Can anybody point me to the best/quietest/largest capacity single platter 2.5" hard drive? Are any of the 500GB 2.5" drives single platter? My son's MacBook has a 160GB that is close to full, and we need to upgrade it to something larger.

Thanks in advance.

No way they are at 500gb/platter yet. The 500gb and higher capacity 2.5" drives are mostly 2-platter; I think the 1tb ones are probably 3-platter, which is which they are thicker than normal and only available as external usb drives.

Among the samples we've tested, the Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B 500GB edges some others... but I'd guess this is at least partly a sample variation thing. You'll probably be reasonably OK with most 5400rpm drives.

Okay Mike -- thanks for that! I didn't realize that they had 3 platter 2.5" drives...

So, the question becomes: is it worth looking for a 7200RPM or more than 8MB of cache? NewEgg has 500GB 5400RPM Western Digital Scorpio Blue for ~$65 -- is it reasonably quiet and cool running?

They're all fairly close these days, I think vibration is the biggest variable, probably as much from sample to sample as model to model.

Just a quick note - there are 1Tb / 5200RPM drives sold separately. The one from WD is WD10TPVT (and WD10TEVT, which I think they phased out before really selling it in any large quantities).

Few laptops will fit the 12.5mm WD10TPVT but it is a contender for desktop use, if overshadowed by the 3.5" Green models for value-for-money.

The largest 2-platter drives are 750 GB, which means a 320 GB drive today 'should' be single platter.

Does that mean there's now really not much to choose between the 2.5" drives? The spec/performance/reliability are pretty similar...?

Hitachi announced a 500 GB/platter drive for quiet some time. It's on their website with datasheet and everything but I haven't found it in retail yet.
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... 500_ds.pdf

most macs can house 12.5mm drives, i have one in my macbook pro @ 1TB.

most 2.5" drives don't produce a lot of vibration, in particular the slower spinning drives, though you lose a bit of performance.

Does anyone have a list of single platter 320GB 2.5" drives? Or even better a site with a list of all the common models and platter count? WD has some decent spec info on their site, but it doesnt mention platter count or density.

Unfortunately that database isn't up to date. It's definitely a good source but there are many newer drives that haven't been added to it.

The only 500 GB single platter drive I was able to find recently was the 500 GB Hitachi. I wasn't able to find it available anywhere so I ordered a 320 GB from Newegg. It is in transit and I should get it sometime next week - hopefully I will remember to come back here and post my impressions.

Hi, I have a WD Scorpio Black 7200rpm drive in my laptop and while it is nice and fast it's not that quiet. Audible whoosh from the spinning platters. The 5400rpm Scorpio Blue's are much quieter.
Regards, Seb

I tried a 500 GB WD Blue (BEVT) drive in my MacBook Pro and did not keep it there it because of too much "whoosh". I hope the Hitachi will be as quiet as a stock drive (which I can't really hear).

Well I got the 320 GB single platter Hitachi drive and while it is inaudible at idle it has a fairly pronounced seek sound that I can't stand. So it is most likely going back to Newegg and I'll be getting something else.