[mackandproud]

I just picked up a travelstar 500 GB at 7200 RPM! Desktop speed in a laptop baby! I haven't installed it yet. Actually, I won't get it for another couple of days. But I'm stoked I got it for such a great deal:

Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar HD20500 IDK/7K 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Retail

Only $80 delivered!

I expect great things from this: quiet, hecka fast, and so on. I'm doubly stoked since I was looking for a 5400 RPM drive at the same price but got a much faster drive!

Wait for this bad boy to go on sale...and I'll post a review in a few days. Cheers.

[Eug]

$120 price seems reasonable, but not outstanding. For example, the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500 GB 7200 rpm drive is only $90.

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Anyways, while it will be fine for most needs, it's still slower than a recent desktop 7200 rpm drive.

[ghporter]

I like Seagate's reputation more than the Hitachi's at this point, and since I'm in the market for such a drive, I'm leaning heavily toward the Seagate...Same price at Tiger Direct, by the way.

[Simon]

I'd also definitely take the Seagate over the Hitachi. No manufacturer has sent me more DOA notebook drives than Hitachi.

But it's a total no-brainer if I compare prices right now at Newegg. $90 shipped for the Seagate vs $120 plus shipping for the Hitachi.

A while ago we had a thread on 7200 rpm 500GB notebook drives.
http://forums.macnn.com/57/consumer-...-just-arrived/

[mackandproud]

I paid $80 for the hitachi; the seagate is $108. Plus, the recent reviews of the seagate are very bad: lots of heat, high energy consumption, noisy, slow, and so on. I read similarly unspectacular reviews for seagate 1.5 terabyte desktop. No thank you.

If you look at the seagate ratings, 27% of their ratings over the last six months are 1 star ratings.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by mackandproud 

Plus, the recent reviews of the seagate are very bad: lots of heat, high energy consumption, noisy, slow, and so on.

Links?

None of that sounds familiar. I bought two 7200.4 myself and my department bought several more. We've seen none of those problems with these drives. And slow? I hope your'e kidding. The 7200.4 is pretty much the fastest notebook HDD you can buy right now.

[Spheric Harlot]

^ In support, more anecdotal evidence:

I've had the Seagate running in this MacBook for a couple of months now, and I'm very pleased with it.

[mackandproud]

Hmmm. On to setting up my drive. I'm a bit of a technophobe, and newbie.

I'm running the most recent OS: 10.6.2. I understand I have to configure the drive as HFS+, i.e., mac os extended (journaled).

However, what do I with the "volume scheme" setting in disk utility? It is originally set to "current" as a default. However, should I leave it on the default setting, or set it to "1 partition"? I only want and need 1 partition, but I don't understand what the difference is between "current" and "1 partition."

I'm setting up my disk as an external drive first, then cloning my original internal onto it, then installing the new drive into my laptop. Thanks.

[reader50]

Volume Scheme:
1 = the most common configuration
2 = what I'd use on a laptop. I'd make the 2nd partition ~ 10 GB, install the OS on it, along with disk repair utilities. As an emergency partition if I were on the road, without access to utility discs.

Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Options button -> GUID Partition Table

[mackandproud]

I just installed the hitachi 500 GB 7200 rpm, after backing up everything using CCC. My impressions:

1. ridiculously fast: itunes opens up in a couple of seconds; overall, apps take about half the time to open compared to the stock fujitsu 250 gb 5400 rpm drive it was replacing.

This internal drive is just as fast, and probably a little faster than my external 7200 rpm drives.

2. it is very quiet. It is very slightly more noticeable compared to the fujitsu, subjectively speaking, although I didn't take measurement.

3. at $80 bucks it is a steal.

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by mackandproud 

1. ridiculously fast: itunes opens up in a couple of seconds; overall, apps take about half the time to open compared to the stock fujitsu 250 gb 5400 rpm drive it was replacing.

The average consumer does neglect hard drive speeds because they pay too much attention to only CPU speeds and RAM. Apple still uses the slower drive as default even on their top end MBPs. A computer is only as fast as its slowest part. I also noticed a difference in speed so I think it's worth it too.

[Simon]

The $80 special offer was short-lived. We're now back to regular Newegg prices.

$105 for the Seagate Momentus.
$110 for the Hitachi Travelstar.