Just upgraded my PB internal HD from 5400 to 7200

[TOD]

I have a PB G4 1.25 ghz. with 1.25 gigs of RAM. After over 12 hours of dis-assembly and re-assembly, (There were no accurate manuals on line). I made the replacement.

What a huge difference in performance! In all apps, even GUI speed.

I haven't used DP on it, (I use DP strictly in my G4 dually), but Abletone LIVE is smokin'

[Patricio]

He Tod...

didn't you visited http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/

next time just ask.....

good news it improved .

[rockitcity]

12 hours? You must know every part inside that thing by now. I did it with the excellent instructions from powerbook fixit (I think I got them free from the Apple forums), and it took about an hour. Sorry for your pain. But I agree, it made a huge difference in overall performance. Given your model, are you sure you had a 5400 drive in there? I have a PB 1.5 Ghz, and it came with a 4200 rpm drive. If your 1.25 PB had the original drive, it was probably a 4200 as well, unless it was a special build-to-order with a larger 5400 drive.

Glad you got it back together and working!

[TOD]

I seriously want to kill myself now!! (J/K)

What took me so long was not knowing there were two screws next to the RAM slots that attached to the mother board!

That was how I celebrated NYE. ( I finished at 12:30.)

Thanks for the tip.

[TOD]

12 hours? You must know every part inside that thing by now. I did it with the excellent instructions from powerbook fixit (I think I got them free from the Apple forums), and it took about an hour. Sorry for your pain. But I agree, it made a huge difference in overall performance. Given your model, are you sure you had a 5400 drive in there? I have a PB 1.5 Ghz, and it came with a 4200 rpm drive. If your 1.25 PB had the original drive, it was probably a 4200 as well, unless it was a special build-to-order with a larger 5400 drive.

Glad you got it back together and working!

You're probably right it was a 4200 rpm. I stomped the Sh*T outta that little B*tch once I finally removed it.

[Umbrella]

I have a 12" 1.33ghz powerbook which I recently upgraded to 7200 and it's like a whole new machine. Faster performance, no more thermal issues (the Hitachi that the PB came with must have been a real POS thermally), just generally much much better.

[mikebeckmotu]

dang it, now i want a new drive for my powerbook, but i just spent money on RAM and other software! Thanks for this thread, though, I've been wondering about doing this very thing.

[davel6332]

Tod, what kind of drive did you get for your powerbook....ie: brand, capacity.
I have a Ti book 1 qhz and the fans are kicking on more frequently, so when the subject of heat came up, I started to wonder about mine. Thanks

[TOD]

100.0GB Hitachi/IBM Travelstar 7K100 *7200RPM* 8MB Data Buffer ATA/6 9.5mm UltraSlim 2.5" NoteBook Drive. 3yr Hitachi Warranty. (HIT0A25015)


From: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerboo ... arddrives/

[davel6332]

TOD, I just got back from vacation, and checked the thread. Thanks for the drive info.

[bjmorgan]

I like the feedback on this thread. So much that I bought the drive and will be installing it once it comes in.

[Timeline]

You better check this out first dudes:
7200 is coming in this format soon with great speeds and capacity.

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketi ... 7200-1.pdf


http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0 ... technology

In case it doesn't come up:

Hard Drives Get Vertical Boost
Page 1 of 1
Breaking News from AP and Reuters

SAN JOSE, California -- Seagate Technology has started shipping a notebook PC hard drive that overcomes an obstacle many feared would be a major roadblock to the further expansion of disk capacity -- and the overall growth of the storage industry.

The new approach that aligns bits of data vertically rather than horizontally enables Seagate -- and other drive vendors -- to further boost the density of drives without increasing the risk of scrambling data.

Since the first hard drive was introduced 1956, bits have been arranged in a flat, horizontal fashion on the spinning platters. To boost capacity, engineers reduced the size of the particles whose magnetic state is what actually remembers data.

But with some drives now topping out at 500 GB, the miniaturization is nearly at its limit. Made any smaller, the particles can begin to interfere with the magnetism of their neighbors. The result is disastrous for data.

By storing bits in a vertical, or perpendicular, arrangement, engineers are able to boost capacity by taking advantage of the real estate that is freed up.

It's a major change that all drive makers are in the process of undertaking, said John Donovan, vice president at the research firm TrendFocus.

"It a whole new way of doing things," he said. "Not only do you have to change the thinking, but the tooling, the way the heads and disks interact with each other."

Seagate's new drive, the Momentus 5400.3, was being shipped as of Monday, the Scotts Valley, California-based company said. The shift to perpendicular recording allows it to bump up the maximum capacity of its notebook drive to 160 GB from 120 GB.

The 2.5-inch drive costs $325, compared to about $240 for the 120 GB model. Seagate plans to extend the new recording technology to other notebook drives, as well its 1-inch drives used in handheld gadgets and 3.5-inch drives for desktop PCs.

"Our transition to perpendicular technology increases our ability to meet the needs of our growing customer base," said Karl Chicca, general manager of Seagate's Personal Storage unit.

Other drive makers also have either announced products or plans that include perpendicular recording. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, Toshiba unveiled its second 1.8-inch drive that relies on the new technology.

Perpendicular recording has benefits beyond boosting storage density by reducing the need for additional components, said Mike Hall, a Seagate spokesman.

"If you can reduce the component count, you reduce the power drawn, you reduce the heat and you reduce the wear and tear," he said.

In the next three to five years, the new technology is expected to increase maximum drive capacities five fold, Hall said.

[newrigel]

It only seems logical to write data this way!
I cant wait to see a RAM drive and then we'll see some real performance boost!
Plus... the instant on technology seems promising too...
Since the RAM has come down in price I don't see why some of these manufacturers don't do the ram drive thing... here's where our native systems will kick some ass! Yes... archive to a disk but do your sessions in RAM! This should really be exploited and would kill alot of the bottlenecks with DAWS in general IMO!
What would really be cool is if you could do a session in ram instead of streaming off a HD like some of the Apple apps do like Motion and such.
Once these technologies become more widespread you'll see a HUGE difference in native DAW capabilities!!!! I CANT WAIT! Too bad I'm not a developer...

[odysseysounds]

i installed the very same hitachi drive in my 1.5ghz PB last month, and, in accord with TOD, its like a whole new faster, better machine in *all* respects. unbelievable, in fact. with the faster drive, i can run dp with more than a couple CPU hogging VIs and still have cycles to spare. prior to the upgrade, one reaktor and a stylus RMX and i had trouble. add a machfive and i'm borderline. atmosphere? forget it.

everyone with a "slow" PB owes it to themselves to have this done. word of warning: on my model, the keyboard ribbon snakes around to the back of the computer and connects *under* the RAM sticks. who would have known? i ended up pulling the keyboard ribbon cable clean out of the connector and thought i was screwed; luckily, it kludged right back in just fine.

regards,

blake

[Timeline]

I wonder Blake if it would even help newer PBs. I would love to know how you guys transfered the OS and files before installation.

Sounds like you might need two laptops that can speak mini drive to do it.