Good hard drive for Macbook Pro 13

Hi guys, I bought a Samsung SpinPoint 320GB 7200rpm HDD and put it in my Macbook. Its very fast, but it vibrates a bit too much. I was wondering what is the fastest 5400rpm hard drive thats still quite? I know some of you have upgraded your HDD's

 

I'm using a 5400Rpm 500GB Samsung SpinPoint, doesn't seem to vibrate for me on my MBP 13, take it back and get a replacement

 

Cool! I was looking at getting the 320GB 5400rpm Samsung SpinPoint. Thanks for confirming it doesn't vibrate(vs. stock).

 

The best quiet drive is the Seagate Momentus 500/7200

I'm using one right now in my 13" 2009 Pro and I can't even tell I changed the drive. No noise, no vibration, and more capacity that the Samsung 320.

I think you can even get them at Best Buy for like $85.

 

Why would you buy a 5400RPM drive? You're getting no better than stock performance (and per my previous post) not all 7200RPM drives vibrate and make noise.

 

Oh, but you can do better than stock Apple HDD with the newer aftermarket 5400 drives.

The current Toshiba 65GSX and M7E Spinpoint drives are based on 320GB platter designs, with sequential max read at 90MB/s. This puts them all within striking distance of the 7200.4 Seagate drives, as reviewed by Tom's Hardware, and the M7E series (I've got several) is quiet as hell compared to WD and Seagate 5400.6 drives in my other systems.

 

I would also go for a Seagate Momentus. Very quiet, and also run cooler.

If you can push the boat out - an SSD

 

Yeah, I third all this. The Seagate Momentus XT at 500GB probably makes the most sense for a single drive bay system. At worst you get the fastest mechanical drive around, and at best you get closer to high end SSD performance than mechanical drive performance, all with a low price and pretty reasonable space.

SSDs are too small right now IMO, and anyway OS X STILL doesn't support TRIM, so I'm not sure getting an SSD makes sense with OS X anyway (the Air aside where it's using a controller and firmware that doesn't seem to degrade too badly under normal usage).

 

Although OS X still doesn't support trim, remember that newer SSDs with the SandForce controller TRIM on-the-fly. Although these drives are a little more expensive they do not need the software to support TRIM. They handle it all themselves when the drive is idle.
Drives such as the OCZ Vertex 2, or the Mercury Extreme, have the SandForce controller, and reviews are all pretty positive. I have a vertex 2 myself, which I've used pretty extensively and it's as fast as the day I put it into my system.

Prices are high though, and space constraints are there with the smaller drives. Whether you want it in a single bay system is up to you to decide. But a SSD should only really be used to run your OS and applications.
I have a 240GB drive which is plenty for me, as I only use it for my OS and apps, while all my data is stored on my network drives, and all my video on my FireWire drives.
Remember you could always install an optibay with a larger HDD if you don't use your DVD drive.......

 

SSDs that are good without TRIM are basically the SF 1200 series (mushkin is the cheapest one, and is pretty good) and the Kingston that uses the indilix controller (if Im not mistaken)

BTW the kingston controller is the one used in the MBA 11'' and the 13''

those can maintain good performance even without TRIM

 

They might continue running okay without TRIM (I don't know), but you still need TRIM support to retain max performance. TRIM on the fly is what you get when the OS supports it, which OS X doesn't.

That's idle garbage collection, and it's not the same thing-most all SSDs have some form of that, but it's never as good as having TRIM.