Which harddrive to get for my macbook??

[macbookperson]

Hi,
I need to buy a new harddrive for my macbook and I wanted to know which brand is the best and most reliable. So far, from what I have read, it seems like Seagate and Hitachi are the best overall, is that true?

I want to get a hard that is at least 250GB. If they are the same in quality and reliability, I would probably get the Hitachi because it has a 320 GB harddrive with a good price.

Another question I have is: do the faster harddrives produce a lot more heat and reduce the battery life very much? And do they actually make that much of a difference to be worth the extra money. I would probably get one that is 5400 RPM, unless it would be worth it for me to but a 7200 RPM one.

Sorry for all the questions

 

[Cave Man]

Samsung and Seagates for me. No way will I ever buy a WD again. They have sh!++y customer and tech services and will not honor their warranties. I'm have no opinion for Hitachi.

A 7200 rpm drive will have no impact on your battery under typical use.

If you do lots of sustained read/writes (e.g., movies, music, etc.) then a 5400 is better since you get more space for the money. If you do lots of random access (e.g., gaming, database work) then a 7200 rpm is the better choice.

 

[agentphish]

7200 RPM Hitachi fo sho.

 

[alphaod]

I like Seagate. WD doesn't always honor their warranties, but I have only had one drive fail.

 

[chipchen]

I generally prefer Seagate... but if you read about the 7.01 firmware and macbook hard drives fiasco... you'll lose a bit of confidence.

I've had really good luck with Hitachi and Fujitsu for laptop drives too.

I think OWC had some really good prices... here it is.. OWC and WOOT teamed up for some really good prices here.. today only though I think.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/woot

 

[macbookperson]

Thanks for the replies

I just have a couple more questions now..

I read somewhere that a 7200 rpm hard drive is not as reliable because if it gets bumped, there is a higher chance of it damaging the spinning disks because its spinning faster. Is that true?

And also, some things I use my macbook a lot for are photos( I have a pretty big iphoto library that loads really sloooow... I don't have much RAM so maybe thats the problem) and using Imovie to make videos from my video camera. Would a faster drive help with those kinds of things?

 

[Cave Man]

I don't buy the 7200 rpm damage assertion. Sounds strange to me.

You want to max your RAM first, then think about your hard drive. For photo and video work, your money is best spent on capacity.

 

[chipchen]

Thanks for the replies

I just have a couple more questions now..

I read somewhere that a 7200 rpm hard drive is not as reliable because if it gets bumped, there is a higher chance of it damaging the spinning disks because its spinning faster. Is that true?

And also, some things I use my macbook a lot for are photos( I have a pretty big iphoto library that loads really sloooow... I don't have much RAM so maybe thats the problem) and using Imovie to make videos from my video camera. Would a faster drive help with those kinds of things?

More damage? No, that's crap. Doesn't matter how fast it's spinning, if it's spinning when it hits, there's a good chance it can fail anyway.

About photos and movies, always better to have a faster drive... but yea, RAM is more important. And 7200 rpm is better for video... less chance of dropping frames.

 

[chrono1081]

That harddrive thing is complete BS. You get people out there who try and overthink everything possible.

You will however see a performance increase between 5400 and 7200RPM and its pretty noticeable. As far as brand I've been buying seagate lately. I'm a harddrive whore and have tried about every brand out there.

 

[Cave Man]

About photos and movies, always better to have a faster drive... but yea, RAM is more important. And 7200 rpm is better for video... less chance of dropping frames.

You will however see a performance increase between 5400 and 7200RPM and its pretty noticeable. As far as brand I've been buying seagate lately. I'm a harddrive whore and have tried about every brand out there.

I have never experienced dropped frames using iMovie or Final Cut Express on my MBP with my Samsung 320 gb/5400 rpm drive.

 

[crusher]

Same problem here. I'm sort of stuck choosing between the

Seagate Momentus 7200.3 (ST9320421AS 320 GB)

and

Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB (WD3200BEKT)

for my SR MBP.

They don't seem to be all that different performance-wise, exchanging the lead in different comparisons ( http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2-5-hard-drive-charts/compare,693.html?prod[2040]=on&prod[2039]=on ), yet the Seagate-drive seems to be a bit more power-efficient. Any thoughts on your side?

Both also offer another version of their drives with a free-fall sensor (G.Force for Seagate, BJKT for the WD). Since the MBP already provides such sensors, these won't be necessary, will they? Or is there limited compatibility so I should get a drive with such sensor?

Thanks for your insights!