200 seagate or Travelstar by Hitachi. You will double your storage and gain a lot of speed. I have never had vibration issues with Travelstars or Seagates. Remember, the bigger and faster the hard drive, the newer the technology on the drive.

If you had the 250gb like i do, it doesn't seem worth it to upgrade until they come out with the 500gb 7200rpm drives. So I'm waiting.
 
jw112 said:
this seems like a heck of a deal and seems to be getting good reviews.
what do you guys think?

new- HITACHI Travelstar 5K320 $49.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145227
Click to expand...

That's a good deal if you can wait for the rebate. But don't forget that the 7200rpm Hitachi 320gb has a 16mb cache instead of an 8mb cache as this 5400rpm drive has -- as well as faster speed.

Personally, i'd spend 100 bucks on the faster, bigger cache'd 320gb travelstar if you are going to go to the trouble of replacing your drive. You will see significant speed gains.

When I went from a 160gb to a 320 gb with same speed/cache difference in a desktop hard drive for my G5 Powermac, I was, and remain, amazed at the speed difference.
 
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