which hard drive for macbook?

[jakeopolis]

hey guys,

apologies if this has been asked before, but since hard drives change all the time i figured an updated thread couldn't hurt.

i'd like to upgrade my macbook's hard drive (white 2007 macbook). my current drive is a 120 gb fujitsu (stock).

i have 2 questions:

1) which specific hard drive should i buy? i'm thinking around 250 gb would be perfect, and i don't want to pay more than i have to. that said, i'm willing to pay what i need to pay for a good hard drive that will last. anything off ncix.net or tigerdirect suits my fancy.

2) i still have another year of my applecare. is there any way to upgrade the hard drive without voiding my warranty? or, am i missing some other crucial detail here?

thanks guys - again, hopefully this question hasn't been asked and answered a thousand times... i couldn't find any threads with specific answers.

 

[clyde2801]

Any 2.5" sata hard drive should work. Since your macbook has built in shock protection, you should get a drive that doesn't have that built in; others have reported that the two sensors can conflict with each other.

WD scorpio black 320 gig, scorpio blue 500 gig, and seagate momentus 7200.4 500 gig are pretty popular drives.

Changing a drive is easy. Look for instructions on www.ifixit.com . As long as you have the right tools (epecially a certain size torx), you can swap the drive out in five minutes or less. You can get a external drive cable and download carbon copy cloner for free to make a clone of your existing drive onto your new one.

You may also notice a performance boost in boot up, shut down and disk intensive applications over your existing drive. (My friend got a scorpio black in his 2.4 white macbook and raves about how much better it performs.) Also look into putting 4 gigs of ram in your machine if you haven't done so already. Yes, it will only use 3.3 gigs of ram, but you'll get the full dual channel performance boost for a relatively modest investment. Good luck.

 

[jakeopolis]

Any 2.5" sata hard drive should work. Since your macbook has built in shock protection, you should get a drive that doesn't have that built in; others have reported that the two sensors can conflict with each other.

WD scorpio black 320 gig, scorpio blue 500 gig, and seagate momentus 7200.4 500 gig are pretty popular drives.

Changing a drive is easy. Look for instructions on www.ifixit.com . As long as you have the right tools (epecially a certain size torx), you can swap the drive out in five minutes or less. You can get a external drive cable and download carbon copy cloner for free to make a clone of your existing drive onto your new one.

You may also notice a performance boost in boot up, shut down and disk intensive applications over your existing drive. (My friend got a scorpio black in his 2.4 white macbook and raves about how much better it performs.) Also look into putting 4 gigs of ram in your machine if you haven't done so already. Yes, it will only use 3.3 gigs of ram, but you'll get the full dual channel performance boost for a relatively modest investment. Good luck.

great, thanks for all the tips. i actually did the ram upgrade a while ago, and it definitely was worthwhile. is this the wd scorpio you're talking about? http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=33669&vpn=WD3200BEKT&manufacture=Western Digital WD

as far as applecare, what are the details about upgrading my HD? if i do it myself, do i void the warranty?

 

[eman]

Yes, the one you have listed will work. The hard drive must be the 2.5" SATA (laptop hard drive) form factor and not the 3.5" SATA (Desktop hard drive) form factor. Your Apple warranty will not be void for upgrading your hard drive.
The difference in the Western Digital drives are:
WD blue drives are 5400RPM
WD black drives are 7200RPM

 

[jakeopolis]

Yes, the one you have listed will work. The hard drive must be the 2.5" SATA (laptop hard drive) form factor and not the 3.5" SATA (Desktop hard drive) form factor. Your Apple warranty will not be void for upgrading your hard drive.
The difference in the Western Digital drives are:
WD blue drives are 5400RPM
WD black drives are 7200RPM

cool, thanks! i've gone ahead and ordered the scorpio black - negligible price difference for the faster RPM

thanks again guys.

 

[JStatic]

640GB 2.5 Sata Fit?

I'm hearing most 9.5mm 2.5 Sata's will fit in the black and white MB's

I'm eyeing a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB 2.5 Sata HD that is 9.5mm, so is it true that it'll fit in the blk & wht MB's as long as it is 9.5MM?