How big a drive can I shoehorn into my MacBook?

[Knuckledragger]

I have a 13.3" MB404LL/A (early 2008) MacBook. It's got a 2.4GHz C2D, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB drive. I'm ordering a 4GB upgrade for it today from MemoryX. I like that company because they guarantee what they sell will work with the machines they list. I notice that they have a 500GB drive listed on the page for my machine. I asked a friend of mine who is an alpha geek on the subject, and he said he suspected that I could "probably" get a 1TB drive to work with my laptop. Where would I begin to look to find that out and more imporantly what HDD models work well? So far googling has given me mountains of irrelevant and useless info.

I have in the past considered trying to get a SSD to work in this machine, as I tend to lug it all over for DJing purposes. That said, at this point I think I'd go for space over drop-resistance and speed. I know Head-Case has a number of users who are experienced at maxing out the HDDs in older Macs, and I'm hoping you all can help.

[tkam]

Yep any standard 2.5" SATA drive will work just fine - a 1TB drive will work just fine. Same thing with ram really any laptop ddr2 800mhz will work just fine.

[grawk]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%20600030600&IsNodeId=1&name=1TB

Any 2.5" by 12.5mm tall drive should work.

[Dusty Chalk]

I have in the past considered trying to get a SSD to work in this machine, as I tend to lug it all over for DJing purposes. That said, at this point I think I'd go for space over drop-resistance and speed.

Why?

I mean, I know, but just want to make sure you've fully thought this through. I know some of the older Macbooks have firewire, why not just go external for that sort of thing?

Also, there are hybrid drives -- another alternative.

[Knuckledragger]

My original plan was to get an external HDD for storing music, probably a ruggedized LaCie. I decided against that as an external drive is one more thing to lug around and have to plug in.

I've done some research, and it looks like the early 2008 MacBook can only support a 9.5mm high drive, not a 12.5mm one. That eliminates 1TB drives for this endeavor, and brings me to the 750GB class. I spent an hour reading over the reviews on the different models the 'Egg has for sale.

1. Toshiba HDD2K12. Cheap; has a 3 year warranty. 12.5mm tall. Not an option.

2. Hitachi 0J11563. 8MB cache; year warranty; cheap-ish; unknown quality. Hitachi used to be famous for sucking, I am unsure on their current products.

3. Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS. 7200RPM, 16MB cache, "OH SHIT, I'M FALLING!" technology. Sounds good, but apparently it runs hot and sucks powers, and according to at least one reviewer it does not have the free fall protection. Said reviewer might be a moron, as he also says it lacks encryption (which is not an advertised feature.)

4. WD Scorpio Blue WD7500BPVT. Same price as above, but 5400RPM, 8MB cache. Apparently this model does not play nice with newer Macs. It has a troubling tendency to spin down almost immediately, which wreaks havoc with system performance. Pass.

5. WD Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT. Apparently the replacement model for the above. $20 more expensive. 7200RPM, 16MB cache. Sucks power and produces heat, like most 7200 drives. Has overly enthusiastic power management features like the above drive, which can hinder performance. Also, it uses 4K sector size. I have no idea if that presents a problem with Macs or not.

6. WD Scorpio Blue WD7500KPV. 5200RPM(WTF?); 8MB cache. At $160, twice as expensive as the cheaper drives. No reviews. Expensive and lacking in info.

#1 and #6 are out. #4 does not sound good. #2 is unlikely. I need to do a bit more research on running 7200 drives in a MacBook before I choose #3 or #5. I have not had much luck gathering info on the subject. Anyone on here done that?

[manaox2]

I have two hitachi portable 7200 2.5" drives (travelstars). One lasted me daily use for a little over seven years (still works, but was getting noiser, so it was replaced). The other one is still pulling on in my over aged laptop doing great. I won't go seagate after their firmware causing problems for so long and doing fuck all to fix it. WD's green features have been iffy for me too.

Though I would absolutely go for a SSD drive internally and strap a 1TB portable USB powered 2.5" external onto my lappy these days.

[HeadphoneAddict]

If it's not too late I'd like to add that I did have good results with drive #3 (Seagate 2.5" 500Gb 7200 rpm) in my late 2008 unibody 15" Macbook Pro. When my iMac 250Gb drive wasn't big enough I moved the drive to the iMac, and it's still working great after a year.

In it's place I put a 640Gb 5400 Western Digital in the Macbook Pro to let me carry more music and movies with me. The WD drive was much slower than the Seagate 7200 rpm, and I recently switched to a Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb hybrid. The Momentus XT hybrid is really fast, and I still have enough room for a 200Gb iTunes library, although I have my complete 1.1 Tb library on an external drive now. I haven't noticed a big drop in battery life either.

Also, if you are worried about excessive sleep/wake cycles from a laptop drive that goes to sleep too often, you can find the HDAPM software to modify the settings. I can email you a .zip copy of that software and some articles I found discussing it if you PM me.

[profgerto]

Might i suggest a SSD for internal drive? These things will supercharge your Macbook ; make it feel like new ! Just use a external drive (or optibay ) for your music, flac files fill up a drive fast, and external are easier to take with you

[Pars]

As suggested elsewhere, you need to re-read your welcome PM. Digging up an almost year-old thread to post about SSDs, when there is already at least one other thread discussing SSDs and their use in a MBP isn't a good way to start.

Such as this one:

Edited March 19, 2012 by Pars