7200RPM drive in a MBP?

Has anyone done it?

I understand that since the 7200RPM drives spin 33% faster than the MBP's standard drive, it's going to cause more heat. The MBP itself seems to have heat problems as it is, so will this become too much for it?

Also, how hard is HDD replacement? Can it be done?

 

Nope. I put a 7200 rpm HD in my MBP and its no more heat than the original drive.

 

You need 30 minutes, a new hard drive, and a screwdriver. Take out screws, take out old hard drive, put in new hard drive, rescrew panel.

The only thing you have be careful of is whether or not the Macbook is a SATA or IDE hard drive interface. I believe MBP is a SATA drive.

 

While I'd like the boost in read/write access I can't justify the cost and time spent upgrading to a 2.5" 7200 RPM hard drive that is not available in at least 200 GB.

 

Well I was thinking of getting a 60 or 80GB drive, to use as the primary. It would have the OS and applications on it. I'd take the built-in 120GB out and put it in an external enclosure to use for storage.

 

The bigger the drive, the faster it will be. RPM isn't the only thing that contributes to speed; the size of the drive also matters. Every hard drive is the same volume, but bigger hard drives (e.g., a 160 GB) will have a bigger density, because it can hold more data per unit volume. That means a computer will be able to access the data quicker. That's why a 160 GB 5400 RPM drive approaches 100 GB 7200 RPM speeds. Overall, the 7200 RPM is still faster.

The 100 GB 7200's are only about $20 more. I think the extra density you get is worth the extra cost. Samsung also released 160 GB 7200 RPM hard drives for notebooks, but those'll be expensive. Maybe you might want to wait a little bit to see how much the prices on those drop before buying? 160 GB 7200 RPM will blow anything currently on notebooks out of the water, save SSD's.

 

do you have any idea where to by the 7200 160's i need one bad (price not object)

 

Well if the equilibrium point between platter density and spindle speed is at the 100GB-160GB level, it's out of my reach anyway. I'd like not to spend more than $80 on a new drive, especially since that 120GB is going to serve as storage and I won't need much room on the primary drive.

 

Replacing the HDD in a MBP is a *****. You have to have the 0 sized phillips screw driver as well as the smallest torque screw driver.
Theres a few pages that show how to take it apart... but it is a process. I've taken mine apart, but I haven't removed the HDD cage. Be very careful, it's easy to scratch something.