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+ spiral + · Oct 19, 2003, 02:50 AM

I just got an Aluminium PB 15" and the most beautiful part about it is that it is almost totally silent. It is amazing.

I was curious to hear from people that decided to put the Travelstar 7200rpm notebook drive into their powerbooks. Can you hear the drive while you are working? If you can hear the drive, is the speed increase that significant, that you live with what HD noise there is?

Any impressions are appreciated.

Daniel Bayer · Oct 19, 2003, 04:07 AM

I can't really hear mine mutch at all, once and awhile the heads do a little moving but they pretty darn quiet too.

As for the performance.....Yee Haa!!!

slimmy · Oct 19, 2003, 11:22 AM

I too am apprehensive about switching this 60GB 4200 rpm drive that is QUIET with a 7200rpm drive that may be noisy. Can returns be made at any vendor anyone knows?

Slim

h00ligan · Oct 19, 2003, 11:32 AM

i did it in my ti and it is such a mild clicking when you do hear it.. i never hear it spin up or down, i rarely ntice it reading or writing, itis so minor, you would have to be so sensitive to sound i would consider you anal

+ spiral + · Oct 19, 2003, 03:07 PM

Well, i am an audio engineer, so i guess that qualifies me as both! Thanks for the comments. Since i already ordered the drive, i might as well just try it and see. Thanks so much.

bmhome1 · Oct 19, 2003, 03:16 PM

My 7200 drive is QUIETER than the 4200 and 5400 drives it replaced. The Xbench drive tests doubled the speed numbers compared to 4200 drive.

+ spiral + · Oct 19, 2003, 04:12 PM

Originally posted by bmhome1:
My 7200 drive is QUIETER than the 4200 and 5400 drives it replaced. The Xbench drive tests doubled the speed numbers compared to 4200 drive.

Wow. For real? Which PowerBook do you have? Aluminium? Thanks.

blot · Oct 20, 2003, 09:29 AM

Originally posted by + spiral +:
Wow. For real? Which PowerBook do you have? Aluminium? Thanks.

I installed the drive in my 17"PB the moment it was available in May or June. No problems, and it is really silent.

doublep · Oct 20, 2003, 10:54 AM

I've installed the 7200 rpm Travelstar in my 1 Ghz TiBook.

I can confirm that the disk is much faster than my previous stock 4200 rpm disk.

It is very slightly noisier but I have to be in a perfectly silent room to notice.

I guess the Powerbook is slightly warmer too.

But, all things considered, this has been a great upgrade.

+ spiral + · Oct 20, 2003, 06:18 PM

Thanks for all the comments. I installed the 7200 drive today and it is quiet. It is louder than the 5200 drive that came with the machine though. If i put my ear near the trackpad i couldnt hear the 5200 drive at all, the 7200 i can hear but it should be liveable.

Either way they are both quiet compared to my 500MHz TiBook drive which i can hear whirring in another room ... it's obnoxious. The 5200 drive is going in the TiBook and it is for sale!

Daniel Bayer · Oct 20, 2003, 06:42 PM

Ummm....If I were you I would hold onto that drive that you just took out.

If for any reason you need to send your new 15 in, you would need to put it back in as it voids the warranty to meddle with the drive, unlike the ti-book.I think that this the case with the 15 anyway.

I love how folks are now really starting to take matters in to thier own hands and swap the "Non-user replacable" drives anyway.

It is a bit more complicated to swap them out...but not that much more.

How was the 15 AI drive swap? With my 17, I had to undo about 18 screws and then take the whole top cover off.

+ spiral + · Oct 20, 2003, 07:32 PM

Originally posted by Daniel Bayer:
Ummm....If I were you I would hold onto that drive that you just took out.

Good point. Yeah i should keep it.

The disassembly was tricky and i've totally disassebled a TiBook before to replace a motherboard. The hardest part was the way the latches work across the front, above the optical drive. I still don't fully understand how to release them elegantly. I ended up bending them a bit i think because i had to bend them back to seat correctly. Apart from that, getting inside was pretty easy. (i followed the pictures on the japanese site). The only other gotcha is the wire that overlaps the HD ribbon cable. i took the right bracket off the hard drive then slid the drive out with the ribbon cable passing under the red and black cable that was overlapping. I didn't want to put any pressure on whatever that cable is. Also i left the keyboard attached to the machine by just tipping it against the screen (with a thin soft barrier between of course).

Did your 17" have weird tabs across the front like i was describing?

Thanks for the reminder about keeping the drive.