hi all, running short of space on the 13″ unibody MBP, quite fancy a 7200rpm disc to pep things up but am most worried about noise / vibration as machine is currently super quiet. Ive found all kinds of claims and counter claims about drives like Scorpio Black in an MBP, anybody done it?

a rigid laptop like this could perhaps transmit drive vibes more than a plastic one so im being cautious.

ta for any help 🙂

There’s very very little performance wise between 7,200 and 5,400 these days. Not worth it tbh.

cos of increased data density you mean? ive wondered about that and am close to going for a larger 5400 to play it safe

SSD FTW

🙂 i should add, 90-100 is my price

That’ll buy you 128gb of SSD, need more then get an external drive over USB unless you use a LOT of data

nah the laptop is the main computer, don’t fancy the external drive thing except for backups really.

7200rpm WD Black is a good drive to go for, definitely faster than the 5400rpm drives they come with. Upgraded my old MBP with a 320GB WD Black 7200rpm drive, it was actually quieter than the original (obviously lower quality) 5400rpm drive, though the battery life suffered very slightly (about 15 minutes shorter).

Personally though, right now, no point in going for a 7200rpm conventional drive over a 5400. UNLESS you go for one of the new Segate Momentus XT Hybrid drives. These have an 8GB NAND Flash memory and a 750GB 7200rpm platter. The idea is the 8GB of flash memory stores your OS and all your frequently used apps on it (and it’s clever, so it learns what you use most, so it gets quicker after a few uses), but you’ve also got the 7200rpm 750GB conventional drive for mass storage that is also usefully quicker than a normal 5400rpm drive.

These Drives are £115 from ebuyer right now so snap one up!

Alternatively, a 240GB SSD is only about £130-150 these days if that’s enough storage…

cheers mboy yes the XT is tempting but ive read too many horror stories for mac use, something about drive firmware causing major corruptions and it possibly being fixed on the new 750gb version, but im a bit nervous for that reason. the 320 that came with my mbp is a seagate momentus and i cant hear it over the idling fans so ive got fussy 🙂

If you don’t use your DVD drive much I recommend the OWC Data Doubler. You replace the optical drive with a caddy that holds a second hard drive. I used this setup to run a 120GB SSD for OS/APPS and a 500Gb HD for storage.

I just happen to be selling one on Ebay. 🙂

I’ve just upgraded to a new laptop hence the sale.

There was a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD for about £140 the other day, possibly with another £20 off via caschback. Saw it on the hot deals website.

OWC data doubler is a great idea, just fitted one to my mac mini to add an SSD drive. Amazing performance boost over the stock 5400 drive. I paid about 50 quid to get one sent from the States, not sure if I’ll be hit for import duty but the ebay link above is a good deal even at the buy-it-now price.

Honestly, SSD FTW!

ah yes, nice idea, so this literally the same as two drives or two partitions in effect, you install the OS on the SSD and then save the rest onto the HD? what backup software do you use? i use carbon copy cloner but my mind does not compute backing up the two, suppose each drive gets its own backup then?

ah yes, nice idea, so this literally the same as two drives or two partitions in effect, you install the OS on the SSD and then save the rest onto the HD? what backup software do you use? i use carbon copy cloner but my mind does not compute backing up the two, suppose each drive gets its own backup then?

Yes. It sees it as two separate drives. I moved my iTunes and iPhoto libraries onto the HD and told their respective apps where to find them. (ALT – CLICK on the icon and ask you where library is). I use Time Machine for back up. It backs them both up as separate folders on the backup external drive. Seems pretty seamless.

Hope this helps.

thanks d3fm3ch great to know. and thanks all for a very interesting thread 🙂

foureyes – Member
ah yes, nice idea, so this literally the same as two drives or two partitions in effect, you install the OS on the SSD and then save the rest onto the HD?

OS and applications for the biggest speed boost.

Has any body mentioned heat management?
– some 7200 even those with a SSD cache get quite a bit warmer .

Check manufacturers running temp(?)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-256gb-830-ssd-basic-149-97-dabs-20-cash-back-from-samsung-1288409