Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5″ Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: What makes this drive fast is the TWO platters. It’s also 9.5mm in height.

We were able to test this unit, the Seagate 7200.4 320gb and WD’s 7200 Black. The 7200’s have 16mb cache, this has 8. Ok results varied! This is good. OS X performed faster on this 5400rpm drive than Vista Ult 64(same MBP). Once we let Vista index the drives we noticed something, the page file was causing performance on the 5400 to be slower. At 4gb ram, page file off, performance was near identical on all three… So read the thoughts for more.

Cons: 8mb cache on a large drive hurts index/catalog performance so once you clone or install let the machine do it’s work… Mac’s this is cataloging, Pc’s this is indexing. If you cloned the drive do this one little trick… On a Mac have spotlight re-index/catalog the drive and on PC’s turn OFF indexing and subfolders, restart, turn it back on. It’s a con because this takes time ONLY WHEN CLONED.

Overall Review: For gaming the seagate won out by more than 10%. For database, searching, and working with LARGE single files the WD Black won by 16%. However the surprise was this drive which fell in a decent 2nd place overall. Index/Cataloging was an issue but this subsided after a re-index was performed.

Overall, 5 eggs! Seagate has a 7200rpm 500gb SATA drive releasing in March/April 09′ which promises to spank every single SATA drive on the market. If you can wait, do it, if not this is the drive.

Pros: High capacity, standard form factor, runs relatively cool. Surprisingly quiet.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: When I first got my I Late-2007 MacBook I installed a 250GB Scorpio and have been very satisfied with it. It was getting tight on space so I was excited when WD announced a 500GB version. Waiting impatiently for a month for it to show up on Newegg I jumped on it as soon as it did.

This was a drop in replacement with no issues. I slapped it in a USB caddy, used Disk Utility to clone the internal drive to the new one, swapped the drives and was back up and running with double capacity. All totaled, about three hours of standing around doing nothing and two minutes to swap the drives.

My initial impressions are that it actually runs slightly cooler and definitely quieter than the 250GB Scorpio that it replaced. While the 250GB was never loud with this drive I literally have to put my ear to the MacBook’s polycarbonate case to hear it at all.

Pros: Works as it should, lots of space, no installation problems

Cons: none

Overall Review: I didn’t look very hard, but all the online tutorials I found to replace the PS3 hard drive were out-of-date (forums, youtube, etc.). My 80 gig PS3 was purchased in Oct 2008, and all the online tutorials predated that and don’t apply. Key differences: 1) Sony changed the way the drive needs to be inserted… it’s still dead-easy, just different. 2) formatting/initializing your new drive is now done differently, I think the best discussion I found was on the Sony site.

Other thoughts: When you are backing up your existing PS3 drive to a USB HD, the USB HD needs to formatted as FAT32, not NTFS.

Pros: Large capacity, speed, compatible with PS3 (upgraded the 160GB version)

Cons: Due to formatting constraints, only ends up about 460GB of usable space (not the drive’s fault necessarily).

Overall Review: It is completely “ok” with Sony to upgrade your HDD in your PS3; it will NOT void your warranty. However, if you screw up the install, it’s your fault. Instructions can be found on Sony’s website by going to PS3->Support-> and searching for it there. I used a thumb drive to download the latest PS3 OS onto it (using my computer), then an external HDD docking station to back up the current drive. All my stuff was then restored (including purchased TV shows, games, saved game data, all of it!!!). Could not be happier. Newegg shipped super quick. New 500GB hard drive works like a champ!!

Pros: Does what its supposed to do. Formats to 465 GB. Fairly quiet.

Cons: Wish it were 1 TB! Could always be cheaper 🙂

Overall Review: I used this to replace the 60 GB drive that came with my PS3. Installation was a snap except for the TINY Philips head screws that aver VERY easy to strip.

Unfortunately, the PS3 only gives you about 413 GB of usable space from the 465, but it’s a HUGE upgrade for not much money.

Pros: I installed this in my PS3 and it works as advertised. The PS3 detected the new drive and easily formated it. It’s at least as fast as the old default drive, perhaps faster. Performance wise though I’m happy.

Cons: None really.

Overall Review: A word of caution for those upgrading your PS3: be careful not to strip the head of the screws used to stabilize the drive in the mounting. They were ridiculously tight. Also be sure to use the backup utility before you swap. Happy upgrading!

Pros: Quiet, cool, and very fast for a 5400. Can barely hear it running in my unibody MB Pro.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I popped this into my new 13″ MB Pro, which was extremely easy to do. Booted up, formatted, and performed a fresh install of Snow Leopard. Took less than an hour to do. I also restored all of my files from my time machine backup without any problems. This drive is faster than the stock hitachi at more than 3x the size.

Pros: Quiet, Energy Efficient, and High Capacity 500GB design in a 2.5-in form factor. Pleased with the speed and the head doesn’t obnoxiously park.

Cons: Only available as a 5400RPM model, but I am sure that is soon to change… The Newegg shipping department didn’t pack the box that great, so I am glad that it was only in the UPS system for a single day.

Overall Review: Great for use ranging from external enclosures to boosting the capacity of your internal hard drive in a Mac Mini, MacBook, or MacBook Pro. Whenever you buy hard drives from Newegg go the fastest shipping since the Newegg shipping department isn’t consistent. We order 30+ hard drives a month from these guys and more often than not the drive is resting against the base of the box. I strongly recommend shipping it UPS Next Day Air to keep the transit time to a minimum. Of course the simple solution would be for Newegg to treat hard drives like eggs and pack them with more care. I keep voicing my concerns, hopefully the shipping department will listen!