Upgrading HDD in Macbook

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bobsaget

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I would like to replace the 60GB HDD in my Macbook with a 120GB drive. I'm wondering which hard drive you recommend off of newegg? I didn't see 7200rpm drives in my searches on newegg. Would a 7200rpm drive cut down on my battery life? And would the added heat be a problem at all?


Thanks.
 
Newegg doesn't even have any 120GB 2.5" SATA drives listed.

This Newegg search will give you a list of all the HDs they sell that should work in the MacBook.
 
I got mine at OWC, biggest I could find at the time. I heard there's a 160 GB out now. Speeds might be stuck at 5400 rpm.
 
1. voids the warrenty
2. it cuts down on the battery life because of longer search phases and also the faster drive needs more energy to spin
 
Personally, i wouldnt recommend upgrading the hard drive thats in there for the reasons Biest stated, instead i would do one of two things:
get a portable external hard drive
or
build a nice file server on the cheap (nothing like a raid 5 file server :) )
 
The warranty is only voided if you break something in the process, otherwise they would not have made it a user serviceable part. Same thing goes for the RAM. In fact I think the HD upgrade was easier to do than the RAM upgrade was, aside from backing up data.

Back when I had my Titanium Powerbook I read numerous reports of faster drives that gave better battery life because they were newer and more efficient. The MacBooks are still very new so this is probably not the case now but I bet things will get there in the future.
 
Be sure to keep your old hardware because I believe the warranty will only be honored with the original apple hardware installed. If you put the old parts in and still have problems they wont be able to blame the after market parts.
 
if you really wanna do it here at the apple instructions

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY.pdf

Before buying the HDD please visit a Genius Bar in a Apple Store (it is for free) and ask regarding what HDD they recommend, they are the experts. And not some random kid they employ to do like some others stores.

edit:

you would have to go to the store anyway to get your copy of iLife, if that CD didn't come with the mac (it usually just comes with a proof-of-purchase)
 
If you want to save yourself a drive you can also ask around at the MacBook specific forum on the Apple site. There's a bunch of knowledgeable people there.

Also iLife is bundled on your MacBook's OS X install DVD
 
bobsaget said:
Would a 7200rpm drive cut down on my battery life? And would the added heat be a problem at all?
Click to expand...

My refurbed Powerbook came with a 100GB Travelstar 7K100. I can't really comment about battery life versus a 5200 RPM drive, but heat has never been a problem.
 
The battery life argument can usually be squashed.
Faster spinning uses more battery, but it also loads faster so there is less thrashing and reading. Every laptop I've used sees less than 5 minute difference with faster HDD.
 
Ok this thread is goofy (some of the replies). First changing the harddrive, and ram does not void the warranty. But apple will only work on the harddrive and ram that you originally bought and ignore the parts you added later. Two, you should definitely get the 7200rpm harddrive because the loss of battery life is negligible. Not even worth chatting about. Third, the hardrive is pathetically easy to swipe out and believe me that apple did this intentionally.
 
Apple considers the HDD a user replacable part and will NOT void your warenty. 2nd.
If you want a 7200RPM HDD for your macbook. this seems to be the only one people are using of that speed. I hear rumors of other brands being to fat. This says right on it that it will work with the macbook, also many people on the Apple Help boards have recomended it to me.
 
By the way, a little light to shed on battery life. it takes more power to spin a disk in the optical drive than it does to power the HDD.. I wouldn't worry about it too much ;)
 
StickClicks5 said:
By the way, a little light to shed on battery life. it takes more power to spin a disk in the optical drive than it does to power the HDD.. I wouldn't worry about it too much ;)
Click to expand...

Aint that the truth. thats why i would rather run my movies off my harddrive when i travel rather than through the dvd rom.
 
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