MacBook – Performance hit of installing a new hard drive in a MacBook Pro

hard drivehardware-recommendationmacbook proupgrade

I have a MacBook Pro 5,3 with a 7200 rpm 500 GB hard drive. I am running out of space and I have been considering upgrading with Western Digital's 1 TB laptop hard drive. I am just curious if I am going to get a big hit to my performance.

This is the hard drive I am looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136545

Best Answer

ATTENTION

You do not specify a MacBook pro, but mine (pre-unibody) it ca not take those drives as you can read it has 12.5mm height and the maximum of a MBP Drive is 9.5mm

That is why several 500Gb drives did not fit MBP's and the one you are mentioning will never fit your laptop.

added

Currently, the max capacity on a 9.5mm Hard Drive is 750Gb (WD Scorpio Blue 5400rpm), and SSD is 480Gb (OWC SSD Extreme Pro) --> I bought mine here but 240Gb, it's superb!

to learn how to swap them (unibody, late 2008 models), see this OWC video and if you want to check the performance from an SSD and a HHD, please check this video.

my own SSD:

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MacBook – What hard drive is used for the 500 GB Macbook Pro option from Apple

I don't know about the 7200, but my mid-2010 MBP has the following (from system profiler):

Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02:

  Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
  Model:    Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02                 
  Revision: PB4AC60W
  Native Command Queuing:   Yes
  Queue Depth:  32
  Removable Media:  No
  Detachable Drive: No
  BSD Name: disk0
  Rotational Rate:  5400
  Medium Type:  Rotational

I too had trouble with noise and vibration with a Seagate Momentus XT (the hybrid drive). After reinstalling the stock drive it's quiet and vibration free again.

MacBook – Early 2011 MBP Hard Drive Noise – What IS normal

I can tell you, this isn't normal.

You shouldn't hear the hard drive very much at all, and only a little chatter when you're using it extensively.

Since you've clearly established that it's a hardware problem (because pressure fixes it), you should probably try to get it fixed. Rather than open the machine and do it yourself (violating your warranty), you should get Apple to fix it.
Since your computer is pretty new, it should definitely be a free repair.

You can take it to the Apple Store and tell Apple what happens. They'll take it and do some tests, then replace the drive (or whatever part they think needs it).

Make sure you back up all your data first; you won't get your old drive back.

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MacBook – What hard drive is used for the 500 GB Macbook Pro option from Apple

MacBook – Early 2011 MBP Hard Drive Noise – What IS normal

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