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Best/Fastest New Internal Hard Drive to buy?

Hey, quick question with a little bit of background first. I have the MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo Model A1226, upgraded to 4 gb of ram (thanks to ifixit's excellent guide and product a while ago). I want to replace the internal hard drive as it's only 150 gb and i have been fighting to keep a minimum of 15 gb free. it seems that the newest, best, biggest internal hard drive that would work for my mbp is the 750 GB 7200 RPM Seagate SATA Hard Drive. So, (probably a n00b question but...), can my mbp actually handle that many rpm? I tend to have my computer working heavily for hours on end so i want to make sure if i buy a 7200 rpm hard drive, it wont burn out the system (ie the fans can handle the cooling,etc). anyways, thanks in advance for the help!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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awesome, thanks for the comments!

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The speed and heat are just no longer a problem. You should have no problem with that drive. Personally I like the Western Digital but that's a matter of opinion. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%2...

but iFixit seems to prefer the Seagate:

[linked product missing or disabled: IF107-099]

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This answer may only be correct at the time given. Next month it may be a 1 TB 10,000 RPM drive ;-)

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intel x25-m ssd is super fast.

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Not sure how up to date this thread is. I saw a 10K rpm 640 gig 2.5" drive at newegg. I'd love to increase the speed of the stock 750gig drive that came with the 2011 macbook pro but I love the size. Can't afford a ssd drive big enough but I'm wondering how much better a 10K drive would operate than the hybrid 500GB Seagate Momentus XT 2.5" 7200RPM / Solid State Hybrid Drive. The 10K 640 drive is selling at newegg for $440 and the hybrid 500 is selling at owc for $124.

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10k RPM drives are still running on the warmer side of things here. I'd stay with the 7.2k models or slower for now.

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There is also the Seagate Momentus XT 750gb 7200rpm to consider. It is a hybrid drive with SSD & conventional platters for increased speed. At the end of 2011 it was being sold for $250 & the 500gb was about $170.

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Lots of problems with hybrid drives noted on web. I've burned through two of them in less than a year. I'd steer clear.

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Me too. Seagate Momentus XT is a power hog and makes the fans run in my MackBook Pro

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A lot of the issues with hybrid drives has a lot to do in how one uses it. If you copy a lot of files or watch a lot of saved movies or TV shows in iTunes you'll have a heat problem in most drives. With hybrid drives they can't keep up with the changes which burns them out. If they could make the SSD part an independent virtual drive then it makes sense! as you could image the OS files to it and lock it down. I see the next gen drives having this feature which will change the tables again.

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Yeah, definitely stay away from hybrid, good idea in principle - but does not work as expected.

Get yourself the WD Raptor 10,000rpm internal hard drive, but I wouldn't stop there, internal hard drives are fickle and can break in an instant, get a good external hard drive to back your data up! For this i'd recommend a USB 3.0 one that is super fact, check out this review for the Western Digital My Passport 2TB - Hands down best external backup drive ever! Good luck..

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Remember only the new '12 models have USB 3.0 If you have an older Mac stick with FireWire 800, USB 2.0 is to sloooowwww.

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When I wrote my comment back in July, Apple hadn't disclosed their Fusion Drive yet. Boy was I close ;-} The only rub with their solution is it requires two SATA connections. I hope we'll see some single SATA units that have both a platter drive and SSD as independent drives in one unit and can be virtualized like a Fusion Drive, how about it Seagate & Western Digital time is a wasting!!

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Hi, I know this is an old thread and I'm trying to get some help as did the person that started it. I have a MacBook Pro 15" and I want to upgrade the internal HD as well as the RAM (things I should have done a long time ago). My question is: are these 2 HDs the same deal? If so, or if not, why is the price difference so big?

Thanks in adnvance!

Also, where do I buy screwdrivers small enough to open my MAC?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MME...

[linked product missing or disabled: IF107-099]

I'm trying to figure out which HD to get and whether I will be able to install it myself.

Thanks again!

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Thailand had a major flood in the area were must HD's are manufactured (ref: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardw...) As such HD prices have jumped up quite high during the spring & summer and just this fall the prices have started to drop back to what they where before the flood. I suspect your seeing the difference in price from that, as well as the cut rate pricing Amazon often has. Think about service here before you buy from anyone. Also note it's the end of the year so many stores maybe trying to push out old inventory.

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In an A1226/A1260 it doesn't matter the transfer speed because the computer's drivers can only handle 1.5Gb/s.

Hope this helps,

John H. Laney

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I just replaced the SSD Toshiba 126GB that came with my new MacBook Pro with a 750 GB 7200 Seagate SATA Hard Drive. I found it relatively slow compared with the SSD. I noticed that when I look at Storage under This Mac, there is only a yellow bar as if the computer was not recognizing the various file types. Could that be the cause of its slow operation and if yes how can it be improved?

Thank you for your assistance,

Richard Jacquot

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Richard - You did go backwards here on performance SSD's are quicker than platter HD's but the cost per meg is much lower with HD's and they also tend to be larger. The issue is balancing out speed Vs size (as well as power & space in the case of laptops).

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As to your Profiler reporting under storage and only seeing a yellow bar. Not sure why you see that. I have no problems with 3rd party HD's in seeing their file breakdown with Lion or Mountain Lion. You may want to re-partition & format the HD also make sure you have set the SATA I/O speed correctly for the drive given the systems age you may need to jumper the drive so it's SATA II compatible. This could also explain overly slow response.

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Dan, Thank you for your quick reply. After considering options, I decided to go back to the SSD. I moved photos and films to an external drive and have now about 40GB free on the laptop. The SSD speed is just amazing and it is key for my work. Now, I need to find an owner for the new 750 GB 7200 Seagate SATA Hard Drive.

Best regards,

Richard

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Easiest way is definitely TarDisk. Just pop this thing into your SD port for 256GB of integrated onboard storage!

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It uses a ExpressCard/34

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This is really only usable on the systems which have a SDXC card slot (newer MacBook Pro retina & MacBook Air systems). Not usable in this series of MacBook Pro's.

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