7200 2.5 500gb drives - anyone got stock?

[chiark]

I'm looking to replace the drive in my new (to me ) Macbook Pro late 2007 build from the 160GB 5400 to a spiffy new 7200 500GB drive.

The seagate seems to be favourite - I've had good experience with their drives, and the warranty's good even if they are dropping it down to 3 years (boo). It also seems to be first to market in the 500gb size. I know I could get a WD or Seagate 7200 RPM 320GB drive easily, but I'm after the 500GB capacity too... Naturally, I want one without the freefall sensor as I believe the macbook has this built in which conflicts with anything built into the drive itself.

Question is: anyone know anywhere with the Momentus 7200.4 500GB drive is in stock? Part number ST9500420AS, more details here

Any links to people with stock appreciated, or comments on the drive's suitability if I'm about to do something daft.

[mightymouse]

didnt know they are out already, i had a hard enough time tracking down 7200.3 320gb so good luck

i did a search with google products and most are out of stock too

[chiark]

I *think* they're due any time now, but I suspect you're right: I've not yet seen anyone who has posted anywhere about installing one..

[mightymouse]

just to let you know that i finally managed to get my hand on a 7200.3 320GB and its an amazing upgrade, definitely worth it!

[shiato storm]

i put a 320 7200 scorpio hdd in my mid-08 mbp and its easily one of the best things you can do for a machine like this (aside from the ram upgrade which it already has)...
quiet and lots of storage space. ideal

[chiark]

Cool, thanks for the confirmation that this is the right thing to do (waiting for the 7200 in particular).

Just need to find one in stock now. I believe a few people have them coming in next week, which would be great.

[chiark]

And still no stock anywhere. Dagnabit! I might end up with a proven 320 I guess...

[xmadvicx]

Newegg.com just got these seagate 500 7200 in stock for $139! Does anyone know if other brands will be releasing soon? Anyone ordered yet with feedback?

[chiark]

You've probably seen the threads on forum.notebookreview.com, but it's worth checking there for feedback. So far no conclusive tests, unfortunately... I expect lots this week as they're falling into people's hands.

No word yet on UK availability date, unfortunately.

[mightymouse]

so far from what i have read the other brands arent so reliable. it seems that seagate momentus is the best for MB upgrades

[reserves]

Naturally, I want one without the freefall sensor as I believe the macbook has this built in which conflicts with anything built into the drive itself.

Are you 100% on this? Where did you get this info from?

I'm about to order one of these but went for the ST9500420ASG option (with G force built in)

Edit: I've read around and it seems you're right under OSX (even though it appears you can disable the sudden motion sensor for this purpose).

However I run BootCamp, does anyone know if the Sudden Motion Sensor does the same job with the hard drive under Windows? Otherwise I should buy the g-force one and disable the SMS when I get into OSX.

[chiark]

Hi Reserves, check google for kernel panic freefall sensor and you'll find lots of references to it. Also bear in mind that it doesn't guarantee to save the heads, but it will try to move them out the way so that the platters aren't damaged: if you need to recover the data after a particularly nasty fall, you'd need to get the disk to a data recovery centre.

At least that's now my understanding after wading through pages on forums.notebookreview.com

I gave up waiting, and have just received a shiny new WD 500GB 5400RPM drive. Battery life is more important than absolute performance anyhow to me, so this seemed like the right thing to do.

[mightymouse]

ohhh you gave into the battery devil, too bad the new battery they put into the 17" is not available for the 15". otherwise it will be great to test it out and see if the 7200 really make that much of a difference.

anyway good luck

[chiark]

Thanks

Fitting was fine, however the WD drive seems to have issues with the aggressive power management of OSX... So I've ended up with a workaround to set the drive not to time out at all. Defeating the point of having a low power drive!

Might look at the seagate when it's available in numbers, but no-one in the UK has stock still.

[mightymouse]

yes, i only managed to find one in germany (currently living there every couple of weeks) but it cost an arm and a leg so not worth it yet. i am however a bit surprise that you select WD instead of a seagate or samsung. i remember reading that seagates and samsungs tend to be better laptop hard drives for macbooks but what is done is done

[chiark]

I've been "Seagate" for years (oldest drive is a seagate ST-225 20MB MFM drive that is working perfectly), until the recent drop from 5 to 3 year warranty and the daftness over the 1TB firmware...

...and unavailability of the 500GB 2.5 7200 disk!

WD came highly recommended by tom's hardware so I went for that. With hindsight, I should have gone for the seagate: I might change when the 7200 drives are available and use the WD in a box for a simple backup.