[shmuckerz]

Hi,
ok so i bought the macbook alum couple of months ago, bought the 2.0GHz version so its only a 160GB harddisk, now i would like to upgrade to a 500gb hdd.

Basically anyone know what HDD is best for upgrade?
I know basically any 2.5" hdd should fit.

However what im worried about is battery life decreasing..
The current hdd is 5400rpm, so if i got a 500gb with 7200rpm, would this have a significant or even a minimal reduction to battery life?

and if anyone has any first hand experience could you please share it?

Thanks alot

[shmuckerz]

anyone...?

[Alibaba_40]

Originally Posted by shmuckerz

Hi,
ok so i bought the macbook alum couple of months ago, bought the 2.0GHz version so its only a 160GB harddisk, now i would like to upgrade to a 500gb hdd.

Basically anyone know what HDD is best for upgrade?
I know basically any 2.5" hdd should fit.

However what im worried about is battery life decreasing..
The current hdd is 5400rpm, so if i got a 500gb with 7200rpm, would this have a significant or even a minimal reduction to battery life?

and if anyone has any first hand experience could you please share it?

Thanks alot

deterioration of battery life is inevitable... However, the decrease might be reduced if u get one with power efficiency...

Basically, nb hdd spinning at 7200rpm has 2 versions. One with energy efficient technology that increases the batt consumption by 0.5 percent and one without such technology. However, so far i couldn't find those with energy efficiency technology off the shelf.

Another thing to note other than the rpm of the hdd, u might also want to know if the sata chipset support 3ghz transfer rate.

if it doesnt, u can still upgrade the hdd. It ll just run at 1.5ghz.

The performance will be marginally better than ur current hdd becos the 500gb hdd comes with a bigger16mb cache and faster rpm.

[port23]

Originally Posted by Alibaba_40

deterioration of battery life is inevitable... However, the decrease might be reduced if u get one with power efficiency...

Basically, nb hdd spinning at 7200rpm has 2 versions. One with energy efficient technology that increases the batt consumption by 0.5 percent and one without such technology. However, so far i couldn't find those with energy efficiency technology off the shelf.

Another thing to note other than the rpm of the hdd, u might also want to know if the sata chipset support 3ghz transfer rate.

if it doesnt, u can still upgrade the hdd. It ll just run at 1.5ghz.

The performance will be marginally better than ur current hdd becos the 500gb hdd comes with a bigger16mb cache and faster rpm.

The new MBs support SATA2 transfer speed.

[addicted]

but looking at the terms n condition, apple said that the upgrade to SATA2 is not really recomended. i dun really understand abt tat line :S

[Alibaba_40]

Originally Posted by port23

The new MBs support SATA2 transfer speed.

what is the chipset used in the new macbook?

[Alibaba_40]

Originally Posted by addicted

but looking at the terms n condition, apple said that the upgrade to SATA2 is not really recomended. i dun really understand abt tat line :S

Well, if the sata chipset is not sata 2, then u ll have to run the hdd at sata 1 transfer speed of 1.5ghz, instead of 3ghz...

However, u can still enjoy better performance becos the new 7200rpm hdd come with 16mb of cache compared to 8mb in the older hdd...

Also, i understand that u might need to change the jumper setting on the hdd to downgrade the transfer speed to 1.5ghz...

In addition, u will void the warranty if u open up the notebook chassis during the warranty period...

But macbook owners should not worry too much becos upgrading of hdd on macbook is a lot easier than macbook pro. If there is a need u just put back the old hdd...

[port23]

Originally Posted by Alibaba_40

what is the chipset used in the new macbook?

No idea but according to Apple – About the MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 and iMac EFI Firmware 1.4 Updates

[shmuckerz]

Originally Posted by Alibaba_40

In addition, u will void the warranty if u open up the notebook chassis during the warranty period...

But macbook owners should not worry too much becos upgrading of hdd on macbook is a lot easier than macbook pro. If there is a need u just put back the old hdd...

mhmm actually i have the alum macbook, before the current model.
which actually has a easy access to the chassis from the bottom, making it very simple to change the HDD.

out of curiosity, for the new SATA2 connection is it just a update? or is it only the new hardware that has it? :S


Thanks for the comments guys

[PeA_NuTz]

Originally Posted by shmuckerz

mhmm actually i have the alum macbook, before the current model.
which actually has a easy access to the chassis from the bottom, making it very simple to change the HDD.

out of curiosity, for the new SATA2 connection is it just a update? or is it only the new hardware that has it? :S


Thanks for the comments guys

If i am not wrong, its a firmware update.
But it screws up 3rd party harddisk

[Alibaba_40]

Originally Posted by shmuckerz

mhmm actually i have the alum macbook, before the current model.
which actually has a easy access to the chassis from the bottom, making it very simple to change the HDD.

out of curiosity, for the new SATA2 connection is it just a update? or is it only the new hardware that has it? :S


Thanks for the comments guys

SATA2 is a new chipset that controls SATA hdd... It allows faster transfer speed than the older SATA chipset.

The patch that was released recently by Apple was to allow the newer macbook pro with the new chipset to run the hdd at 3ghz. Previously, those newer macbook pro with the new SATA 2 chipset was running at 1.5Ghz. For those macbook pro without the new SATA 2 chipset, the patch basically does nothing.

[Alibaba_40]

Originally Posted by port23

No idea but according to Apple – About the MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 and iMac EFI Firmware 1.4 Updates

Go to the top left hand corner, click on the apple icon.
Click on About This Mac menu item.
In the About This Mac window, click on More Info.
Under the Hardware section, find Serial ATA item.
It will show u the speed that ur SATA can support or running.

[vr-gRF]

I use 7200RPM disk, Hitachi I bought at SLS. I installed it first day I got MacBook Pro unibody, so I don't have exact figures to compare with 5400RMP drive.

But, I'd say, the new drive shaves off some 30-60 minutes of battery usage. Never been able to get more then 4hrs with 7200RPM drive. And the difference in speed compared to 5400RMP drive is not much...

I guess SSD is really the way to go.