Upgrading Macbook Pro 15.4" 2008 Internal SATA HDD To SATA II?

Question

Greetings Apple Community,
Im considering purchasing a higher capacity internal hardrive around the 750Gb/1Tb mark. However my macbook is the early 2008 model, and it seems the majority of hardrives are SATA II, having speeds of 3Gbt, which my mother board may not be capable of (apparently only 1.5Gbt)
From researching and reading some reviews of others who have purchased internal drives on Amazon UK, some have had difficulty due to this problem, but have been able to fix the issue with a firmware update reducing SATA II drive speeds to 1.5Gbt.
Questions I have:
Do all SATA / SATA II internal hardrives need a firmware update if replacing on to a new computer?
(If so, would I need to look for a specific firmware update for the specific drive I intend on buying? And if you're in the knowledge would you mind posting links to these updates?)
What is the process of updating the firmware i.e. would I need to put firmware on external usb hardrive 1st, then upload it to macbook after installing new internal drive (if it boots up my OS that is) etc.    
Would a 'hybrid' (disk+solid state) drive be compatible with a macbook as old as mine?
Do I need to update my operating system to OS X Lion first, or can it be done after installing the drive?
Some internal drives I've been considering (from Amazon.co.uk):
Samsung M8 1TB 2.5" 5400rpm SATA II OEM (£75.95)
Seagate 2.5" Momentus ST9750420AS 750Gb 7200rpm SATA-300 16Gb Buffer (£79.99)
Western Digital 2.5" Scorpio Black 750Gb 7200rpm SATA 16Mb (£88)
Feel free to add your thoughts, which manufacterers to avoid/or perhaps recommend?
Your help/suggestions is greatly appreciated. Apologies in advance for my unfamiliarity in this topic!
Kind Regards
For reference, my current laptop hardware:
Macbook Pro 15.4" (Early 2008 Model)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz Processor
GeForce 256Mb 8600M GT Graphical Processor
Intel ICH8_M AHCI 1.5 Gbt Motherboard
Toshiba MK1655GSXF 160Gb 2.5" Hard Drive
Operating System: OS X Leopard 10.5.8

Answer 1

Appreciate the link,
unfortunately for me I live in the UK, and although I think they deliver overseas, this would incur more costs.
There are UK sellers, I might consider, but although they sell drives that Apple use in their laptops, they do cost a lot more, for the Gb space provided compared to other manufacturers. But its something I'll have to consider, cheers.