Is it worth the time and trouble to 200GB 7200rpm -> MBP?

I have a 200GB 7200rpm Hitachi 2.5, and I'm about to get the 2.4Ghz MBP. Is it worth the effort to replace the 160GB 5400 with the 200GB 7200? I'm definitely tech savvy, and capable of doing it, but is it worth it?

Thanks!

 

Well if you have it already, don't waste it

I'd say it's worth the effort, but probably not the warranty voiding. Of course, if you just put your old one back before you send it in for AppleCare if you ever need to, that resolves the problem.

...assuming you don't do anything horrible while putting it in like rip the keyboard cable in half or something.

Or just get an enclosure and use it as an external (kind of expensive for an external though).

 

Well, I'd say why not just get an external hard drive?

Replacing the hard drive in the MBP voids the warranty (really, just if you break anything in the process, but still), so I wouldn't recommend doing it.

Yeah, I think you should just get an external hard drive to load your extra files, as well as backup.

 

it will burn your palm off.

 

The increased heat and reduced battery life more than offset the minimal performance gains you might realize from moving to 7200 RPM from 5400. Don't do it.

 

Fair enough! Thanks for all the replies.

 

I really wish that they could put the hard drive somewhere else so my palm doesn't get hot and sweaty every time.

 

not all have increased head and decrease battery life, some of the better 200gb hd's are actually much MORE efficient and cool.

 

I dont think its worth the time...I dont think there is even that much of a noticeable difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM unless you are copying really large files...

Sam's got the best advice...buy an external HDD with 7200RPM.

 

i know you can get Esata enclosures for 2.5" drives now, with that you can run programs off it or use it as scratch disk for photoshop

 

Thanks again for all the replies. Any recommendations for an enclosure for a 2.5" drive, and how it should be connected? Firewire would be better than USB 2.0 as far as I'm aware, for transfer rates?

 

I've seen some 2.5" enclosures on Fleabay that support USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, and eSATA. The latter provides the fastest transfer rates, but you'd need an external card for it. They're also pricey at about $70. You should be able to find ones that do Firewire and USB, which would probably be the best way to go. That way if you need access to your data on another PC that doesn't have a Firewire port, you'd be covered.

 

Yes, Firewire 400 has a higher transfer rate than USB 2.0, and Firewire 800 will obviously be even faster.

 

hum funny ...

First the last HD 7200 can use less power than an old 5400tpm ...
second it's more comfortable to have a 7200, it's run smoothly in leopard, every guy which have done this say that

 

People just tend to exaggerate on both extremes. You will probably see a performance boost, especially with a 200Gb 7200rpm HDD. By all accounts, the 7k200 is quite a nice drive.

On the other hand, yes, a 7200rpm does get hot enough so that you can feel the heat on the left palmrest. That said, depending on your environment and how you use it, the heat may or may not be a problem.

For example, it was annoying over the summer when i was in a 90-100degree room doing lots of read/writes to my HDD, but for normal use these days, it's hardly noticeable.

Similarly, while smcfancontrol can lower the overall temp of your computer somewhat, it won't affect the HDD temp much - but it does help ever so slightly.

Finally, as to battery life, I still regularly get 4+ hours of battery life on my 7200 rpm drive, so I don't think it's a horrible loss. That said, generally people do not do activities that are very intensive on their laptop when it's on pure battery power.

The biggest problem I see is that if you already bought a 200gb 7200rpm 2.5 hdd, you already paid for it and have it. Sure you can put it in an external enclosure, but it's also more cost-efficient to simply buy a 3.5hd for that purpose really. But ultimately, it's up to you.

To me, the only real problem with installing the 7200 inside the MBP would be the annoyance having to take it out and put the old one back in if I ever needed to send the machine to AppleCare.

EDIT: I should add that I am biased because whereas I was burning to death in the summer, I'm now in a location where I'm so cold I can barely move. The palmrest of my MBP is a welcome source of heat for my otherwise frozen hands

 

Hehe! Quite the division of opinion! I'm can't decide now. I also can't decide if I'm getting an MBP at the end of the month when Leopard is out, or if I'm waiting till the new MBPs are announced?

 

Well, new MBPs won't be released until earliest January 2008, with the release of Penryn. But don't expect new MBPs until then, as there's nothing new right now to update the MBP with.