MBP - Replace HDD with a 7200rpm....

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

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I've been thinking of changing the stock 160gb 5400rpm HDD in my MBP for a nice 7200rpm drive.
Looking around, the max capacity on the 2.5" SATA is 200gb, with offerings from Hitachi & Seagate...

So:
seagate momentus 7200.2- capacity: 200gb
- cache: 16mb
- warranty: 5 years
- built in g-force protection
ocuk price: £121.01


hitachi travelstar 7k200- capacity: 200gb
- cache: 16mb
- warranty: 3 years
ocuk price: £123.36

from a brand & warranty point of view, i prefer seagate.
both hard drives will be controlled by the mbp's sudden motion detection, but the seagate also has it's own built-in detection.

the bare feats review (clicky), has the Hitachi 7k200 recording faster times for large sustained transfers, but the Seagate recording faster times for small random transfers.


So, which to chose? Have I missed any faster/bigger drives?

Also, (this is my first Mac so I know little about the way Mac's work), the MacBook Pro 15.4" does take a standard 2.5" drive? No special slim HDD bay or anything?

TY
Ed.
 
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AFAIK you're fine with a standard 2.5" but don't quote me on it.

I got the 200GB 7200rpm drive as a BTO upgrade and it's only actually 185GB.

I know the speed increase will benefit you but don't expect an extra 40GB of space.

Just thought I'd warn you.

As for the two drives I have no idea. Sorry.

Panzer
 
Yeah, MBPs take 2.5" HDD. They're pretty hard to replace and void your warranty if you do replace it. It's up to you though.

I would go for the Seagate imo, better than Hitachi.
 
Agree ^

You'll hardly notice a faster performance with a quicker HDD, it will use more battery power and get hotter. Not worth voiding warranty tbh.
 
Justin said:
Yeah, MBPs take 2.5" HDD. They're pretty hard to replace and void your warranty if you do replace it. It's up to you though.

I would go for the Seagate IMO, better than Hitachi.
Click to expand...

From what I'd read the warranty issues was a grey area, but I'm (most probably) going to be having Farpoint Developments (Premium Reseller & Authorised Service Centre) do a case lower case replacement (see this thread, found another dent too!), and as they have to take my MBP apart for that was thinking that then would be a good opportunity to change the HDD...

In my ignorance I forgot to ask them whether the lower case replacement would void my 3yrs of AppleCare, but as they said that cosmetic case damage isn't covered by it and that they're and Authorised Service Centre, I guess that it'll be OK :confused:
 
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Panzerbjorn said:
AFAIK you're fine with a standard 2.5" but don't quote me on it.

I got the 200GB 7200rpm drive as a BTO upgrade and it's only actually 185GB.

I know the speed increase will benefit you but don't expect an extra 40GB of space.

Just thought I'd warn you.

As for the two drives I have no idea. Sorry.

Panzer
Click to expand...

Yea I realise that, what I'd do is use 160gb for Leopard & 25gb for Bootcamp (unfortunately I have a major program that is Windows only, and don't want to faff around with VM's/Parallels)
 
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someone mentioned that you wont see much of a performance improvement from going from 5400 > 7200rpm... i would like to challenge that... i know that my comparison on on windows but i went from a 5400 to a 7200rpm drive in a laptop and the difference is amazing! if, however, the context in which you were referring to the upgrade was that the performance increase was not worth risking the warranty for then i would totally agree with you - i certainly wouldn't even entertain taking a mbp to bits, simply because they cost so much! that said, if an authorised place is having it in bits anyway then definitely sneak one in there! good luck!

edit: and on that note i would recommend the seagate as i have the 80gb with 8mb cache and have been really happy with it. i've heard horror stories about 'deathstars', but my work laptop has a 60gb one in it and it's been fine for ~3 years of heavy use. hope i haven't just jinxed that!
 
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Are you sure 25GB is going to be enough for Vista?

I've got a 32GB partition of vista with Steam, HL2:EP2 and Portal installed on it (nothing else) and I've got a whopping 3GB of free space left! Vista is a mother of an install.

Panzer
 
Panzerbjorn said:
Are you sure 25GB is going to be enough for Vista?

I've got a 32GB partition of vista with Steam, HL2:EP2 and Portal installed on it (nothing else) and I've got a whopping 3GB of free space left! Vista is a mother of an install.

Panzer
Click to expand...

Dunno, was just a nice round number :p - It's currently using 20gb so I'd probably be better off giving it 35gb...
 
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atomiser said:
someone mentioned that you wont see much of a performance improvement from going from 5400 > 7200rpm... i would like to challenge that... i know that my comparison on on windows but i went from a 5400 to a 7200rpm drive in a laptop and the difference is amazing! if, however, the context in which you were referring to the upgrade was that the performance increase was not worth risking the warranty for then i would totally agree with you - i certainly wouldn't even entertain taking a mbp to bits, simply because they cost so much! that said, if an authorised place is having it in bits anyway then definitely sneak one in there! good luck!

edit: and on that note i would recommend the Seagate as i have the 80gb with 8mb cache and have been really happy with it. I've heard horror stories about 'deathstars', but my work laptop has a 60gb one in it and it's been fine for ~3 years of heavy use. hope i haven't just jinxed that!
Click to expand...

Yea I've read comparisons saying the difference is definitely noticeable, and the 'deathstars' is what's putting me off the Hitachi
 
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atomiser said:
someone mentioned that you wont see much of a performance improvement from going from 5400 > 7200rpm... i would like to challenge that... i know that my comparison on on windows but i went from a 5400 to a 7200rpm drive in a laptop and the difference is amazing! if, however, the context in which you were referring to the upgrade was that the performance increase was not worth risking the warranty for then i would totally agree with you - i certainly wouldn't even entertain taking a mbp to bits, simply because they cost so much! that said, if an authorised place is having it in bits anyway then definitely sneak one in there! good luck!

edit: and on that note i would recommend the seagate as i have the 80gb with 8mb cache and have been really happy with it. i've heard horror stories about 'deathstars', but my work laptop has a 60gb one in it and it's been fine for ~3 years of heavy use. hope i haven't just jinxed that!
Click to expand...

Remember the differences you see on a PC with Windows will vary quite considerably to a Mac. ;)
 
Isotope said:
Remember the differences you see on a PC with Windows will vary quite considerably to a Mac. ;)
Click to expand...

would you care to expand upon that? i can appreciate that there are differences in the file systems that are used by both operating systems, but surely a drive that is faster is going to give decent improvements regardless? by that i mean, for instance, if the mac file system is faster by default then surely it is bound to be even faster on a quicker drive?

edit: im not be facetious - i really want to replace my entire desktop setup with a mbp and the hard drive upgrade was something i've been seriously considering from new since i dont want to have to take the thing to bits! something that was a doddle on my d600!
 
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atomiser said:
would you care to expand upon that? i can appreciate that there are differences in the file systems that are used by both operating systems, but surely a drive that is faster is going to give decent improvements regardless? by that i mean, for instance, if the mac file system is faster by default then surely it is bound to be even faster on a quicker drive?

edit: im not be facetious - i really want to replace my entire desktop setup with a mbp and the hard drive upgrade was something i've been seriously considering from new since i dont want to have to take the thing to bits! something that was a doddle on my d600!
Click to expand...

Not saying there won't be any differences, I was simply saying that you cannot transfer the successes from a PC laptop to a Mac laptop because of the varying file systems and writing procedures.

I'm sure there would be a speed increase but not enough to invalidate your warranty.
 
Warranty Document 1 said:
Apple reserves the right to refuse service on products that have serial numbers altered, defaced or removed or that are damaged due to accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorised Service Provider), unauthorised modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or surges of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes. In such event, Apple may return the product to you without servicing it.
Click to expand...

Warranty Document 2 said:
Apple reserves the right to refuse service on products that have serial numbers altered, defaced or removed or that are damaged due to accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorised Service Provider), unauthorised modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or surges of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes. In such event, Apple may return the product to you without servicing it.
Click to expand...

So me getting Farpoint Developments to replace my lower case (dents), and change the HDD while they've got it open, doesn't invalidate my warranty :D ("Our records indicate that your product is covered for service and telephone support under the AppleCare Protection Plan which is estimated to expire on 24 Jul 2010.")
And the Seagate HDD in my OP has a 5yr warranty :)

Back to the OP question, have I missed any faster/bigger drives?
 
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Justin said:
Agree ^

You'll hardly notice a faster performance with a quicker HDD, it will use more battery power and get hotter. Not worth voiding warranty tbh.
Click to expand...

Its +/- 2W at best.

I spent a few weeks researching 4200/5400/7200 for my eSATA 2.5" external HD ;)

Faster access + transfers ***.
 
atomiser said:
bigger as well as faster? no, i dont think so. bigger and same speed? yes.
Click to expand...

That's a 5400rpm drive. He wants to put a 7200rpm in.

Westyfield2 said:
So me getting Farpoint Developments to replace my lower case (dents), and change the HDD while they've got it open, doesn't invalidate my warranty :D ("Our records indicate that your product is covered for service and telephone support under the AppleCare Protection Plan which is estimated to expire on 24 Jul 2010.")
And the Seagate HDD in my OP has a 5yr warranty :)

Back to the OP question, have I missed any faster/bigger drives?
Click to expand...

I apologise, I forgot you were having reseller install it.
 
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