250GB WD Scorpio Blue? Yay or nay?

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For my PowerBook, I have the opportunity to get a brand new 250GB 5400RPM WD Scorpio Blue with Leopard installed for $75 shipped. I would replace my 120GB Hitachi with the WD.

Would it be worth it? Someone told me it's as fast as a 100GB 7200RPM but I'm not sure how true that is.

Also, how reliable are they? I've seen some good and bad reviews. I'm not sure if I want to take a chance on it.
 

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For my PowerBook, I have the opportunity to get a brand new 250GB 5400RPM WD Scorpio Blue with Leopard installed for $75 shipped.

How is a brand new hard drive being sold with Leopard already installed on it?

- Nick
 
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How is a brand new hard drive being sold with Leopard already installed on it?

I told him I'd be interested in it after I buy an extra external HD to make a CCC back up. He said he could install Leopard on it for me so I don't have to do all that (I don't have the Leopard disc).
 
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Bump.

If I do buy the hard drive, it will be clean. I have CCC and will be making a bootable back up later on today.

So.. does anyone have any experience with these HDs? Is it true that it would be as fast as a 100GB 7200RPM?
 

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I told him I'd be interested in it after I buy an extra external HD to make a CCC back up. He said he could install Leopard on it for me so I don't have to do all that (I don't have the Leopard disc).

That wouldn't be legal, unless he is going to be giving you the official Leopard disc as well as part of the sale.

Looking at this review, the Scorpio Blue's benchmark numbers stack up quite well against Scorpio Black (7200 RPM) and are better than a Toshiba 5400 RPM drive..

So it looks like it might be a nice 5400 RPM drive..
 

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And, to attempt to give my layman's explanation on how a 250GB 5400 RPM drive could be faster than a 100GB 7200 RPM, the rationale goes like this.

1) The 7200 drive spins 33% faster than a 5400 drive, so all else being equal it would be 33% faster on data handling
but
2) Each revoloution the head encounters 2.5 times as many data bits on the 250 drive as the 100 drive due to higher storage density.

So the net of that is the 5400 RPM drive is potentiallly faster than the 7200 RPM drive because of the difference in storage density.
 
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That wouldn't be legal, unless he is going to be giving you the official Leopard disc as well as part of the sale.

I believe he has the gray disc which is why I didn't want it but he said I could have it for $40.

So it looks like it might be a nice 5400 RPM drive..

Hopefully he still has it in a few weeks. I'll probably snag it. He said $70 shipped without the OS installed.

And, to attempt to give my layman's explanation on how a 250GB 5400 RPM drive could be faster than a 100GB 7200 RPM, the rationale goes like this.. So the net of that is the 5400 RPM drive is potentiallly faster than the 7200 RPM drive because of the difference in storage density.

Thanks for the explanation ;D I figured but wasn't 100% sure. So it would definitely be faster than my 5400 Hitachi. That would be a nice plus.
 

bobtomay

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That drive is only $50 from newegg and amazon.

The 500GB drive is $60 at amazon and $70 at newegg.

Never buy a hard drive without at least verifying the price at both of those 2 places.

And yes, the "areal density" is the reason it's faster than the older hard drives.
You can google areal density.
 

bobtomay

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Ahhh - didn't even think about that - yeah, everyone is asking a premium for those now - long day at work today.
 

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Well, that's still better than the $350 I was paying for a pair of 512MB sticks of RAM for overclocking some of my custom builds back in the day.
 
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Update:

So I ended up buying the drive. I just couldn't pass up that $70 shipped deal. It is infact brand new in the original packaging and box. I can't wait to install it! I'm just waiting on my Macally enclosure so I can clone my HD, install the new one and keep the old one as a back up.
 

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