Seagate Momentus Gforce 7200.4 500GB 2.5IN SATA 7200RPM 16MB Notebook Hard Drive OEM

Comment:
I got this hard drive for my Dell and i had it in there for a few weeks then i got a mac. I put the drive in the macbook and installation was quick and easy, no issues installing the OS. No noticeable difference (noise,heat,power consumption) than the stock 5400rpm drives that each computer came with.

Comment:
It's a great laptop drive, not much more to say then that. I've had for a while now without any trouble whatsoever.

Comment:
Bought this to deck out my Macbook Pro for short video editing and it took 1 hour and 45 min to transfer 60Gs of data over USB2, averaged at 11MB/sec write....not that impressed. Never waste this drive's potential like I did by sticking it into a USB2 enclosure. Once I move this drive into the MBP as my main drive, the performance should pick up.You can already find bench mark results from other user online, so I'll address the other issues. Heat:The temperature got only as high as 46C after it had been constantly writing for over an hour...which is only slightly warmer than the temperature of the stock 5400RPM 250GB that came with the MBP. Not bad, but I was expecting a DECREASE in temperature from my stock drive, guess you can't have everything else if you want speed.Vibration:It's pretty obvious that it vibrates a lot more than most 5400 rpm laptop drives. Unlike the stock drive from which I've never felt vibration during use in my MBP, I could feel this drive vibrate constantly when in use, since the hd bay is under the left palm rest in MBP. If you've been pampered by the likes of Macs' non-vibrating HD experiences, you're going to be disappointed. It's a 7200 RPM drive, you should know what you're in for.Noise:It sounds like a small notebook fan when in use. It is a higher pitch whining noise and definitely more noticeable than the rumbles of the 5400 RPM drive's seek noise. This could definitely irritate those of you who are not used to hearing the higher pitched sound. Other reviewers have commented that this noise is drowned out by the noise of their laptop fan, on my MBP, this is true as well, but it does add to the overall noise level.During a large file write test, I picked up the drive and rocked it back and forth, left to right, etc and the drive started to make very loud spinning and clicking noises. My MBP's stock drive did not experience the same symptom. I would have to say that this drive is more meant for operating in a steady environment. Don't move your laptop around too much when the drive is in heavy use. So I recommend getting a slower spinning drive if you are going to use it in a laptop and you have a tendency to move around a lot.Update:Performance of my MBP improved quite a bit, all my apps opened and closed with a snap. But the spin noise bothers me in a quiet room.I also bought a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB (5400rpm)to compare and the real world daily usage performance is similar. Except the WD makes is near silent compared to this Seagate. However, the 7200.4 d 7200rpm runs a 4 to 5 degrees C cooler on average than the WD d 5400rpm, when playing video. Very impressive, Seagate. Since I enjoy silence and low heat, maybe I should pickup the Seagate 5400.6 instead. Update: I'm much happier with Western Digital's Scorpio Blue 500GB. The WD has near silent noise level and does not click and whine when I move the laptop around. At 5400RPM, the real world performance is nearly identical for a typical Mac user running apps, editing home videos, photos, making DVDs, converting videos. This review was modfied by poster @ 03-10-09 12:08 AM