Thinking of upgrading my 2.0 ghz Macbook pro to a 7200 rpm internal harddrive. Already max'd out with 2 gig of Ram.

I have only been able to find the Western Digital 320 gig 2.5 drives for sale in Chiang Mai. Best price is 2700 baht so far. This is quite a lot more expensive than on Ebay in the US.

Anyone else recently ungrade to a 7200 rpm speed drive? What brand and price? Was the speed helpful? Are the previous generation disadvantages of noise. power consumption and heat been eliminated? I have heard the new generation 7200 drives really make a machine feel snappier with faster boot times and application loading, swapfile etc.

Thanks for any recommendations.

You could use this resource to determine what HDD is suitable for your own needs.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2.5-har...chmarks,25.html

In Thailand, you only have once choice, WD black series. Price for 320GB is 2540 at hardware house international (hwhinter.com). Doesn't look like they have a 500GB model which is a bit surprising.

You could also get a WD 500GB 5400 model - it will be a bit slower than the 7200 but not too much, depending on how much data you put on it. Hard drive speeds deteriorate the more the drive fills up. In addition, higher density drives (e.g. 500 vs 320) will have a higher transfer rate for sequential reads. So a 500GB 5400 drive is faster than a 320GB 5400 drive, and nearly as fast as a 320/7200...

If you want to go really fast, jib computer has the Intel X-25M SSD 80GB for close to 9k baht.

Finally, if this is an older model MacBook Pro - Don't do it!! I had an older MBP and the problem was that it would get pretty hot. With the 7200 drive, it would get decidedly way too hot, and kill the drive. I had 2 hard drives die on me. So... the older model MacBook Pro cannot handle a 7200 drive. This is despite the fact that the manufacturers claim that the 7200 operates in the same heat envelope as the slower drives - they don't.

The hassle/risk of overheating is not worth the speed difference between 7200 and 5400. Note that this applies only to old MacBook Pros. Newer ones run pretty cool, and also come factory standard with 7200 drives. PC laptops usually are designed with enough margin that they can take the 7200 drives no problem. It's really an issue specific to older MacBook Pro models, everything before unibody.

Edited December 31, 200916 yr by nikster

Thanks Nikster. That's good info and something I am concerned about.

I have heard the newer 7200 drives run cooler than earlier 7200's but I do have a first Gen MBP C2D 2.0 ghz and its relatively hot. My CPU tends to run about 70-75 C and fans about 3,000 rpm. My current HD about 40 to 45 C.

Perhaps I will upgrade to a newer MBP. I was hoping to wait until the I7 processor was out for a while. Maybe just limp along with my current setup which is adequate for now. My only real gripe is I am maxxed out with 2 gig of Ram and I run Windows under Parallels on an external monitor.

Other than that the MBP has been my favorite computer of all time. I guess I dodged a bullet and haven't had any problems with the buggy 1st gen MBP other than needing the fans replaced under applecare.