Hard Drive Upgrade Recommendation

I have a 17" Macbook Pro, just prior to the unibody. I currently have the 250gig 5400rpm drive. I want to upgrade to a 320gig 7200rpm drive.

1. Which model HD do you recommend?

2. If you don't screw anything up on install, will the Applecare warranty still be valid? I get conflicting answers on this.

3. I would love to keep my current hard drive OS/Apps intact. I'd like image my drive and put it on my new 320 drive. Any tips or documentation on how to do this? What is required? I do have an external firewire800 drive I can use to store the image.

thanks,
mike

 

1 . I recommend the WD Scorpio black. great hd.

2. yes, it will.

3. copy carbon cloner is the app you're looking for. or superduper. both are the same.

 

Another vote for WD3200BEKT.

Don't get the BJKT version as your MBP already has FFS.

More info in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=377640&highlight=WD3200bekt

 

It's Carbon Copy Cloner. XD

 

hahaha I was already sleepy at that hour ;p

 

Another option to consider would be, in my opinion, the WD5000BEVT Blue, which has pretty close performance scores compared to the 320Black, plus the benefit of more space.

More details on the drive can be found in the linked article Phil has above, in case you hadn't checked it out .

 

+1 for the WD320 black.
I have had the BJKT version for a a few months and its been great. It was about the same price as the BEKT version so I figured double the shock protection would be a bad thing.
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i also recommend the WD320 black. Hitachi one will vibrate too much in the aluminum chassis.

 

5400.6 on test vibrate(6/10 vs 7/10 on one review) less than scorpio blue

also tempted for an upgrade but i am leaning on 5400rpm version cuz i don't need the extra 15mb/s on sequensial read/write, random imo more important and rpm doesnt change anything

 

I'd go with the 5400.6 or the Scorpio Blue 500GB. They both have comparable performance to the 320GB 7200, and you get the benefit of having extra storage, less vibration, and a cooler HDD.

 

I would concur with the recommendation to go with the WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB drive. Alternatively, if you are keen on getting a 7200 RPM drive, the new Seagate 7200.4 500GB drives are back in stock at new egg. I wasn't sure how much you are looking to spend, but the 7200RPM 500GB drives run around 150 dollars.

 

Acces times on the 5400.6 are slow. I don't recommend it.

Tomshardware charts for more info.

 

I have the Scorpio blue 500, it is 100% silent and seems quick to me. I recommend it without hesitation !

 

Couldnt you just use Time Machines to backup your stuff and put it on new drive?

 

It is a good idea but time machine sometimes doesn't work for the complete recovery on a new disk (What happened to me when I changed my 160 for a 500gb). Therefore I would recommend carbon copy cloner.

 

i would go with the wd blue anytime.

 

I had the WD3200BEKT. The vibration on the unibody macbook annoyed me so I went back to the stock drive. I am currently looking for a deal on the WD blues as 5400rpm is good enough for me.

 

Many, many thanks to your replies. This forum is great.

Now some questions to clarify (keep in mind I have the 17" Macbook Pro pre-unibody).

I never considered vibration although heat was on my mind. The point of this upgrade is to keep me from having to connect an external drive to access iTunes and my photographs (I have a lot of them). I'd like it all local.

I'm leaning towards the Seagate 500gig 7200 suggestion but I have not ruled out the WD Black (320gig-7200rpm).

I definitely want space and speed so 7200 is a must. Are there any heat considerations with the 500 or the 320? Will these 7200 drives really drive me nuts? I already use a laptop cooler underneath from time to time.

I'm still reading the link about the comparison between the two but wouldn't mind a couple more opinions.

Thanks in advance,
mike

 

Whether the 7200.4 is really the fastest hard drive is uncertain. It seems like there is only one non synthetic test available on the internet, in which the Hitachi 5K500.b came out slightly faster. All the rest of the benchmarks is synthetic and therefor limited in validity.

But whatever you choose, WD5000BEVT, 7200.4 or 5K500.b it will be very hard (impossible) to notice the performance differences without benchmark software.

Differences in vibration and noise are much easier to spot.

 

Mike,

As Phil mentions, real world differences are going to be hardly noticeble between the 7200RPM 500GB Seagate and other 7200RPM drives. I think your best bet would be to buy the 7200.4 drive from a place with good customer care/returns policy. Only you will be able to tell if the vibration/noise bothers you since each person's threshold will be unique.

Just a plug for NewEgg - I have bought hard drives in the past from them. If I wasn't satisifed for whatever reason, they always took the drive back, and usually when you call them for an RMA instead of setting it up through the website, you can often convince them to waive the restock fee. They will even cover return shipping if the item is defective or if you will buy something else from NewEgg. So my advice - try out the Seagate 7200.4 500GB drive. If you are happy with performance/noise/vibration, keep it. If not return and get the 320GB 7200 RPM WD black drive.

Just my 2 pennies...

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to go with the Seagate and give it a try. It should fit my needs.

Now, onto carbon copy cloner. If I clone my drive to an external, how do I boot to load it back on the new hard drive? Any instructions out there on how to do that? I'd really hate to have to reload everything.

 

Sofar I don't think the price difference for the 7200.4 has been justified. I'd probably go for the WD5000BEVT instead if you need 500GB.

 

CCC automatically makes the clone bootable as part of the process.

Put the Seagate into the external, run CCC to clone the old drive and swap the Seagate into the MB when it's done. Restart, and it's like the new drive was in there the whole time .

 

Awwwee thanks! I had my mind all made up and you had to go make me 2nd guess myself! ;-) So, you really think so? 5400 isn't really slower than 7200? Or to paraphrase, 7200 is not $50 bucks faster?

Now that's what I'm talkin about. So, I'll need an external drive enclosure for this. I think I can get a hold of one. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

 

Agreed. Unless you are concerned with only raw HDD performance, the WD5000BEVT is at a terrific price point at $99.99 with free shipping at Newegg. Personally, I would take 500GB max capacity over a hot, battery-draining 7,200 RPM based HDD any day.

*sigh* It makes me sick to think that I paid $179.99 18 months ago for the WD3200BEVT.

 

Yep, I sure would too. Cooler, almost the same performance, and cheaper is a win-win situation for me.

BTW, it must pay to wait for electronics.

 

Update... Just received my RMA on the WD scorpio black 7200rpm. This drive has no vibration at all when installed on my uMB. Difference is night and day from previous scorpio black that I installed. I think I am sticking with the scorpio black for now.

 

The areal density of the 500GB platter (250GB ea) approximates (almost) the speed advantage of the 7200rpm on lower density 320GB drive's platter (160ea). The 500 doesn't have to move as far to get where it's going with the data packed closer together, even if a slight bit slower than the 7200. Think of it like a Corvette (7200rpm) and a Malibu (5400rpm) both have to get to McDonalds, but the 'vette starts at 1mi away and the Malibu starts at 1/2 the distance. The Corvette may still get to McDonalds quicker with the faster speed, but it's going to be a close race in the end.

The power draw differential in current 7200 v 5400 drives is minimal, in contrast to the vast difference in the past when the 7200 would chew batter 10-15% more than the other.

 

See this was my understanding as well. However a few posts before you, someone seems to claim that there is no real difference in performance between a 5400 RPM WD Scorpio Blue 500GB Drive, and the Seagate 7200.4 500GB drive. I was under the impression that the Seagate would also have the advantage of the higher density (i.e. 250GB platters) and also have the rotational speed advantage.

 

In finding out hard drive performance I find it better not to rely on theories.

For example: in theory the Seagate 7200.3 should be much faster than the WD3200BEVT because they have the same areal density and the Seagate has the higher spindle speed (7200 vs 5400rpm). In reality it turns out that the WD3200BEVT beats the Seagate in many circumstances. http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15079/4

So the only non synthetic test that has been published online is a 5GB file copy test. The Hitachi 5K500.b managed to slightly outperform the Seagate 7200.4 in this 1:30 minute job.
http://www.i4u.com/full-review-529.html

Truth is that Seagate drives often suffer from slower I/O than their peers. This only shows in I/O meter benchmarks and in reality. Synthetic benchmarks like Xbench, HDtune or HDTach don't show this.

I wouldn't be surprised if the WD5000BEVT turns out to be faster than the 7200.4 in real life. I don't have the benchmarks to prove it though.

 

Just wanted to update everyone on my upgrade. I finally bought the WD500BEVT drive for $99. It is 5400RPM. I used carbon copy cloner to keep my original image so I didn't have to install everything from scratch.

Everything worked like a champ. The system is running faster than before but I don't know if this is because of the drive or the image being re-applied to a new drive.

I'm happy with the purchase and upgrade. I can now store my iTunes locally as well as my Lightroom and iPhoto libraries. I don't think a 7200RPM would really be giving me anything more except heat. As it stands now, I can feel a slight rise in temperature compared to before where the drive resides. I have been burning ISO's today and copying files in the process and the drive temperature where my wrist sits seems to be stable so nothing to be alarmed about.

This drive is a great choice. Thanks for everyone's help.

mike

 

+ Apple portables get really hot anyway.