White Intel Macbook Hard Drive updates.

I am wanting to upgrade the hard drive on my white 13.3 inch, core 2 duo, macbook. I know i need a 2.5" sata drive but are there any other limitations and things I need to look out for? I am hoping to get a 500gb HD and have been told seagate is the way to go. Below is a link to one i am considering.

Momentus® 5400.6 Hard Drives with G-Force Protection™ | Seagate (will it work in my macbook?)

Does anyone have any other advice on what to buy, brands, speeds ect.?

Thanks!

9.5 mm height is the other limitation.

Momentus drives are good, as are Western Digital's Scorpio series. If money isn't a concern, go with a 7200RPM drive, though. They aren't that much noisier, and they don't drain that much more power these days, but you'll notice the difference in performance.

I have a Scorpio Black (320GB, 16MB cache, freefall sensor) and it's made my lowly Core Duo White MacBook feel young again.

I have a 7200RPM Seagate 500GB drive in my old white C2D. I recommend it as you'll notice a big performance difference with 7200RPM. Although I've only had it for about two months now so I can't comment on reliability or anything like that. Important note: try to get one with at least 16MB of cache. The one you provided a link for only has 8MB.

I would also suggest buying one without G Force protection. Your macbook already has sudden motion detection built in, and I've heard of both interfering with each other. Buy buying a non G-force drive you'll save yourself some money and advil for your headache when the g force and sudden motion act up.

Agree with wytwolf.

Can you comment on /recommend some 500gb drives that don't have the g force protection? I was thinking about a 500gp 7400rpm Seagate Momentus. It seems that most of them have the protection, although it is called "optional".

You can get the drive you mentioned without g force protection. I just searched and couldn't immediately find it. Look on the seagate website to get the model number of the drive without g force.

I have heard that the 7200rpm HD will drain my battery a lot faster. I like my the battery life at the moment which is about 5 hours, will a 7200rpm hard drive reduce its life by much?

MilanJ said:

I have heard that the 7200rpm HD will drain my battery a lot faster. I like my the battery life at the moment which is about 5 hours, will a 7200rpm hard drive reduce its life by much?

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That's more of a myth. I have a 7200 and if anything I've noticed a negligible difference.