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HD Upgrade for MB

M

mmoin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 15, 2001
138
0
Amazon just upgraded my Macbook order to "shipping soon", so I thought that now would be a good time to start considering upgrades. What is the largest-capacity 5400rpm HD I can buy now? From my searches, it seems like 120gb is the cap, but then I found this on OWC, so I'm not sure. Also, is OWC a good place to buy MB ram also?

Thanks,
Andrew
 
I don't know the answer to all of your questions as it is late, but I have orded frequently from OWC and have been quite pleased with the experience each time. I don't think you can go wrong there, but that is just my two cents.;)
 
mmoin said:
Amazon just upgraded my Macbook order to "shipping soon", so I thought that now would be a good time to start considering upgrades. What is the largest-capacity 5400rpm HD I can buy now? From my searches, it seems like 120gb is the cap, but then I found this on OWC, so I'm not sure. Also, is OWC a good place to buy MB ram also?

Thanks,
Andrew
Click to expand...

You cant use that HDD in your MB. It`s an UltraATA HDD. You`ll need a SerialATA for the MB.

There is one 160GB SATA HDD from Samsung available, but its 4200RPM. Therefore it`s not recommended at all.

Go for the 120 GB now or wait for some time till 160GB 400RPM HDDs are available.
 
vikas soni said:
You cant use that HDD in your MB. It`s an UltraATA HDD. You`ll need a SerialATA for the MB.

There is one 160GB SATA HDD from Samsung available, but its 4200RPM. Therefore it`s not recommended at all.

Go for the 120 GB now or wait for some time till 160GB 400RPM HDDs are available.
Click to expand...

yes can't wait for those 400rpm drives...:rolleyes:

if you really need 160gb of storage i would get the 4200rpm drive. Its fine for most tasks and if you getting the MB i assume your not gaming, doing serrious video work, or doing work with large files.
 
Rokem said:
yes can't wait for those 400rpm drives...:rolleyes:

if you really need 160gb of storage i would get the 4200rpm drive. Its fine for most tasks and if you getting the MB i assume your not gaming, doing serrious video work, or doing work with large files.
Click to expand...

LOL. Sorry for the typo.

But I seriously think 4200RPM is not enough for your MB. Even Apple doesnt ship any Mac(AFAIK) with a drive slower than 5400. The diff in performance will be definitely noticeable. From Bootup to apps launching; everything will take a little more time with a slower drive.

So get the 4200 drive only if you need 160GB right now dont mind a slower speed. I dont think it`ll take a lot of time before we have 160GB 5400 HDD in the market.
 
So, assuming I want the largest 5400rpm HD for the MB, I should get this (this is also the cheapest I could find it)?

Thanks.
 
I would seriously consider an external hard drive unless you really need all of your storage to take with you. External drives are faster, no matter what, and significantly cheaper.

I think OWC is a great place to buy anything for your Mac because they specialize in the Mac but also have very competitive prices and great support.

This looks to be the biggest internal SATA drive they offer.
 
crazzyeddie said:
I would seriously consider an external hard drive unless you really need all of your storage to take with you. External drives are faster, no matter what, and significantly cheaper.

I think OWC is a great place to buy anything for your Mac because they specialize in the Mac but also have very competitive prices and great support.

This looks to be the biggest internal SATA drive they offer.
Click to expand...

But I`d prefer Seagate over WD. Seagate also offers 2 more years of warranty(for just 20$more than the WD). Also seagate IMO is one of the best(if not the best) HDD maker in the world.
 
Yeah, I would prefer to buy from OWC, but they don't have the 120gb SATA from Seagate. Is the HD link I showed above (for the 120gb) going to work with the MB?
 
mmoin said:
Yeah, I would prefer to buy from OWC, but they don't have the 120gb SATA from Seagate. Is the HD link I showed above (for the 120gb) going to work with the MB?
Click to expand...
yes it will.

EDIT: I just realised that there are two sizes available for SATA Laptop HDD(I`m not exactky sure though). I dont remember which one MB uses. Also I couldnt find the physical size the Seagate you asked. So dont just take my word and buy it. Buy only after you are sure it`ll fit in your MB. Anyone else know the size of this HDD?
 
The Western Digital, which OWC says is compatible with the MB, is 9.5mm, and the Seagate I found on the other site is 9.5mm (found the specs here), so it seems like it should be height-compatible.
 
mmoin said:
The Western Digital, which OWC says is compatible with the MB, is 9.5mm, and the Seagate I found on the other site is 9.5mm (found the specs here), so it seems like it should be height-compatible.
Click to expand...
In that case you wont have any problem with the Seagate at all. It`ll definitely work in your upcoming MB.
 
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