Which of these 500GB HDDs?

I have a Macbook pro (2.2) w/ 320GB HDD already and I am still in dire need of more space. So I decided to upgrade (again) to one of these three 500GB HDDs, and was wondering if anybody has had any experience with any of them.

-Seagate Momentus 500GB 5400 RPM
-SAMSUNG Spinpoint 500GB 5400 RPM
-Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB 5400 RPM

All can be found at newegg, Newegg.com - 500GB, Laptop Hard Drives, Hard Drives, Computer Hardware


Right now I am leaning towards the Seagate, but that is just because I have a seagate right now.

Thanks

Stick with either the Seagate or the Western Digital. I would personally go with the Seagate as well because Seagate drives tend to have longer warranties (five years as opposed to three by WD). Plus, the Seagate drive is cheaper.

I am trying to make the same decision. I'm leaning towards the Western Digital myself since it's the only 500GB 2.5" drive that uses 2 platters. The others use 3 platters to get to 500GB. All else being equal, the 2 platters of the WD should equate to higher performance, no?

I'd think it would depend on the number of w/r heads? Just a guess, I have no idea.

I actually decided on the Seagate, partially because of their 5 year warranty versus WD's 3 year; but also because of the reviews of the WD, it seemed as if a lot of them had "clicking" problems, and the Seagate drives that I have had been problem free for the years that I have owned them.

Post back how the install went and the performance of the harddrive, it will no doubt help me in deciding which harddrive I should upgrade too. However I don't think my Macbook will support a SATAII 3GB drive.

I would also go with the Seagate, not just of the longer warranty but also because it has lower power consumption compared to the other two, and is super quiet.

JGruber said:

Post back how the install went and the performance of the harddrive, it will no doubt help me in deciding which harddrive I should upgrade too. However I don't think my Macbook will support a SATAII 3GB drive.

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Yes, your Macbook will support it since the drives are backwards compatible.

Kash said:

Yes, your Macbook will support it since the drives are backwards compatible.

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Thank you, I did not know the drives where backwards compatible.

JGruber said:

Post back how the install went and the performance of the harddrive, it will no doubt help me in deciding which harddrive I should upgrade too. However I don't think my Macbook will support a SATAII 3GB drive.

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It should be in and installed by Saturday, newegg usually gets it to me extremely fast.

Yeah, that's why I love Newegg. Being in So Cal, I normally get it within a day or so.

I'm still trying to figure out how I can get my current Mac config onto a new Harddrive.

JGruber said:

I'm still trying to figure out how I can get my current Mac config onto a new Harddrive.

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Use an external hard drive case with firewire and migration assistant.
Migration assistant in in applications/utilities.
This will make a bootable copy on your new hard drive.
Swap drives and use the external case for your old hard drive. (Time machine?)

If you have no Firewire, you can use Superduper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy of your original HDD using the new drive attached via an external USB HDD enclosure. Both applications are free to download and use, though a donation is asked of you want to use advanced features. The advanced features are not needed for what you wish to do.

You can use rsync which is free and already loaded.

From the terminal window type man rsync to learn the command.

Most utilities are simply rsync nicely packaged.

Just an update. I got the drive in today, but with school I can't do anything with it today - so it will have to wait until tomorrow when I get back.. but I can't wait!!

Cool! Have fun!

thanks for the Newegg link!!

just ordered a WD 500gb for my incoming new MBP

^^ No problem! So I am assuming that the new MBPs have the easy remove HDD like the older MBs that doesn't void the warranty?

Waterpolo820 said:

^^ No problem! So I am assuming that the new MBPs have the easy remove HDD like the older MBs that doesn't void the warranty?

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I've done some Google research on this subject. My MBP has a 120 GB drive. I read that it is very easy to do a swap of HD's with the MB, but the MBP needs some extensive removal of screws and stuff. Doing this on your own WILL void the warranty. My view is that it is beneficial to have it done professionally. Apple doesn't do this and will refer you. I live in Orange County, So. Calif. and was referred to a place called Tech Room. They have a web site.

Finally, why not consider the faster 7200 RPM as a replacement? Seagate has one in the 320 GB version for somewhere around $100 or less.

Well generally a 7200rpm drive will draw more power, get hotter and in some cases make more noise, which will equal worse battery life, and a hotter notebook (which we all know MBP's run a little warm already)

In reality you only really see a huge difference from 5400 to 7200 when moving or playing with very large files.

It's just like using a computer with a 2.2gHz and comparing it to a 2.4gHz cpu. The real world difference is very negligible.