How can you tell if your drive is 7200rpm model or not?

actually, i already own the late 2008 mbp with a 320gb 5400rpm in it, i ddnt realize you were talking about the upgrade while you were buying the mbp online. i am looking to get a new 7200 rpm hard disk for the mbp i already have. what i want to know is this:

1. the hitachi 320gb 7200 rpm (7k320) i have been able to find has a 3gb/s interface, will this work fine? where can i find the 7k320 with a 1.5gb/s interface?
2. is there some way i can order the hard disk from apple (i know it will be expensive)? i dont see any option online to buy the same branded apple 320gb 7200rpm hard disk separately that they put in their mbpros.

Message was edited by: ali.k

I purchased a new aluminum "brick" MBP 2.8 with the Apple installed optional 7.2krpm 320GB Hitachi drive. I noticed also that this drive is a SATA 1.5.

I was curious if anyone has replaced their drive with a SATA 3.0 model and if they noticed any performance improvement as a result?

Bud

I bought a MBP 2.53Ghz in late November with the 320/5400 rpm drive. I then bought an Hitachi HTS723232L9A360 320Gb, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s drive. Installed new OS fine, worked great for about a week then started having random freezes. Won't boot, freezes randomly during OS re-installs. In an external Fire wire 800 box, it runs fine. Apparently other MBP users are having the same issue, check drive reviews on Newegg. Hitachi's tech support is closed until Jan. 5, 2009. I'll just have to wait for an answer till then. But for the first week IT SCREAMED !!!

I just put a WD 'Scorpio Black' 320Gb 7200 RPM 3 Gb SATA drive in my MBP ( Late 2000) to replace the Hitachi in the post above. So far no issues. I think the Hitachi was faster while it was working, oh well now I have a real fast external eSATA drive box with the Hitachi drive in it...

There may be a jumper that needs to be installed to set the drive to 1.5Gb/sec.

I have 3.5" SATA II (3.0Gb/sec) drives installed in my NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ and they have jumpers installed (required for operation in the ReadyNAS, per discussion w/ NetGear tech support to make the drives compatible with the array).

I don't know if the 2.5" drives work the same, but since Apple doesn't currently support 3.0Gb/sec, you may want to research this as a possible solution.

Good Luck!
Dave

Most laptops these days still don't have 3.0. Honestly, I don't think it matters that much, these drives were using wont even transfer past 1.5 gigabits anyway, thats what.. 190 megabytes per second in theory? Closer to 150 in practice, there are no drives which transfer that fast.

Hitachi has a tool to change that SATA speed on you disk. I also just installed the "feared" 360Gb 7200rpm 3.0 Gbps drive (on a late 2008 MacBook, not MB Pro), and I am wondering whether it would matter if I changed the setting. I think I will keep using it in its standard setting for now, and if it fails, change the setting to see whether that helps. But always with Time Machine on my side!

I have the 320GB 7200rpm Hitachi Drive, MBP, Alu uni body for two weeks.

Has anyone experienced a random 'tick a, tick a' noise?....I have tried Apple Scan, Smart Utl and Tech Tool Deluxe, all say the hardware is fine...Never heard tis noise before, don't want a HD crash, any advice or tech savvy gratefull received...