replaced a HDD in a 17" MacBook Pro, interesting side notes ^_^

just thought I would share some interesting things I discovered while taking apart a macbook pro to put in a larger HDD.

first, we are always seeing people talking about the 17" model having significantly louder speakers. this makes much more sense after seeing that the 17" MacBook pro actually has 4 speakers, two on each side of the keyboard.

i usually see a lot of posts in threads about using external monitors, that talk about not using the machine while it is closed because heat will not be able to escape through the keyboard, well, since the cpu and the gpu are on the bottom of the logic board, and there is a solid piece of aluminum directly below the keyboard, it is pretty unlikely that any heat actually escapes from the keyboard at all, mainly because the fans are actually pulling air from that area, and most heat should be transfered very well to the heat sink on the bottom of the machine as well as towards the back.

anyway, if anyone else has interesting to post about a dismantled mbp feel free.

oh, also, it is honestly not a very difficult process, it really only requires a little bit of skill with a screw driver, and maybe an hour of your time if you are taking it slow.

 

Pictures ???
I like seeing guts

 

unfortunately I did not have access to my camera at the time, but it is definitely interesting to see these machines taken apart, pretty brilliant layout and design.

when hitachi releases a 7K500 500gb 7200rpm HDD I will pick one up and throw it in my own machine, I wouldn't have any issue taking my own machine apart after seeing how easy the process really is.

 

i have done it, very easy, now 200gb seagate 7.2k inside.
there is a instruction video somewhere for the 15" mbp, same (nearly) procedure with the 17" ...

 

What's the max HDD size for the 15" MBB?
Does speed, brand, etc. matter?

 

Here's a site with excellent step by step instructions and pictures (I used it just to tear apart a 15 inch MBP just to see what it would be like)

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/

 

any 2.5" standard sized sata HDD should work

 

so size really doesn't matter? I thought there was a limit to how many gigs the HDD could be..

 

Nope, as long as the hard drive fits the form factor you can have any size hard drive that is currently on the market.

If you want to be technical. The HFS+ filesystem that your mac uses can only handle up to 16 EiB worth of data on a volume.

 

only 16, thats weak.