[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I am looking to upgrade the hard drive in my original Core Duo 2.0Ghz MacBook Pro.

I have found this one here:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...ey=50410,11154

Is this suitable? It says on the page that "Seagate SV 35 Series hard drives are engineered specifically for use in digital video surveillance systems." - does that mean anything as far as not using it as an upgrade?

Many thanks in advance,

Matthew

[Spheric Harlot]

You've just linked to a 3.5" hard drive.

That's the desktop format.

You need a 2.5" S-ATA drive, no taller than 9.5mm (some drives are 12.5mm).

[SierraDragon]

OWC http://www.owcomputing.com is one good source of drives and they provide competent presales tech support as well.

-Allen Wicks

[Matthew Attoe]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

You've just linked to a 3.5" hard drive.

That's the desktop format.

You need a 2.5" S-ATA drive, no taller than 9.5mm (some drives are 12.5mm).

Yeah, sorry - my fault (obviously!)

I got all panicky at the price

So, basically, any 2.5" 9mm SATA will be fine? Nothing else I need to be aware of that might catch me out?

Thanks again,

Matthew

[afx5i]

Yeah, basically any 2.5" SATA drive will be fine, but you might want to specifically make sure that it's an SATA-II (3Gbps) drive. The reason is, although all new drives use SATA-II, there might be some old drives using SATA (1.5Gbps) still selling around on the web. As long as your MBP is a recent model that supports SATA-II, an 3Gbps drive will give you a little bit more performance.

Also, you might want to look into the "Cache Size" of the hard drive, 8MB is fine but 16/32MB will be faster. So, get the one with a larger cache if the rotation speed and the price is almost the same. Wish you good luck.

[Simon]

Forget this SATA I and II nonsense. It's a misnomer anyway. Rest assured one of the wise guy members will soon post a link to a SATA-IO page asking people to stop using these names.

Just get a 2.5" SATA disk no higher than 9.5mm.

Regarding interface speed, no 2.5" HDD is so fast that a 1.5 Gbps interface would be a bottleneck. No 2.5" HDD needs a 3 Gbps interface for performance reasons. The very first high-performance SSDs have just started pushing beyond 1.5 Gbps. IOW it's totally irrelevant what interface speed the HDD advertises. The only thing to remember is that there's a 3 Gbps jumper on some disks and it has to be removed if you run into problems with it.

[mduell]

500GB for your laptop at Dabs.

Originally Posted by afx5i 

Yeah, basically any 2.5" SATA drive will be fine, but you might want to specifically make sure that it's an SATA-II (3Gbps) drive. The reason is, although all new drives use SATA-II, there might be some old drives using SATA (1.5Gbps) still selling around on the web. As long as your MBP is a recent model that supports SATA-II, an 3Gbps drive will give you a little bit more performance.

Do not use the terms "SATA II" or "SATA III," which are incorrect and have no meaning.

There's little to no performance difference between 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s SATA drives (ceteris paribus) because drives can't sustain >150MBps.

[afx5i]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Do not use the terms "SATA II" or "SATA III," which are incorrect and have no meaning.

Thanks for the link. This is pretty useful.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Do not use the terms "SATA II" or "SATA III," which are incorrect and have no meaning.[/URL]

There's little to no performance difference between 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s SATA drives (ceteris paribus) because drives can't sustain >150MBps.

Slightly off topic here, but the higher transfer speed shown for "SATA 300", etc. is just a burst speed, right?

[afx5i]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Slightly off topic here, but the higher transfer speed shown for "SATA 300", etc. is just a burst speed, right?

Yes, it is. It's the highest possible transfer rate between the South Bridge (in most chipsets) and the drive itself.

But, just like other members have pointed out, almost no HDDs can deliver more than 1.5Gb/s of data at the current moment, a drive that says "SATA 300" doesn't mean it is capable of reading/writing 300MB of data at best in any single moment.

It's one way to determine how new/old the drive is though.

[Tomchu]

"almost no HDDs can deliver more than 1.5Gb/s of data at the current moment"

Except when that data is being delivered from the hard drive's memory buffer.

[Simon]

Right. Which means 8 or 16 MB at the very best. A minuscule amount in terms of i/o wait. Once that's through, it's the drive again. And they're all slower. The fastest 7200 rpm drives out now are pushing just a little more than 1 Gbps under ideal conditions. Nowhere close to the 1.5 Gbps interface limit.

There are more than enough important criteria to look at when you buy a notebook drive. If you find a good deal on a suitable drive you shouldn't worry what the interface speed rating is. It really is quite irrelevant.

[ghporter]

So if I were looking for a replacement drive for my own MBP, for example, I should pay more attention to maybe rotational speed and buffer size than "SATA 150" versus "SATA 300?" That sounds eminently doable.

Yesterday, I got to see how the new MBP's hard drive goes in. Wow. SOOOOOO easy and simple. My first gen MBP is going to cost me about $50 extra to have an upgraded drive put in because, well, it's a first gen MBP.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

So if I were looking for a replacement drive for my own MBP, for example, I should pay more attention to maybe rotational speed and buffer size than "SATA 150" versus "SATA 300?" That sounds eminently doable.

Yes. Most definitely.

If you need maximum capacity go for a 5400 rpm 500GB drive (they all have 8MB cache). They're a bit over $100 right now. If 320 GB is enough you have more to chose from. I'd get a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 with 16 MB cache and 7200 rpm spindle speed. It's a very fast yet quiet drive and it comes with a 5 year warranty. This Momentus and its direct competitors are going for roughly $90 right now.

In any event these drives will all be fast. Regardless of what the interface speed rating is.

500 GB drives
320 GB drives

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for all taking the time to reply to my question.

At least I now know exactly what to buy - 500GB 7200RPM Biggest Cache 9.5mm - top stuff!

Thanks again and Happy New Year to you all.

Matthew

EDIT Just followed the NewEgg links and am gutted at how cheap drives are in the US :-(

[Cold Warrior]

Well the 500 GB models aren't in 7200 RPM yet.

I got a 320 GB 7200 Momentus Simon described from OWC and have been very pleased with it. Over the Christmas holiday I opened up my late 2006 MBP and swapped out the drives.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Well the 500 GB models aren't in 7200 RPM yet.

I got a 320 GB 7200 Momentus Simon described from OWC and have been very pleased with it. Over the Christmas holiday I opened up my late 2006 MBP and swapped out the drives.

That last is what's holding me back. Mine's also a 2006 model, and a kazillion and five tiny little screws of a number of different flavors, each with its own place... That sort of—no that REALLY—scares me. It'll be worth the authorized service center charge for me to not worry about losing a screw or doing something else wrong.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

So if I were looking for a replacement drive for my own MBP, for example, I should pay more attention to maybe rotational speed and buffer size than "SATA 150" versus "SATA 300?" That sounds eminently doable.

Pay attention to rotational speed and actual performance tests. The bus speed is currently essentially irrelevant, as no drive exceeds the 1.5Gbps original SATA's speed, and cache size has proven to be essentially irrelevant as well.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Tomchu 

"almost no HDDs can deliver more than 1.5Gb/s of data at the current moment"

Except when that data is being delivered from the hard drive's memory buffer.

Do you mean to? Anyway, it matters for, at best, about 100 milliseconds.

Originally Posted by tooki 

Pay attention to rotational speed and actual performance tests.

In particular look at IO performance, rather than transfer rate.