Upgrading hard drive

rfomlover · May 5, 2014

Hey guys, I have a question about upgrading my hard drive. I have a mid 2012 13" MBP with the 2.9 GHz i7 and the standard 750GB hard drive. I am running low on space and also have windows on bootcamp for being able to do windows things. I was looking around on tiger direct for a new hard drive and I saw this 1TB one that seemed nice. I really want a 1.5TB one so that I double my current capacity. I feel as though another 250GB really isnt that much of an upgrade in all honesty. But anyway whatever size I end up getting, is it ok to run a 7200 RPM drive? Thats really what I want as the standard drive is 5400 RPM. I know its not THAT much of a difference but a little more speed would probably make a difference. It wont be SSD different, but should still be noticeable. Anyway, here is the link to the one in question. Let me know if you guys think this particular one would work out, or a 1.5TB one of the same specs. Also, does my MBP have SATA 3GBps or 6? I think it has 3 due to the age but not sure. I have my time machine backup so I am assuming its basically a clone of my current setup. Thanks! http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4969072&CatId=139
I found this 1.5TB one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236347

chrispayne123 · May 5, 2014

yeah it should be fine running a faster hdd, but you should get an ssd and then replace your cd drive with a hard drive caddy and then insurt a 1tb into that best of both worlds then,

rfomlover · May 5, 2014

chrispayne123 said:
yeah it should be fine running a faster hdd, but you should get an ssd and then replace your cd drive with a hard drive caddy and then insurt a 1tb into that best of both worlds then,

Wow that wouldnt be a bad idea. I was mostly concerned with heat which is why I asked. I am sure that the 7200 generates more heat than the 5400. But I like the CD drive swap thing. I almost want to sell this laptop and get a retina one but then I am stuck with no storage space. I like the 2 thunderbolt ports so I could finally run dual screen. Also the HDMI out is something this is very nice which I am surprised is lacking on this one for the $1500 that it was but whatever. Lol.

chrispayne123 · May 5, 2014

im sure there wouldnt be much of a heat differnts between the 2 hdd's, thats what im in the process of doing installed the ssd now taking out the cd drive, defently worth it for speed. you can still do duel screen threw the thunderbolt port with hdmi on ebay you can get adapters because i dont think apple have relised a thunderbolt to hdmi (offical one).

rfomlover · May 5, 2014

chrispayne123 said:
im sure there wouldnt be much of a heat differnts between the 2 hdd's, thats what im in the process of doing installed the ssd now taking out the cd drive, defently worth it for speed. you can still do duel screen threw the thunderbolt port with hdmi on ebay you can get adapters because i dont think apple have relised a thunderbolt to hdmi (offical one).

Yeah I dont think they have either. Well I can do dual screen right now if I want to use an external monitor and then use my laptop. I use my laptop as a desktop most of the time and use it as a laptop for when I am at school or on a trip or something like that. So when I am home I have it set up to my external monitor. I used to use my gaming PC with 2 monitors. I can still do that with this if I use a USB graphics card but I feel as though that wouldnt be as seamless as just having 2 thunderbolt ports. That way I could have two external displays.

chrispayne123 · May 5, 2014

im sure somewere on the internet there would be a splitter of some sort i mean if yours just doing multiscreen displaying the same on all the screens then you could get a thunderbolt to hdmi and then buy a hdmi splitter splitting it to both screen,

harryb2448 · May 5, 2014

The SSD will not generate much heat at all. Full load they consume 1W power compared to a platter drive 6-8w.

rfomlover · May 6, 2014

harryb2448 said:
The SSD will not generate much heat at all. Full load they consume 1W power compared to a platter drive 6-8w.

I probably wont be getting an SSD since I am constrained by money/storage. Would a 7200 generate a considerable amount more of heat than a 5400? I actually have a 500GB 7200 I bought a while back that I could run in the optical drive slot. Would the stock 750 and the 7200 500gb in the same computer cause heat problems?

chrispayne123 said:
im sure somewere on the internet there would be a splitter of some sort i mean if yours just doing multiscreen displaying the same on all the screens then you could get a thunderbolt to hdmi and then buy a hdmi splitter splitting it to both screen,

That would be cool if I want to mirror, unless there would be a way to extend the desktop.