Upgraded Hard Drive Question

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone can give me some feedback into my observations of the change in performance of my MacBook since I have upgraded the hard drive from the stock 60Gb 5200rpm to a Seagate 100Gb 7200rpm drive.
The MacBook is the 2Ghz Core Duo with 2Gb RAM bought last May. Before the upgrade the MacBook was near silent when using it lightly such as web surfing, word processing etc. The fan ran way less than 1500rpm.
Since upgrading however, the fan runs constantly between 1500rpm and 2000rpm. I must add that this really isn't a problem, the MacBook is still relatively quiet and certainly does not spoil user experience.
The other thing I have noticed is, and is more concerning, the MacBook does not perform well in terms of battery usage. I have 175 charge cycles-about 73% capacity and the battery rarely lasts longer than 2hours. It did last around 3 hours with slightly more capacity-75%.
Is the fan running at well above 1500rpm OK whilst using the machine 'lightly'? or might this be of concern?
Is the battery performance crippled when using the 7200rpm drive? or is the poor performance due to the battery capacity dipping below 75%?
I do realise that I can increase battery performance very slightly by 'conditioning' the battery and by simply not having the display so bright.
I ask these questions because I selected the Seagate drive due to good performance reports here on the discussion site and the favourable performance tests carried out by 'wiredbynature.org-macbook resource site' that concluded that the Seagate drive increased speed performance but only slightly increased heat, noise levels and battery life.
This is not my experience, especially battery consumption-has anyone got any comments on my observations?
Regards,
Richard

I've heard (but can't find it right now) that your 7200 drive will use about 25% more power than a 5400. Also the faster drive will be noiser, generating more heat and therefore increasing your fan speed (which again zaps the power). So putting these all together I think things are what you could expect with your drive.
I know that's no consolation, but most people look right away at the performance aspect ..."how much faster can I get my DVD ripped?" - rather than "how long can I watch my 3hr movie while disconnected from power".

Similar Messages

  • Upgrading hard drive question

    i was going to upgrade the hard drive in a friend's older macbook 4,1. the drive it came with is this:
    fujitsu mhy2250bh
    http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-hard-drives/fujitsu-mobile-mhy2250bh-hard/4505- 9998_7-32595467.html
    i was looking to upgrade it to this:
    Samsung’s Spinpoint M8
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291
    i've done plenty of drive upgrades on my mac pro but never on a macbook. is there anything i need to be aware of, like, it needs special apple firmware or it won't work, things like that. or can i use off-the-shelf drives like i can in the mac pro?
    and, second, the macbook is running 10.5. what's the max memory it can use? thought i'd look at upping that while i was at it. it currently has 4gb.
    thanks very much,
    BabaG

    I'm not totally sure...I think you can pretty much use whatever, but from what I've heard people have been saying to stay away from Western Digital, especially the blue ones.  I usually just get mine from a local shop around here that deals only with Mac's so I know what I get from them is going to work.  They do the labor for free so if I need purchase one from them (which I have many times) they put it in for me for free.  I haven't really asked them if there is certain ones, but the ones they give me have always been the Hybrid drives which are part SSD and HDD so it makes the computer much faster.  I'm going to be getting one for this MacBook soon, I'm starting to run out of space on this drive as well.

  • Pavillion DV8-1250ea: Upgrading Hard Drive and RAM

    Hi,
    I want to upgrade the hard drive and RAM on my Pavillion DV8-1250ea.
    I want to know what spec/type of Hard drive and RAM i need to buy.
    For the hard drives i'm looking at either:
    Seagate 750GB Momentus 7200RPM SATA-300 16MB 2.5"
    Western Digital 750GB Scorpio Black 2.5" SATA-300 7200RPM 16MB
    Are these compatible?
    I would prefer if i could get 1tb but can't find one with 7200RMB. Any recommendations?
    For RAM i'm a little more lost. What spec do i need to look for? I believe 8GB is the max my laptop can handle, is this right?
    Thanks

    Hi:
    I can't help you with the hard drive questions but here is the link to the specs for your notebook:
    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02433096&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en...=
    I can take up to 8 GB of DDR3 memory.  You MUST be running a 64 bit operating system to benefit from 8 GB of memory.
    You will need memory with this specification if you want 8 GB:
    Module Size: 8GB Kit (4GBx2)
    Package: 204-pin SODIMM
    Feature: DDR3 PC3-10600
    Specs: DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 •
    I recommend getting Crucial brand memory.
    The cheapest place I know of to buy this if you live in the USA or Canada is here:
    The link shows they are currently out of stock at the moment however.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148345
    Paul

  • Upgrading hard drive... need help on how to prepare current CS6 for reinstall on new hard drive

    I'm about to upgrade my hard drive to a larger one and will need to reinstall my CS6 Web/Design Suite... I've seen many people having issues with activation and licensing after they reformat their computers or buy a new one and try to install the programs on the new "system". How should I go about preparing my Adobe software on the current hard drive so I won't have any issues resintalling on the new hard drive? I will be installing CS6 Student/Teacher version on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit...
    Thanks for the help!

    Thanks!
    I wondered if that was all I needed, but when I built my new system and installed PS CS4 I kept getting errors. So, I went back to the old system and deactivated it and still got errors. Uninstalled it deactivated and still got errors on the new system. When I talked to Adobe they just kept telling me the key was invalid (even though I had been running that same program and key for the last 4 years without problems lol) and it was not a burnt copy or pirated. I had the orginal box with the original DVD case and serial number on the case... A friend of mine had upgraded their rig and went to a Suite so he gave me his CS4. But, needless to say (as it is said all over these forums apparently) Adobe was of no help at all so I had to buy a new version. I'm not looking to go through all of that BS again, haha.
    So as long as I deactivate the Suite (or do I need to deactivate each program separately?) I should be able to reformat (or upgrade hard drives) and reinstall CS6 as many times as I want? (I usually do a reformat like once a year to keep my computers clean and free of junk that may have been downloaded by other household members...)

  • Illustrator Cs5 will not open.  Recently upgraded hard Drive and upgraded to Maverick OS 10.9.3.  Where should I start troubleshooting?

    Illustrator Cs5 will not open.  Recently upgraded hard drive and upgraded to Maverick OS 10.9.3.  Where should I start troubleshooting?

    gj,
    Unless it has worked since the upgrading, I believe you should uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool, and reinstall.
    Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6

  • What is the best upgrade hard drive for a A1342?

    What is the best upgrade hard drive for an A1342 (white macbook)?

    Absolutely. I put a Samsung 840 in my early 2009 white macbook and it is the best computer upgrade I've ever done. I've also put an OWC SSD in my late 2009 iMac and highly recommend their drives. http://eshop.macsales.com

  • K8T Master 2 FAR; Hard Drive Questions About

    Greetings!
    I just got off the Google bus and stubbed my toe on your doorstep.  What luck!
    I have many questions, and it's getting harder to find answers for a mainboard that's not being sold "new" anymore.  I did see some other topics that go along lines similar to my own, but I figured it would be a good idea to open a new thread with my specific questions.
    I have decided to split my questions into three parts.  This is part one, "hard drive" questions.
    HARD DRIVE RELATED:
    Western Digital recently announced a new high-capacity SATA Raptor drive, with 150 GB of storage: 
    1)  Can I mount two of them into my K8T Master 2 FAR system and "hardware stripe" them for Windows/XP?
    ....1A)  If yes, is there a minimum recommended BIOS that I should be running?
    ....1B)  If no, then would it be feasibile to "software stripe" them in Windows/XP Pro?
    If I decide to proceed, I will be well-prepared to accept the risk of data loss that would occur if one drive were to crash.
    I currently run my system with a removable SATA drive caddy for my system drive.  This makes it easy to swap OS's by swapping hard drives without opening my CPU case.  If I go with a dual-striped SATA drive arrangement and two Raptors, then I'll replace that removable caddy with a unit that can accomodate two SATA drives. 
    ....1C)  Once in a blue moon, I get a BSOD after having swapped SATA drives.  It happens when I first boot Windows/XP after having run Linux.  Hot-swappable claims notwithstanding, I always swap drives while the system is powered down, although I don't typically shut off the hardware switch at the power power supply.  Are there any known issues or reports of other people having similar occurrences? 
    I also run some IDE devices for data and archival purposes.  My system is typically set up as follows:
    CH 0/0 - Data drive
    CH 0/1 - DVD burner
    CH 1/0 - Data drive
    CH 1/1 - Data drive
    Recently, my system stopped "seeing" any hard drives on CH 1 drive 1.  Known good drives won't show up in the BIOS, and auto-detect doesn't "see" a drive in that position.  I have tried more than one drive, and the problem stays on that channel and position.  I swapped cables with a known good cable, and the problem stays on that channel and position.  For the time being, I have disconnected one of the data drives...but I'd really like to resolve this issue if possible.
    ....1D)  Are there any known problems or issues with "disappearing IDE devices" in the K8T Master 2 FAR?
    Thanks in advance!

    Can't say, this is the first time I hear about SATA caddies....
    Maybe a bad contact or so?
    Sata is pretty sensitive to connection problems, or even folded cables for that matter...

  • I have a 2008 Mac Book Pro partitioned running windows and are running out of drive space. Can I upgrade hard drive for more capacity?

    I have a 2008 Mac Book Pro partitioned running windows and are running out of drive space. Can I upgrade hard drive for more capacity? I purchased a faster drive initially, but has 200 GB capacity. I am running out of room and would like to upgrade for more space if possible.
    Can anyone suggest an alternative?

    You don't need to partition your drive to run Fusion, only if you want to run Bootcamp.
    If you have space on your Windows partition, I would suggest you backup your Windows partition, and then, delete the partition using Disk Utility.
    You can now restore your virtual machine to a single volume or repartition if you prefer.
    I would consider upgrading to a unibody MBP (used, refurbished will do) just to be able to access the HD. Opening the pre-unibody MBP is not something you would want to do.

  • Question on upgrading hard drive

    Hello,
    So i'm going to upgrade my hard drive on my 13" white macbook that is about 2-3 years old. Would you recommend getting a 500 GB at 7400 RPM or getting a 500 GB at 5400 RPM?
    I would like to go the biggest and fastest but I'm concerned about it running too hot, too loud, and using up a lot of the battery life.
    Thanks.

    m more interested in knowing if it will void my warranty?
    Replacing the drive will not void the system warranty, though if you cause any damage to the system while replacing the drive, or the drive itself causes damage, that would not then be covered by the warranty. And of course Apple will not warrant the aftermarket drive, and may insist that the original drive be reinstalled before any warranty service would be performed.
    I also have AppleCare since I bought my MacBook through the Education Store, would changing the drive cause any problems if ever I needed to use my AppleCare?
    The same caveats and conditions apply during the AppleCare extended coverage as for the original warranty.
    Regards.

  • Internal vs External hard drive question???

    I have a very basic question about OSX and its treatment of drives...
    If I have an external drive (either firewire or SATA using an Express34 card) and I select it, at boot time, as the boot drive, does OSX really treat this drive as if it were the internal drive or is there some underlying difference?
    Is there a difference between an external firewire and an external SATA drive (other than the I/O speed)?
    What I'm getting at is this. I want the ability, using the 'opt+cmd' (or whatever the key seq is) option, at boot time, to select either the internal drive or an external drive to be "THE" drive, as far as OSX is concerned.
    Asuming that both drives have at least a bootable OSX partition, I'd like for the external drive to have OSX AND maybe another partition for maybe Windows or Linux.
    At boot time if I select the external drive as the boot drive will it act like the internal drive and allow me to install a BootCamp partition? Can I manuly repartition it (while its a secondary drive usng iPartition perhaps)? Can I install a boot loader that will allow me to select an OS after initially selecting the external drive with the 'opt+cmd' option?
    I'm looking for the ability to basicaly select different drives as the "internal" drive, much like you would using the jumper and/or cable selects in a Mac Pro or even a PC based system.
    Is this even possible? id it is, is it possible with firewire or express34 card driven SATA drives?
    Sorry if this is confusing, I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what i want to do...
    Thanks in dvance,
    Peter

    Yes. One cool thing to do is create a bootable backup on an external drive, and use it for OS/upgrade testing - think Leopard. To me this is one huge advantage over Windows systems. You can back up the hard drive and prove it works. Also allows for faster recovery of not only data, but installed applications and settings. I always create a fresh backup to my external FW drive before going on trips.
    MacBook Pro 17" 2.16GHz / 2GB / 120GB   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

  • After upgrading hard drive on MacBook Pro, Premiere will no longer open

    I just upgraded the internal hard drive on my MacBook Pro (mid-2010, unibody), OS 10.8.2, with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 M Graphics card.
    I've been running Premiere Pro CS5, and then CS6, on the machine without any problems until I upgraded the hard drive (to a new Seagate Momentus XT SSHD 750GB).
    Now, when I load Premiere Pro, I get the following error message: "Adobe Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules. Please update your video display drivers and start again."
    I've tried everything I can think of, including resetting preferences, and what they suggest here: http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/error---preludevideo-play-modules.html (I installed the latest CUDA driver, and my GPU driver is up to date; I am already set up as Admin on my computer).
    Another thing I did was go into Terminal and ran GPUSniffer. That was what worried me - it seemed to suggest that the card is not functioning, but I don't know if that means it's not functioning at all or not functioning in ways that Premiere can work with. Any advice? I'm tempted to open it back up and re-install the original hard drive, except that new one is making most other things noticably faster. Booting, opening and closing apps, etc.
    Here's the message I got when I ran GPUSniffer:
    --- OpenGL Info ---
    2012-12-15 16:03:27.492 GPUSniffer[1310:707] invalid drawable
    Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M OpenGL Engine
    OpenGL Version: 2.1 NVIDIA-8.0.61
    GLSL Version: 1.20
    Monitors: 1
    Monitor 0 properties -
       Size: (0, 0, 1440, 900)
       Max texture size: 8192
       Supports non-power of two: 1
       Shaders 444: 1
       Shaders 422: 1
       Shaders 420: 1
    --- GPU Computation Info ---
    Found 2 devices supporting GPU computation.
    CUDA Device 0 -
    Caught structured exception!Full test failed, trying 444 shaders only
    --- OpenGL Info ---
    2012-12-15 16:03:27.522 GPUSniffer[1310:707] invalid drawable
    Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M OpenGL Engine
    OpenGL Version: 2.1 NVIDIA-8.0.61
    GLSL Version: 1.20
    Monitors: 1
    Monitor 0 properties -
       Size: (0, 0, 1440, 900)
       Max texture size: 8192
       Supports non-power of two: 1
       Shaders 444: 1
       Shaders 422: 0
       Shaders 420: 0
    --- GPU Computation Info ---
    Found 2 devices supporting GPU computation.
    CUDA Device 0 -
    Caught structured exception!Minimal test failed, trying CPU only
    --- OpenGL Info ---
    2012-12-15 16:03:27.547 GPUSniffer[1310:707] invalid drawable
    Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M OpenGL Engine
    OpenGL Version: 2.1 NVIDIA-8.0.61
    GLSL Version: 1.20
    Monitors: 1
    Monitor 0 properties -
       Size: (0, 0, 1440, 900)
       Max texture size: 8192
       Supports non-power of two: 1
       Shaders 444: 0
       Shaders 422: 0
       Shaders 420: 0
    --- GPU Computation Info ---
    Found 2 devices supporting GPU computation.
    CUDA Device 0 -
    Caught structured exception!CPU only test failed

    It looks like I've solved my problem.
    I decided to try again - this time cloning my original drive onto the new one instead of using Time Machine - and now everything seems to work just fine. Just faster. I can only assume that in the restoration process the first time, some necessary files got corrupted or went missing. Thanks, Bill, it was your question that made me wonder whether it might be better to create an image.

  • Upgrading Hard drive & RAM

    Hi, 
    I own a HP dv7-3085dx (product no : VM188UA#ABA) and I need to upgrade my hard drive to a SSD & upgrade my RAM. currenlty I'm having 500GB hdd & 6144MB DDR3 ram. 
    1. Please let me know whether Serial ATA III SSD (Samsung - 840 EVO 250GB Internal Serial ATA III Solid State Drive) is compatible with my mother board. And is it possible to use this SSD(primary) together with my old HDD(secondary). 
    2. Do i need to buy any extra cables for this upgrade?
    3. What is the transfer rate of my RAM? so i could buy a compatible RAM.
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    Your specific motherboard has the Intel 5 series chipset which only is capable of SATA-II. However, the SATA-III Samsung 840 Evo will work just fine and you will still see amazing speeds. You have picked a good SSD (the same one I am using so I am a bit prejudiced). 
    As for the memory, here is the crucial.com page on your model showing it will take up to 8 gb (2 x 4 gb) of DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM.
    http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Pavilion%20dv7-3085dx
    And yes, you can use 2 hard drives in any dv7. You will need a second drive caddy and cable available here:
    http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=222
    If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

  • WRT610N router & external hard drive questions

    I just purchased a 610N router and I want to connect an external hard drive (Seagate 160GB) to it in order to view photos and other media primarily on my PS3, but also on my laptops.  By stumbling through the process, I seem to have the drive mapped to my primary computer but I am not happy with the results.
    The external hard drive already has tons of folders on it, and the photos are categorized into their own folders and sub-folders.  I can access them from the computer after lots of clicking.
    Question #1)  The PS3:  can it see only one media server at a time?  The WRT610N is the media server it sees right now, but none of my files and directories that are on the external hard drive are viewable on the PS3.
    Question #2)  Do the files need to be in a particular folder located on the drive?  The PS3 is looking  for the "mp_root" on the router/external hard drive.
    Question #3)  Do all the media files, photos, movies, music, all have to be on the root drive or in the same directory?  I was told that they had to be in one place, not scattered among sub-directories?
    Question #3)  The network shows a "default" folder, a "config" folder and two others (I'm writing this from memory as I'm not in front of the computer right now).  What are those folders?  Did the router or network create them?
    Question #4)  What can I do to improve the experience of using the drive on the network?
    Thanks for any advice or guidance you can provide.

    It might be a firmware issue. After upgrading the firmware did you reset the device without connecting the drives?
    Try the reset and check if problem still persists try degrading the firmware.

  • External Hard Drive Questions

    This is more of an opinion question.
    I have a MBP with an 80GB hard drive which always seems to be full up. I also have a 250GB hard drive which is nearly full up. The 250GB is not used for backup, i have all my photos and big files on there and none of my files are actually backed up
    I was thinking about getting another 500GBish hard drive and using it for more space and also time machine - can it be used for both? Can anyone recommend a good cheap hard drive?
    How well does time machine work with laptops? would i have to plug it in every night? does it have a sort of separate trash kept on my computer which is only deleted when i plug in the Mac to the External hard drive. Or is anything i delete without the external hard drive attached deleted forever?
    Or, is it worth the hastle and cost to upgrade my MBP internal hard drive?
    Thanks very much
    Message was edited by: pumpkin person

    okay so what would a cheap hard drive from PC World be like - like this Western Digital Elements Desktop 500GB 3.5" - although i imagine that link will probably time out.
    http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcwpage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2000027328.1216206856@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadeejdfdkigc flgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&categoryoid=-32889
    I think i want to stick with Time Machine just because it looks so flash and easy to use really, plus i would have to pay for Super Duper
    I dont really feel confident switching the hard drive myself, i tried doing the RAM once which is alot easier and i competly messed it up and had to take it to an apple store. How much would an apple store charge if i asked them to do it?
    Would it be okay to have time machine running at the same time as also having separate media on the same hard drive? How much space would time machine take up?
    Thanks very much for your replies

  • Problems with set up disc after upgrading hard drive

    I am having problems starting up my Macbook after upgrading the hard drive from 80GB to 160GB.  The new hd is SATA, a WDScorpio.  The pins on the end look the same, and I've had no problem with the physical install.  When I go to start up the Macbook, I get a gray screen and the "flashing manila file w/a question mark" icon.  I load the disc while holding down the "C" key, and all that happens is the disc gets ejected.  What am I doing wrong?  I also have my hd backed up w/time machine in an external hd.  Any ideas?

    Turns out, my problem is a malfunctioning optical drive. My Macbook couldn't read the set up disc. This is the second time in a week that I have had this Macbook into the apple store for warranty repair work. Last week, It was a defective VGcable. Each trip to the Applestore is 115 miles round trip from where I live. I tried to get Apple to give me a new computer, but no dice. I even had a district manager in Boise Idaho hang up on me. It's too bad when they know they have a product which everyone loves, and wants to use. They can set the terms. How many things must go wrong before they just replace the @#$# thing? I bought the Macbook Feb 12th, so it's not that old. I have handled it with the utmost care. Anyway, I've tasted the forbidden fruit, and will continue to use Apple products. Thanks for your help. I'll probably have a much easier time with a computer that works. (knock on wood)

Maybe you are looking for