Upgrading internal HD on MacBook Pro 13 inch

Question

I held off purchasing a MB or MBP because I wanted 13" and FireWire. OK that's here since last June j- but I now want to move ahead but want an internal drive of at least 500 gb - and prefer 7200 rpm. OR SHOULD I??? Will 7200 rpm eat up lots of battery and not give me much more in speed? Also, I'd like 750 gb, but not sure if a 750 gb is out in the 9 mm thickness (i.e. internal notebook size)??
And if so-- 750 gb- 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm?
Since I do not use my MB much on battery alone (usually plugged-in) - the consumption issue of 7200 vs 5400 rpm is not vital - speed is important-- also heat, reliability etc.
Today when I travel more than 24 hours I carry a fully backed-up and bootable USB internal SATA drive so that I can either use it or actually replace my MB-13" internal. Is that easy to do with the new MBP-13"??
Thanks for any comments or links here--- My 320 gb drive seemed so huge 2 years ago- it is down to 70 gb of available space and I don't want to go below 32 gb free so... A TB internal drive anyone??
Steve
Saturday 16 January 2010

Answer 1

And there is a 750GB Western Digital drive at 5200 RPM (yes, an odd rotational speed) that will fit despite being 12.5mm high. The available reports indicate that it's not fast, but it's certainly big. WD has also announced a 1TB model that's expected to be the same physical size, but it doesn't seem to be on the market yet. There are reports on the 750GB WD drive here:
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso
Most reports I've seen on recent 7200RPM drives in MBPs indicate that there is little or no perceptible difference in energy consumption or heat dissipation between a 7200 and a standard 5400, but there's a noticeable difference in speed.
EDIT: Your present 320GB Seagate drive is a 7200RPM unit.
Message was edited by: eww