WD5000BEVT, SG7200.4 or WD3200BJKT for Macbook Unibody

Earlier than expected, the time has come to upgrade the hard drive of my recently bought Macbook unibody. Like most of you know, it traditionally comes with a Toshiba hard disk of 160GB 5400 RPM. I didn't buy an upgrade from Apple as I deem their prices to be fairly high, nor didn't they offer the hard drive I wanted.

Having done quite some research, I have selected the following three hard drives:

WD5000BVET (Scorpio Blue) - 500GB, 5400RPM, 8mb cache - EUR 94
WD3200BJKT (Scorpio Black) - 320GB, 7200.3RPM, 16mb cache - EUR 82
Seagate 7200.4 - 320GB, 7200.4RPM, 16mb cache - EUR 130

There are currently so many threads and such an overload of information that I really don't know what would be the best choice... I should say that the Seagate disk is very hard to obtain as most stores don't have it in stock yet in the Netherlands.

What I deem to be important (from most to least):
1.Speed
2.Heat/noise
3.Consumption
4.Space
5.Price

Would appreciate some advice!

 

Seagate 7200.4 is the fastest in synthetic benchmarks but WD 320GB Scorpio Black is still the fastest hard drive when it comes to real life performance.

For most people it is quiet enough as well.

WD3200BJKT is the version with Free fall sensor, I do NOT recommend it as your Macbook already has a sensor on board. Get WD3200BEKT instead.

 

How does one measure that?

I have the 7200.4. Mine runs very cool and quiet, if you want to spend the money. Most everyday tasks don't use a ton of throughput. That's not a huge issue, but the better seek times on a 7200RPM drive will make things a bit snappier.

 

Scorpio blue 500GB is probably the best bang for the buck. It has slightly less performance the scorpio black and seagate 7200.4. The difference is only few MB/s in throughput. The highier areal density per platter on the 500gb HDD allows it to compete against 7200RPM ones. The access time is slightly higher than the 7200RPm drives, but under nomral condition, you wont even notice it.

 

Tru, but in multi tasking situations the difference becomes more noticeable. (in favor of WD3200bekt).

 

Could you describe the significance of the difference? Is it significantly noticeable or is it only minor?

 

Laptopmag does an excellent job of clarifying:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=6
(several pages)

(Although WD5000BEVT will be a little bit faster than WD3200BEVT.)

 

I have.... Had the WD5000BEVT it just died D:

 

Ive just ordered the Scorpio black disk. Thanks for the heads up.

 

What did you do to break it or is it DOA?

 

I'm sorry for quite possibly hijacking this thread... but not really because it's about the 500gig WD... is it reliable and fast (for a 5400rpm)? Thanks.

 

Yes..all of the hdds you can buy today are reliable. They're designed to have a useful life of 3-5 years.

 

Yes it's fast too. Close to WD3200bekt performance.

 

I didn't do anything. It just broke. It had to many bad sectors.

 

I think it was a manufacturer's default. I would go either with a wd500 but that's only my personal opinion.

 

are there any review website that compares the 3 models? i have heard people saying WD has clicking issues?

 

All drives have clicking issues. It's the nature of hdds. The clicking noise is resulted from the hdd head seeking data or parking the head. Some drives's click noise is louder than others and the amount of clicking noise can be adjusted through AAM.

 

I4U compares the 7200.4 and Hitachi 5K500b. Surprisingly the 5400rpm Hitachi was faster in a 5GB file copy test.
http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-529.html

 

i have the hitachi 5k500.b, its not only fast, very very quiet and does not produce much heat.

 

That's nice to know, as I'm in the hunt for a drive as it is! I'm looking at the WD 320GB 7200 Black, or the bigger 500GB Blue 5400. And I might just look into one of these! Thank you n20nine!

 

colton, i was in the same boat as you, looking at a 7200rpm drive. considered the wd black series, hitachi 7k320 drive and also bigger 500gb drives of the 5k500.b and wd blue series. unfortunately in australia they are a bit more expensive (for me at least) so i decided to settle for the 320gb 5k500.b drive.

they are fantastic! my alubook came originally with a hitachi drive and i was impressed on how quiet they were. I have used various laptops that had different hdds - seagate, wd and toshiba.

i hate hard disks that are noisy and vibrates a lot, not to mention those which get hot.

the hitachi 5k500.b is extremely quiet and is really cool, no increase in heat that i notice. its cheap too. i consulted k-tron, he's pretty good in explaining why the 5k500.b can outperform the 7200rpm drives. all in all, just get the 5k500.b, you will love it.

 

He won't say that though. Wd3200BEKT is still a bit faster than the 500Gb 5400rpm drives, especially when it comes to heavy multitasking.

 

So it's a case if deciding whether to accept slightly less than best performance in order to have a cool and quiet HDD. One notices the head and noise all the time when the computer is running. The performance is only relevant during certain operations.

John

 

True.

On a sidenote, some people have said that the WD3200BEKT is quieter than WD5000BEVT.

So the choice should probably be between 5K500.b and WD3200BEKT.

 

I'm probably going to go down the route with the 5K500.B, simply because I need more space but I am very content with the performance with my Hitachi 250GB drive in my Macbook. I like a quite drive, so this floats my boat. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

I'll be getting a WD1600BEKT tomorrow. I'll benchmark it against a 160GB Hitachi 5400rpm, comparable to your Hitachi 250GB.

The Alu Macbooks are quite prone to vibration by the way, it may be a safer bet to stick with 5400rpm.

 

My 250gb 5400rpm is dead silent. Except when i place my ears in the metal palm rest.

 

Just popped in the Scorpio Black 320GB 7200rpm on my Unibody Macbook. First thing I noticed is vibration on the palm rest, which from what I've been told, is normal. Its fast. Loading times and application launches are noticeably faster. But, I don't know if I like the vibration. I may switch it for a 500GB 5400rpm hard drive. Dont know what to do yet.

 

Be sure to post your feedback when you get the 500gb 5.4k rpm drive

 

I've got the 400GB version (see sig) of the WD5000bevt, which is the exact same 2 platter drive as the WD5000 series with 100GB disabled, installed 2 weeks now.

I've noticed no issues with either increased noise or vibration in the palmrest, which is gratifying after the early reports of the WD 500 models having these issues in some MB/MBPs. Speed seems snappier than the 250GB stock Toshiba it replaced, but I've not done any benches on it - too busy.

 

I'll keep that in mind! Thanks for your feedback Phil, as I always need some suggestions. Right now, I'm leaning toward a 5400RPM, because I can't justify getting a bit faster drive for less storage. (With the exception of the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drive.)

Yep, mines the same drive, and it's absolutely silent. That's the one thing I love about it.

I think she is the one...

 

IT seems like on newegg the 500WD drive seems to fail after some use.

 

I popped in the WD1600BEKT in a netbook (Samsung NC10). It caused some vibration but some pieces of cloth took care of that. I posted some benchmarks here.

I could understand if the 320GB (two platter) version makes the MB vibrate. Although some rubber and cloth should take care of that.