[solagratia1600]

Hi all,

I want to find out whether the 17inch Powerbook's internal hard drive is upgradable to a faster hard drive, if so, which brand of hard drive, and where can I get it?

Currently, I noticed the 17inch's hard drive runs at 4200rpm, I thought this is somewhat slow, compared to what the PC laptops are using, around 5400 rpm, why is this so, and how much does it matter if I am using a 4200rpm on the 17inch powerbook?

I noticed an improvement, for my old G4-466mhz desktop as I switched from an IBM 5400 to a 7200rpm Western Digital hard drive.

thanks for reading.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by solagratia1600:
Hi all,

I want to find out whether the 17inch Powerbook's internal hard drive is upgradable to a faster hard drive, if so, which brand of hard drive, and where can I get it?

Currently, I noticed the 17inch's hard drive runs at 4200rpm, I thought this is somewhat slow, compared to what the PC laptops are using, around 5400 rpm, why is this so, and how much does it matter if I am using a 4200rpm on the 17inch powerbook?

I noticed an improvement, for my old G4-466mhz desktop as I switched from an IBM 5400 to a 7200rpm Western Digital hard drive.

thanks for reading.

I'm not 100% sure if there's a replacement as of yet that'll simply plug directly into where the current hard drive is, but I believe I understand Apple's reasoning in sticking w/ a 4200rpm drive. First off is the cooling issue, the slower it spins the less heat it produces, and a main attribute of the Apple notebooks is how cool they are built to run. Also, slower drives will eat up less power, making the battery last marginally longer.

Too, going from a 4200rpm drive to a 5400rpm drive won't yeild you the same "wow" speed improvements that moving from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive will. My first hard drive in my Wintel box was a 4200rpm drive, the second a 5400rpm drive, and the difference was barely noticeable. However, my newest Western Digital 7200rpm drive (low-end, nothing fancy) screams compared to the 5400rpm.

[JohnM15141]

I agree, "Faster Speeds" would not be a very good reason to upgrade your internal hard drive due to heat or power consumption(maybe)issues and that lack of a "wow factor" that AssassyN mentioned.

Increased Capacity is the only reason I would consider upgrading my internal drive on my 17"PB. If you want speed, the FW800 bus is the way to go. And, I've heard(But, I have not been able to confirm this) if you use 2 drives as a RAID Array on the FW800 Bus you get a real big boost in performance.

Originally posted by AssassyN:
Too, going from a 4200rpm drive to a 5400rpm drive won't yeild you the same "wow" speed improvements that moving from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive will. My first hard drive in my Wintel box wasa 4200rpm drive, the second a 5400rpm drive, and the difference was barely noticeable. However, my newest Western Digital 7200rpm drive (low-end, nothing fancy) screams compared to the 5400rpm.

[LosJackal]

Originally posted by solagratia1600:
Currently, I noticed the 17inch's hard drive runs at 4200rpm, I thought this is somewhat slow, compared to what the PC laptops are using, around 5400 rpm, why is this so, and how much does it matter if I am using a 4200rpm on the 17inch powerbook?

Faster drive doesn't necessarily mean you'll see better performance. Here's some anecdotal evidence comparing an older 5400 rpm drive with the 4200 current model:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/...02.html#S14737

So my point is, the hard drive isn't upgradable by the consumer. Upgrading to a faster hard drive won't necessary yield faster performance, but if it does, it might be only marginal while running hotter and taking more power. So until you decide an extra 20 GB of capacity is a factor for you as well, don't waste your money.

Personally, I think the MHS2060AT is a great drive. Don't replace it for capacity reasons when you can augment with a 250 GB external drive.

[solagratia1600]

Hi all,

thanks to you all for the insightful feedback on this issue, I benefited very much from your information.

cheers,
solagratia1600

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by solagratia1600:
Hi all,

thanks to you all for the insightful feedback on this issue, I benefited very much from your information.

cheers,
solagratia1600

Sure thing! And one last bit I want to add, if you want fast hard drive times, spend your cash on a nice FireWire 800 drive that are just now surfacing (check www.macnn.com and see the headlines for them). Those drives are lightning fast, huge, and are relatively small in size if you get the right one.