Which HDD upgrade for MacBook?

More popular than ever, but some are still very noisy.

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fallenguru
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:50 am

Which HDD upgrade for MacBook?

Post by fallenguru » Sat Jul 07, 2007 5:17 am

Hi all!

I'll be getting a MacBook in a few days and I expect I'll be wanting to upgrade its hd immediately.
Priorities are, in that order:
- power draw (even more important than noise, since I'll almost exclusively be working on battery and anyway less power -> less heat -> less fan noise)
- noise, especially idle noise (somehow seeking doesn't bother me, a constant background whirr / whine does.)
Other requirements: 2.5" SATA, max 9.5cm height, 5400rpm, single platter, >=80GB, <= EUR 100, decent warranty is a bonus

That narrows it down to the following:
- Seagate Momentus 5400.3 [EUR 53]
- IBM Travelstar 5K160 [EUR 53] (they list a 120GB/platter 5K250 as well, but it doesn't seem to be out yet)
- Samsung SpinPoint M[H]80 [EUR 51 / 70] (no clue if the hybrid version does anything at all when not used with Vista)

Any comments? All reviews I've found either just cite specs or test the ATA version and / or the highest capacity (multi-platter) version and are basically worthless. The effect of vibration is particularly hard to gauge, since I don't know how sensitive the MacBook is in that regard. Does it even make senso to upgrade at all?

TIA,

Fallen Guru

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