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From: flarosa on 25 Jun 2008 17:37
Is it worthwhile to upgrade my MacBook's hard drive from the standard
5400 RPM Hitachi disk to a faster disk? Which models are recommended?

I'm looking for better performance, not more storage.

Thanks.
From: flarosa on 27 Jun 2008 16:52
On Jun 26, 1:18 am, Michael Vilain <vil...(a)NOspamcop.net> wrote:
> In article
> <61277d0d-f778-47ce-89c4-bddb58ec6...(a)e53g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
>
>  flarosa <fr...(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
> Be sure the "higher performance" doesn't run hotter, eating into battery
> life and possibly making the thing uncomfortable to have in your lap...

True, but how would I know ahead of time? The disk drive manufacturers
are not prone to publishing such specs.
From: Steve Hix on 27 Jun 2008 22:10
In article <vilain-3E2516.18503927062008(a)comcast.dca.giganews.com>,
Michael Vilain <vilain(a)NOspamcop.net> wrote:

> In article
> <fc57d74b-c8eb-4021-a6eb-e1d68581c134(a)34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,
> flarosa <frank(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 26, 1:18�am, Michael Vilain <vil...(a)NOspamcop.net> wrote:
> > > In article
> > > <61277d0d-f778-47ce-89c4-bddb58ec6...(a)e53g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
> > >
> > > �flarosa <fr...(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
> > > Be sure the "higher performance" doesn't run hotter, eating into battery
> > > life and possibly making the thing uncomfortable to have in your lap...
> >
> > True, but how would I know ahead of time? The disk drive manufacturers
> > are not prone to publishing such specs.
>
> Find out what disks Apple uses for for the MacBook. Buy one of those if
> it's high enough performance for you. If not, buy one you like and live
> with the shorter battery life, discolored/warped case, and the inability
> to hold it in your lap while you work.
>
> If you really want to build your own computer, you might be better off
> with towers. They're a lot more tolerant of power and cooling issues.
> Laptops can be very picky.
>
> Also, it's just me, but I'm hesitant to open stuff like this for fear of
> breaking something. Others build laptops in their sleep. I hope you're
> the latter.

The MacBook is exceptionally easy to swap out drives:

- Remove the battery.

- Remove three screws and slide out the hard drive cover plate.

- Pull out the drive.

- Slide in the new one (no cables to fiddle with)

- Put it back together.

Five minutes, if you take time to clean up your workspace after.
From: Bill on 28 Jun 2008 09:06
In article <sehix-9C6053.19103427062008(a)news.speakeasy.net>,
Steve Hix <sehix(a)NOSPAMspeakeasy.netINVALID> wrote:

> In article <vilain-3E2516.18503927062008(a)comcast.dca.giganews.com>,
> Michael Vilain <vilain(a)NOspamcop.net> wrote:
>
> > In article
> > <fc57d74b-c8eb-4021-a6eb-e1d68581c134(a)34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,
> > flarosa <frank(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On Jun 26, 1:18�am, Michael Vilain <vil...(a)NOspamcop.net> wrote:
> > > > In article
> > > > <61277d0d-f778-47ce-89c4-bddb58ec6...(a)e53g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
> > > >
> > > > �flarosa <fr...(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
> > > > Be sure the "higher performance" doesn't run hotter, eating into battery
> > > > life and possibly making the thing uncomfortable to have in your lap...
> > >
> > > True, but how would I know ahead of time? The disk drive manufacturers
> > > are not prone to publishing such specs.
> >
> > Find out what disks Apple uses for for the MacBook. Buy one of those if
> > it's high enough performance for you. If not, buy one you like and live
> > with the shorter battery life, discolored/warped case, and the inability
> > to hold it in your lap while you work.
> >
> > If you really want to build your own computer, you might be better off
> > with towers. They're a lot more tolerant of power and cooling issues.
> > Laptops can be very picky.
> >
> > Also, it's just me, but I'm hesitant to open stuff like this for fear of
> > breaking something. Others build laptops in their sleep. I hope you're
> > the latter.
>
> The MacBook is exceptionally easy to swap out drives:
>
> - Remove the battery.
>
> - Remove three screws and slide out the hard drive cover plate.
>
> - Pull out the drive.
>
> - Slide in the new one (no cables to fiddle with)
>
> - Put it back together.
>
> Five minutes, if you take time to clean up your workspace after.

It's basically the same as for upgrading the RAM, except the HD is to
the side of the opening exposed by removing the battery and the cover
plate.

--
Bill Collins
For email, change "fake" to "earthlink"
From: Kadin2048 on 29 Jun 2008 20:43
On 2008-06-27, flarosa <frank(a)franklarosa.com> wrote:
> True, but how would I know ahead of time? The disk drive manufacturers
> are not prone to publishing such specs.

One way to tell is by looking at the power consumption. That's almost
always published, and basically, all the energy the drive consumes it
dissapates as heat into its surroundings. (If you get really picky
this isn't necessarily 100% true, but it's probably 99.9% true.)

That won't always give you the outside case temperature, and it won't
tell you about hot spots or how the heat is distributed, but it'll at
least give you a way of comparing two drives and seeing if one will
run grossly hotter than the other. If you have one drive that runs a
0.4W standby, it's almost certainly going to run cooler than a 1.3W
drive in the same form factor (although it won't be a third the
temperature or anything; it doesn't work linearly like that).

If you have to wing it when ordering a new drive, and you just can't
find temperature specs anywhere, I'd use the power consumption as your
next-best figure. (And if you see a drive that consumes more power,
especially at idle, claim lower operating temps ... be afraid.)

-Kadin.

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