SATA 7200 RPM Hard drive and MacBook Pro 2009 : A Bitter Sweet Experience

[KiD0M4N]

Hi all-

Basically this thread is meant to be an experience thread. I had knowingly purchased a 2.53Ghz 250GB 5400 RPM MacBook Pro knowing full that I would eventually upgrade to either a SSD (thank god I decided against this) or a faster and zippier 7200 RPM Hard drive.

After MUCH deliberation, I decided to go with a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500 GB drive (thank you Aditya aka rpm for sealing the deal.) I had read about numerous issues with the 7200 RPM drives and the MacBook Pro, but I was under a false impression that it would happen to me. I undergone some beach volleyball already with my stock Hitachi 250GB 5400 RPM drive (the infamous beachball from hell), and had fixed those using hdapm and thought I could do the same with the new HDD... unfortunately, the problem lay elsewhere.

A Brief History of Time

Apple came under intense media pressure when the mid-2009 Macbook Pro models came out. Unlike the previous generous MacBook Pros, these defaulted to using SATA 150 (1.5Gbps) standard instead of the current standard SATA 300 (3.0Gbps.) While SATA 150 is way above the practical transfer limits of 2.5" Hard disk drives, it could potentially limit the theoretical read performance from the new fanged SSDs which everyone was going gaga about. Buckling from the media hype and war cries, Apple released the now infamous EFI 1.7 Update for the new MacBook Pros which, while enabled the SATA 300 interface on the laptop, came with a statutory warning - Apple is not certifying the use of SATA II devices on the laptops. It was not for nothing right? Right!

Its not like some engineer had forgotten to enable SATA 300 on the mid-2009 MBP refresh models... it was there by design. The nVidia Chipset powering the MBP were not meant to run SATA II (300) devices, and when such a combination comes together and the moon is bright, you get - BEACH BALLS!

Down Eros Up Mars

So when the beachballs became unbearable (lasting 30 seconds every 2-3 minutes during which you can't do anything but sit and admire the polised UI of Mac OS X!) I knew something had to give! And a LITTLE digging landed me the answer: Back to the Future EFI 1.6 DOWNGRADE!

A http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8414998&postcount=305 was nice enough to get a downgrade DMG which Apple Genius has been using for a while on unsuspecting people caught playing beach ball on the sandy shores of Puri!

CLICK
(direct download link to Apple EFI 1.6 Firmware Downgrader)

Poison Ivy II

Now that the firmware was upgraded, I was back in the sweet lands of 'Supported' and 'Verified' SATA 150... which Apple was kind enough to support I mean, seriously... thanks... (if you people didn't detect the sarcasm, please roll up into a ball and die...)

If I could put lyrics to the notes coming off the 7200 RPM motor in the Seagate, it would be a very sweet song indeed!

Like Alisa Milano, I felt like throwing a big fat law suit at Apple for making me waste time because they wanted to 'save their good old ass'... when my MacBook Pro booted up in little less than 15 seconds for the first time, all that negative feelings went away.

Some numbers (in comparison to the Hitachi 250GB 5400 RPM slow train):

Test	Seagate 7200.4 500 GB	Hitachi 5400 250 GB
MacOS X Bootup	20.1 s	38.9 s
Firefox 3.5.3 Launch	<1.9 s	4 s
Adobe Photoshop CS4	7.8 s	17 s
Sequential Read Speed	100.8 MB/s	56 MB/s
Random Access Time	16.5 ms	21.2 ms

So... overall WIN situation in my books... what do you guys thing?

PS: Apple, if you are using Torx screws for mounting the HDD, please mention it in the damn user manual!

[abthegreat]

lol they have always used torx even on my plastic macbook bought in 2007 they had torx for the HDD

[KiD0M4N]

Originally Posted by abthegreat lol they have always used torx even on my plastic macbook bought in 2007 they had torx for the HDD

That is perfectly fine How about mentioning it in the damn user guide They talk about using Philips screw drivers but not a word about Torx!

Read any other part of the thread?

[vijayninel]

Congratulations on the brilliant troubleshooting and performance increase. This is a very useful read, specially for a non technical person trying to install a HDD in their MbP. However this is also why Apple ties its software to its hardware.

[ManISinJpr ♦]

Kid0 let me congratulate you on solving ( albeit in a partial way ) this problem. you should be miffed as you are with apple, but apple has this love hate relationship with different hardwares since long. I remember a time when in the olden times my client ( a design and print processing house ) could not upgrade their scsi drives on their macs.
Enjoy the speed differences ( for your hard earned labor has paid off ) and wait for a permanent fix, the only thing I am worried about is whether they have the sataII hardware specs are even supporte in their line up. I hope that is not the case and you get a full solution.
As Vijay said this is precisely the reason that they tie the hardware with their OS, and people like you who are adventurous face these difficulties but for the most users the satisfaction level remains high. they dont even come to know that their shiny aluminum mac books don't even support sata II.which is years old.

[baba doga]

nice detail karan, thanks!

I don't know what criteria apple has for skipping on features and basic hardware technologies. look at the iphone n 3g. and macbooks. maybe they target the typical somewhat deep-pocket ignorant american guy as their customer. one who maynot even know what a hard drive is.

I mean, hdd upgrades are so common!!

[KiD0M4N]

Originally Posted by rpm19050 nice detail karan, thanks! I don't know what criteria apple has for skipping on features and basic hardware technologies. look at the iphone n 3g. and macbooks. maybe they target the typical somewhat deep-pocket ignorant american guy as their customer. one who maynot even know what a hard drive is. I mean, hdd upgrades are so common!!

Hello

RPM! You never mentioned the silent hiss which is quite audible from the harddrive The 5400 RPM was pretty silent I must say. I am not talking about the 'tick tick' seek noises, but rather the ambient 'shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' noise of the motor. The rest of the MBP is so quiet (fan included) that this is noticeable I wonder if the WD Blue would have had the same flaw.

[baba doga]

check the mounting

plus your bios should allow you to control the drive accoustics.

[stonedsurd]

My WD 7200rpm makes an audible hiss and a tick-tick while seeking.
I'm not too fussed though, I usually listen to music or game

The OP is great. Mega props to you especially for that table - should say a lot to those sitting on the fence about HDD upgrades

[KiD0M4N]

An update guys.

Apple seems to have pulled their socks up and fixed the issue

Leopard: Performance Update 1.0 (Leopard)
Snow Leopard: Performance Update 1.0 (Snow Leopard)

I upgraded back to EFI 1.7 (I had downgraded back to 1.6 to go around the SATA 3 issues) and applied the SL specific patch and I am golden

Karan

[abthegreat]

I am done,YAY!!
Full 3Gbps enabled? planning on getting an ssd+optibay to speed things up with storage as well

[ManISinJpr ♦]

Well that's good, now post your experience with us all over again.

Originally Posted by KiD0M4N An update guys. Apple seems to have pulled their socks up and fixed the issue Leopard: Performance Update 1.0 (Leopard) Snow Leopard: Performance Update 1.0 (Snow Leopard) I upgraded back to EFI 1.7 (I had downgraded back to 1.6 to go around the SATA 3 issues) and applied the SL specific patch and I am golden Karan

[abthegreat]

basically the mbp is now golden totally awesome no beachballs/stutter and clicks are also gone.Its total flow now

its time for SSD yay!!

[KiD0M4N]

Originally Posted by abthegreat basically the mbp is now golden totally awesome no beachballs/stutter and clicks are also gone.Its total flow now its time for SSD yay!!

^^ My experience, in short Apple took its own sweet time and went through the drama phases of denial, love hate, etc etc.

But it delivered at the end

[stonedsurd]

An SSD for a laptop is a bit of a questionable upgrade, to be honest. Unless you get something good.

@Karan, I need a cheap, quick drive. Does the 500GB 7200.4 have the same speed as the 250GB 7200.4? I'm guessing one has a single 250GB platter, and the other has two. Basically I want the fastest 2.5" drive in as little money as possible (not counting SSDs for that reason). Any ideas?