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Mac Book Pro 17" thoughts on 250GB drive ?

D

dreamsandart

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 11, 2004
47
0
A new Mac Book Pro 17" is going to be ordered soon. The only ? is which drive to get.

My thoughts are to get the new 250GB drive for sheer capacity. And since it may have a bit a data ( they seem to fill up sooner than I plan ) on it, would it really be as slow as the 4200rpm would indicate. Hate to waste all that new bus, processor, video speed with slow data reading/writing.

Or I may just be happy with the standard drive and upgrade at some point ( I always think this but never happened in the past ). Does replacing the drive void the warranty? There is a new faster 5400rpm 250GB drive now, will Apple have it available sooner than later?

Thanks for any thought and help
 
wow 250 MB

In the MBP HD replacement does void warranty,

in a blind test most people couldn't tell between 4200 and 5400.

though if you got a 160 or what ever size drive and filled it with 140 GB of stuff it would be quite a bit slower than the 250 filled to 140.
 
dreamsandart said:
A new Mac Book Pro 17" is going to be ordered soon. The only ? is which drive to get.

My thoughts are to get the new 250GB drive for sheer capacity. And since it may have a bit a data ( they seem to fill up sooner than I plan ) on it, would it really be as slow as the 4200rpm would indicate. Hate to waste all that new bus, processor, video speed with slow data reading/writing.
...
Thanks for any thought and help
Click to expand...

There is already a thread on this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/312606/

I took the sequential read/write data from http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd7.html
and found the approximate relationship between x=% full and y=% maximum speed for 4200, 5400, and 7200 rpm drives:
y=1.00119 + 0.0415519 x - 0.601401 x^2.
Below is a graph.
Under this approximation, the break-even point is 100GB stored, at which point the fastest 5400 rpm 160GB drive starts to get slower than the 4200 rpm 250GB drive. Since I already have 100GB to put on it, I plan to order a 4200rpm 250GB drive.
 

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I Plan To Buy Stock 17" Matte & Buy A WD 5400rpm 250GB Scorpio and Put It In Myself.

Rokem said:
well If preformed by not an apple technician it certainly is.
Click to expand...
No it isn't. If you put it in yourself without breaking anything it does not void warranty. I would buy the stock 17" and buy the Western Digital 5400 250GB Scorpio and put it in myself. There's an excellent video at Other World Computing (which also sells the WD 250's for $250) on how easy it is to do. I'd rather have both fastest and biggest. ;)
 
Thanks everyone that's responded so far.

Sounds like I would be fine with an Apple installed 250gb. I could go with a standard drive and then replace it with the newest 250gb 5400rpm, but its more time and money and not sure its really going to make a huge difference. I'll give a call to Apple and find out more about warranty and to the independent Apple tech shop about costs of putting a new drive in at some point.

If I really need speed for something I imagine I could just plan on using an external fast drive w/ 800 firewire as a startup disk since in those cases I'd be at my desk anyway.

Thanks again and any more thoughts are very welcome,
 
Is the WD 250 as good, safe, secure as is written up?

Reading up on the new WD 250gb drive. Sounds like a great HD and wondering if the Apple supplied 250 is as good speed considerations as a side thought even?
 
Multimedia said:
No it isn't. If you put it in yourself without breaking anything it does not void warranty. I would buy the stock 17" and buy the Western Digital 5400 250GB Scorpio and put it in myself. There's an excellent video at Other World Computing (which also sells the WD 250's for $250) on how easy it is to do. I'd rather have both fastest and biggest. ;)
Click to expand...

so what do you think of putting a WD250 5400rpm inside, and then using one of these (clicky or clicky or clicky) for the stock drive..?
 
FWIW

My 17" MBP is due to arrive Monday and this thread has been most helpful. Thanks to all who've posted and gone to the trouble of linking this valuable information.
 
Multimedia said:
No it isn't. If you put it in yourself without breaking anything it does not void warranty. I would buy the stock 17" and buy the Western Digital 5400 250GB Scorpio and put it in myself. There's an excellent video at Other World Computing (which also sells the WD 250's for $250) on how easy it is to do. I'd rather have both fastest and biggest. ;)
Click to expand...

This is such a confusing topic. I read the warranty and it says that the warranty is void if there is damage while doing modifications but all it takes is an AppleGenius with a bad attitude to tell you that your warranty is void. My AppleGenius told me it would be void if I did any internal modifications to it.
 
Habusho said:
This is such a confusing topic. I read the warranty and it says that the warranty is void if there is damage while doing modifications but all it takes is an AppleGenius with a bad attitude to tell you that your warranty is void. My AppleGenius told me it would be void if I did any internal modifications to it.
Click to expand...

Fortunately, there are laws to protect you from such a "Genius." ;)
 
Habusho said:
This is such a confusing topic. I read the warranty and it says that the warranty is void if there is damage while doing modifications but all it takes is an AppleGenius with a bad attitude to tell you that your warranty is void. My AppleGenius told me it would be void if I did any internal modifications to it.
Click to expand...

Pretty much... so if you do swap your hard drive make sure you're careful to reseat the case.

If they can find a reason to void your warranty, they will. Apple is not about to give you free service if they can find a reason not to.


And I'd go for the Western Digital 250GB Hard Drive @ 5400rpm.

Noobs that choose the 4200rpm drive can enjoy their slow response performance.
 
Who makes the Apple optional 250 GB drive ? Just would like to compare the specs. to the WD 250.

Thanks
 
4200rmp is that too slow?
i going to buy a macbook pro 17inch too,i just wondering 4200 too slow,
i wanna bigger hd too
 
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