MacBook Pro - Which internal hard drive do you recommend?

Just bought a FireCuda Hybrid 1TB Drive from Seagate (ST1000LXB15) and I am very please with the Price VS Performance of it.

My MacBook Pro just got a real new boost in performance with this Baby at 30% of the price of a SSD. Trying to get support from Seagate about the new Apple Filing System is another story though !!!

With a 5 years warranty, after my Apple's Hitachi died on me, I feel that this choice was the best bet possible...

Bought it on Amazon from less than $Cdn 100.00 delivered at my door !!!

Would you please elaborate on your issues with the FireCuda and the new Apple Filing System? Is there a compatibility issue?

Also, does anyone know the difference between the 1TB FireCudas with the following extremely similar numbers (bolded for clarity):

ST1000LXB15

ST1000LX015

I'm trying to decide between the 1TB FireCuda (ST1000LXB15) and the 1TB WD Black Hybrid Drive (WDGWD10S21X). I'm leaning toward the FireCuda. Any advice or information would be great! Thank you! 🙂

P.S. I have a 15" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Core i7 Early 2011 and will also be upgrading to 16GB from 8GB RAM.

My MacBookPro is like yours will be with 16GB of RAM, except it is a late 2011...

Here is part of the answer that I received from Seagate after a few emails back and forth...

"Please note that the Seagate Firecuda models are not tested for Apple File System. As we understand that you are using your Firecuda drive with Mac, we suggest you continue using the drive in HFS+ as we do not have much of the information about Apple File System and its compatibility with Seagate hard drives."

I just don't believe that a company like Seagate does not beta test new OS that are used by people who buy their stuff... very disappointed in them.

I will back up my system with CCC before upgrading to High Sierra and will see how it goes. Fortunately, I am retired and will take the time to do the things right...

Apple SSD drives have specific code in their firmware that is designed to work with the new APFS files (SSD's), The older SSD's that were proprietary (connection was apple specific) probably do not have up-to-date firmware to work properly. If any third party drives are used as replacement or upgrade and the APFS file system is used, there will be possible data integrity issues and Trim may not work properly. Apple does not sell their drives to the public directly. Apple does not manufacture their drives in house, but there is talk that they may, or have, purchased Toshiba's Chip business, which would lead to drives for their machines being solely being controlled (manufactured) by Apple for the future. Since High Sierra auto converts a SSD's to APFS upon installation, using a 3rd party drive may render problems noted above. It does not matter if the 3rd party drive is faster or may even be built better, with more advanced componentry (nand Flash etc), if the firmware on the drive is not recognized as Apple, cannot interface with the APFS firmware in the same manner as a OEM Apple SSD, there will be issues using the drive, Unless the file system is modified by Apple to work properly with a third party drive(s) in the future. There are methods to prevent the auto conversion to APFS installing High Sierra and use HFS+ as the file system on a third party SSD, but they are not recommended.

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The advantage of the MacBook Pro is that it uses the same hard drive as any other PC: a 2'5" SATA hard drive with 5400 or 7200 rpm speed.

You can buy a hard drive for your Mac at OWC > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ You shouldn't have any problem to install a 750 GB or 1 TB hard drive on it. Also, note that 7200 rpm hard drives will give you better performance compared with your 5400 rpm hard drive that your MacBook came with. Seagate and HGST drives have good reputation. OWC gives you the videos to install it

Also, there's an option to put a SSD, faster but very expensive and with smaller storage

I've four of the HGST (Hitachi) Travelstar 7K100 drives (1TB, SATA III, 7200rpm).

It would be a very good drive for your purposes. Even though it will only operate at SATA II speeds in your model, if you upgrade your machine in the future, you could take advantage of the SATA III speed.

Available at Amazon and OWC. Cheaper at Amazon (prices seem to fluctuate with demand on OWC's website).

Clinton

5400 RPM Toshiba 1TB model MQ01ABD100 $65 on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/MQ01ABD-2-5-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B0077CV2RO/ref=sr_1_1?i e=UTF8&qid=1376985909&sr=8-1&keywords=MQ01ABD100

5400 consumes less power and runs cooler than a 7200 of any variety.

just get a Hitachi or Toshiba in said parameter, both are made by Hitachi at any rate.

here it is same HD on newegg, but higher price : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149377

louder no, likely less

heat up faster, no.

more battery? Only a very meager bit.

Its unlikely you'll notice any speed differences except when transferring LARGE files. 😊

I have had 1 TB HGST 5400 rpm HDDS, 1TB HGST 7200 rpm HDDS and currently Seagate 1TB 5400 rpm SSHDs. All have been very quiet to the point that you have to put your ear onto the MBP to determine if they are spinning. All have worked satisfactorily.

Do not expect astonishing performance differences between the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm HDDs. The SSHDs boot up a touch faster and shut down much faster than the standard HDDs. Aside from that, the performance is about the same as the other two.

The electrical consumption differences have been such that I have never noticed the differences with any of them. Then it must be understood that most of the time my MBPs are connected to AC.

Ciao.

Apple uses Hitachi drives becuase they are the most reliable and longest lasting. Using a 7200 RPM drive will increase performance but the reason they stick with 5400 is becuase they drain the battery much less. I would go with a 500GB 5400 RPM Hitachi drive.

I would like to know if MacBook Pro Model 8,2 possible to replace SATA drive with the SSD internal drive?

If you want something blazing fast, get SSD. They're more expensive but will last a lot longer and perform about 4x faster than traditional HDDs. www.crucialmemory.com has good drives and RAM kits for good prices.

Thanks for the deets, Binaire! I ended up going with a 1TB Factory Recertified HGST TravelStar 7K1000 HTS721010A9E630 1TB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA Hard Drive. I hope I made the right choice! 😝