How will upgrading the HD affect my Macbook Pro?

I recently upgraded my early 2008 MacBook Pro from a 250GB (5400) to a Western Digital Scorpio Black 750GB (7200) HDD. I notice the drive and my mac are faster, and it doesn't make noise to my knowledge. It is very dependable, and I am glad I upgraded. You mentioned you have a MacBook... What year is it? I know my brothers is an early 2008 MacBook and he upgraded it from a 160GB (5400) to a Western Digital Scorpio Black 640GB (7200) and that has been deemed as the max that model can take. I am not sure what the max is for the year you might have unless yours is the same as my brothers.

Basically speaking my brother and I have noticed a significant difference in the scorpio black drives we have installed, and believe me we don't regret it. We also found these drives for real cheap on Amazon.com. Here are some drives you might like, and hopefully they are cheaper in cost for you:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field keywords=western+digital+scorpio+black&x=0&y=0

Hope this helps...

Chris

I don't think any of the currently available Terabyte drives will work. The case is too thick. 750Gb is the largest made now that will physically fit.

Go with the 7200 rpm. The faster the drive spins, the faster it can read and write, all thing being equal. There are other things that effect speed like the size of the disk cache. In theory two disks that spin at the same speed, the one with the larger cache will be faster.

Compared to a 5400 rpm drive a 7200 will deliver approximately 20% faster access and will decrease battery life up to 20%. That will vary somewhat since some 7200 drives are very energy efficient and others are power hogs. Relatively.

It's like asking if Fords or Chevy are faster. It depends. If the Ford is a Shelby Mustang and the Chevy is small hybrid you can figure that the Ford will be a bit faster. Corvette vs Focus would give the opposite results.

With regard to fit, make sure the drive has a maximum height of 9.5 mm. The chassis is not designed for the taller 12.5 mm height drives. Additionally, you may want to consider upgrading to an SSD if you're more interested in seeing a performance boost. I recently upgraded my late 2006 (yes, you read that right-2006) MacBook Pro with an OCZ SSD, and it feels like a new laptop. Startup is just over 30 seconds, resume from sleep is less than 1 second, and launching Safari and MS Office apps all happen in less than 1 dock icon bounce.

Yes, they are still quite a bit more expensive than HDDs. I got my Vertex 2 for $1.56/GB, but I think $1/GB is a psychological barrier. Once the prices reach this level SSDs should become more common.

The currently available 1TB 12.5MM drives fit perfectly into all unibody MacBook Pros, Apple's 9.5mm specification notwithstanding. Power consumption and heat are unlikely to be significantly different from standard factory drives, and some large drives draw less power than standard factory drives. Check the manufacturer's power consumption specs for the drive(s) you're considering.

MBP

You might consider a hybrid model HD. Check out http://barefeats.com for speed test comparisons.

I recently installed a WD Scorpio Black 750GB, 7200rpm in my Macbook 2,1 (non Pro) and definitely see a speed increase. No noise, vibration or computer fans kicking on either. Installation was a snap. 🙂

Since you have a Pro, you should have better results.

I used my Macbook Pro late 2010 for gaming with a 7200 RPM HD that they offered. Overheating from gaming lead to 2 corrupted hard drives, and a "forced" upgrade to a SSD 😟.

And also, 7200 RPM = faster spinning = more heat. (obviously, but could be overlooked 😝)