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DIY Hard Drives: Options?

elithrar

elithrar

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 31, 2007
372
3
Ordered a 2.4Ghz SR MBP. Stock 160GB HDD at 5400rpm. Going to wait a few months before I void the warranty, and for prices to fall. However, on the off-chance I consider upgrading right away, what will fit? An external hard-drive is nice, but I prefer having my data concentrated on the one drive, with DVD-RW backups archived at home for 'safety' [ie. if the MBP is stolen/damaged]. I believe they have to be no higher than 9.5mm, however, from the research I did.

250GB Samsung Spinpoint (won't fit?)
250GB WD Scorpio (should fit?)

The WD is looking quite good; 250GB and 5400rpm is a good median for the work I do.
 
elithrar said:
Ordered a 2.4Ghz SR MBP. Stock 160GB HDD at 5400rpm. Going to wait a few months before I void the warranty, and for prices to fall. However, on the off-chance I consider upgrading right away, what will fit? An external hard-drive is nice, but I prefer having my data concentrated on the one drive, with DVD-RW backups archived at home for 'safety' [ie. if the MBP is stolen/damaged]. I believe they have to be no higher than 9.5mm, however, from the research I did.

250GB Samsung Spinpoint (won't fit?)
250GB WD Scorpio (should fit?)

The WD is looking quite good; 250GB and 5400rpm is a good median for the work I do.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if they fit Macbooks but have you looked into the Seagate Momentus series drives? They are really superb in both performance as well as battery life. I use them alot in PC laptops and they blow away the Travelstars I used to use. Not to mention they come with a 5 year warranty. Some of their 5400rpm drives are actually better performance than the 7200rpm Travelstars. Of course they also have 7200rpm models too. Check it out.
 
I have, but trying to track down a >200GB Momentus is a huge task, made even more difficult by the fact that some companies may not ship to Australia. I'd prefer one because I've always used Seagate drives when building machines, but I've had a WD in the WinXP box for a while and I haven't had too many issues with that either.
 
elithrar said:
I have, but trying to track down a >200GB Momentus is a huge task, made even more difficult by the fact that some companies may not ship to Australia. I'd prefer one because I've always used Seagate drives when building machines, but I've had a WD in the WinXP box for a while and I haven't had too many issues with that either.
Click to expand...

I also like WD drives but not particularly their mobile designs. I will tell you the Seagate mobile drives are much better if you can find one. Here is a unique resource for comparing various mobile drives that will give you a good insight as to what each model can do. http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html

Check it out...
 
Atomic-Ed said:
. http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html
Click to expand...

That's an excellent set of benchmarks; the 5400rpm 250GB WD almost keeps up with the 7200rpm, 160GB Seagate across nearly all of the benchmarks, with a very slightly lower power consumption. I guess that makes it a fairly easy decision for me then, considering the extra '90GB' (okay, 90 billion bytes, if you want to get into it) that it offers.
 
elithrar said:


That's an excellent set of benchmarks; the 5400rpm 250GB WD almost keeps up with the 7200rpm, 160GB Seagate across nearly all of the benchmarks, with a very slightly lower power consumption. I guess that makes it a fairly easy decision for me then, considering the extra '90GB' (okay, 90 billion bytes, if you want to get into it) that it offers.
Click to expand...

Glad you liked the resource for comparison. Let us know which model drive you end up with.
 
Will do. Once I sell my iMac over this weekend I'll order the 250GB WD; and probably pick up a torq driver to suit it. I'll either bump this thread or post anew once it's all in. Expect something in a couple of weeks since the store I'm ordering from has the WD's on pre-order.
 
elithrar said:
Will do. Once I sell my iMac over this weekend I'll order the 250GB WD; and probably pick up a torq driver to suit it. I'll either bump this thread or post anew once it's all in. Expect something in a couple of weeks since the store I'm ordering from has the WD's on pre-order.
Click to expand...

If you find a store that actually has them available, post it here. I can't find even a single store that has it in their catalog, not even marked "Out of Stock". No Amazon, no Newegg, etc etc :confused:

:apple:
 
Does anyone know the holdup on these drives? Why is it that they were formally released, but they cannot be found anywhere; will it be fixed soon? I'm definitely interested in the wd 250gb drive because of all the good reviews I've heard of them, but it seems like I might be waiting a while...
 
Atomic-Ed said:
I'm not sure if they fit Macbooks but have you looked into the Seagate Momentus series drives? They are really superb in both performance as well as battery life. I use them alot in PC laptops and they blow away the Travelstars I used to use. Not to mention they come with a 5 year warranty. Some of their 5400rpm drives are actually better performance than the 7200rpm Travelstars. Of course they also have 7200rpm models too. Check it out.
Click to expand...

As near as I can tell, Seagate's largest 7200RPM drive is 100GB, and their largest 5400 is 160GB?
 
Do It Yourself - DIY

DYI? Honestly?
I'm always suprised that people don't read their title before posting. Especially obvious spelling mistakes. I mean, come on, you can put the Oxford Dictionary in Dashboard. It has saved my life time and time again.
 
bottleddissent said:
DYI? Honestly?
I'm always suprised that people don't read their title before posting. Especially obvious spelling mistakes. I mean, come on, you can put the Oxford Dictionary in Dashboard. It has saved my life time and time again.
Click to expand...

I assumed from his title that he meant Do-YourOwn-Install as opposed to the Do-It-Yourself generic statement. Or maybe it was just a typo.
 
Gotta throw in a vote for the Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB drive. It's pretty much silent even when in fairly heavy use, and quite snappy.

The WD 250GB drive was definitely being eyed up for a while, but it's not in stock anywhere yet (OWC doesn't even have it -- and they're going to sell it at $100 over MSRP when they do get it. jerks.)

If you're desperate for a 250GB 5400rpm drive... get the Spinpoint.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152094

Available now. A bit more expensive than the $200 MSRP of the WD and probably less of a performer.
 
Am I right in saying you DON'T void the warranty by swapping the hard drive unless you cause damage? But just opening it up does NOT void Applecare?
 
Wolfpup said:
Am I right in saying you DON'T void the warranty by swapping the hard drive unless you cause damage? But just opening it up does NOT void Applecare?
Click to expand...

Simply opening it doesn't void your warranty/AppleCare. However, if you mess something up while doing it (lose a screw, for example) it gives them an excuse not to honor your warranty/AppleCare.
 
whateverandever said:
If you're desperate for a 250GB 5400rpm drive... get the Spinpoint.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152094

Available now. A bit more expensive than the $200 MSRP of the WD and probably less of a performer.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the Spinpoint, whilst a good performer, seems to be too big to fit into the MBP; I believe we're capped at ~9.5mm, and the Spinpoint sits at 10.5mm or so.

Wolfpup said:
Am I right in saying you DON'T void the warranty by swapping the hard drive unless you cause damage? But just opening it up does NOT void Applecare?
Click to expand...

You may not void the warranty straight up, but you can bet that if you had a warranty claim they'd be finding excuses to not have to cover it; and a self-installed hard drive is a good place to start.

Oh, and the thread title is fixed. I'm not sure what the point of that post was though, it was a pretty minor mistake and it's not like my post was littered with spelling mistakes and bad grammar (read: bite me).
 
elithrar said:
Oh, and the thread title is fixed. I'm not sure what the point of that post was though, it was a pretty minor mistake and it's not like my post was littered with spelling mistakes and bad grammar (read: bite me).
Click to expand...

I thought that was ridiculous too. I didn't even notice it, and geez, especially on the net I think we're entitled to mistype stuff accidentally! (I love Firefox for that purpose :D )
 
elithrar said:
Unfortunately the Spinpoint, whilst a good performer, seems to be too big to fit into the MBP; I believe we're capped at ~9.5mm, and the Spinpoint sits at 10.5mm or so.
Click to expand...

According to Newegg it's 0.37 inches high which (according to Google) is 9.398mm.

Unless Newegg has the specs wrong, of course.
 
Hrm, so it is; the specs I had for it seemed to be off, or my conversion was sloppy. Seems that it comes in at 9.398mm! Makes it a candidate at least, even though it's AUD$80 more than the WD.
 
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