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Western Digital 320 GB Scorpio Black SATA 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD3200BEKT
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $82.99
Sale Price: $59.99
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Product Description
WD Scorpio Black 7200 RPM SATA 2.5-inch hard drives from Western Digital combine a lightning-fast 7200 RPM spin speed with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache to deliver desktop-class performance. With 5400 RPM-equivalent power consumption there is no compromise in battery life. In addition, WD Scorpio Black hard drives are designed with ruggedness, reliability, and data-protection features that actively watch over valuable data. Available in capacities up to 320 GB, these hard drives are perfect for laptop users who require maximum capacity and lightning-fast performance.

Product Details
  • Weight: .22 lbs
  • 7200 RPM

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Customer Reviews
Watch the Model Numbers...
 
Review Date: October 5, 2008
Reviewer: GEORGE E. NEWMAN, West Hartford, CT
[...]
"Free-fall sensor - As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it's in) is dropped while in use, WD's free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head to help prevent damage and data loss."

Model: WD3200BJKT HAS this sensor and is a little more expensive. Worth it , In my opinion.

Model: WD3200BEKT does NOT have this sensor. Retailers are not very clear about this.
Best choice for a MacBook / MacBook Pro upgrade
 
Review Date: June 28, 2009
Reviewer: C. Rogers, St Paul, MN
I installed this in my C2D 2.16Ghz MacBook Pro yesterday and couldn't be happier. The size has freed me from continual file cleaning and the speed increase is noticeable. There is a slight bit more noise from the drive, but is sounds like a white noise generator, a gentle hiss/hum, nothing to worry about and I am picky. There is no clacking or anything truly noticeable, definitely no heat issues.

As far as some of the comments people have posted regarding noise I would recommend anyone who has noise problems after the install check the rubber grommet mounts. If you don't get them back in place properly the mounts can't do their job and the noise will resonate thru the sounding box that is the MacBook Pro. As far as heat issues I would guess the user didn't check the cooling fans. I pulled my fans while I had it open and found each heatsink 1/3 covered in a cake of dust. I cleaned them and now the whole thing runs cooler.

NOTE: Do not get the WD3200BJKT for a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Apple includes a sudden motion sensor in the laptop and if you get the WD3200BJKT the sudden motion sensor in the drive will conflict with the unit in the laptop and neither will work.
perfect fit for MacBook hard drive upgrade.
 
Review Date: December 4, 2008
Reviewer: KF, New Jersey, USA
I replaced the original hard drive on my first generation MacBook with this one. Worked like a charm. No problem whatsoever. Boot time significantly improved. Plus four times the space.
Worked great for my PS3
 
Review Date: December 26, 2008
Reviewer: Oscar, Orange County, CA
I purchased this one over the other one that was 320 gb and with a speed of 5400. this one is faster at 7200. it was so easy to replace my ps3 hard drive. i went from a 60 gb to a 320 gb. the only downside is that after i formatted it, it only showed 298 gigs available but i knew that would happen after reading the reviews for the other 320 gb drive that has the speed of 5400. bottom line works like a charm. i have played games offline and online for few weeks on it. i have seen several blue ray movies on it too. i cannot even hear it running. works great! I really havent notice that it runs faster than the stock PS3 seagate drive however it is much faster, so i am sure t must help a little. i also havent notice any diffferece as sound goes. the noise is just as quiet as the original if not more quiet. if you want to learn how to replace your hard drive on your ps3 go to youtube. there are so many videos on how to do it, it was a peace of cake.
Great so far, with a caveat for use in mid-2009 Macbook Pros (15" & 13")
 
Review Date: September 8, 2009
Reviewer: Erik W., San Jose, CA
If you have one of these mid-2009 Macbook Pros (15" or 13"), then you may need to downgrade your firmware from EFI 1.7 to EFI 1.6 in order to use this hard drive internally. You should go to an Apple Store and request that they do this, as there is a utility floating around the web that you might be tempted to use, but I'd be wary of it. I had to hunt for a store that understood how to perform the downgrade -- the Valley Fair store in Santa Clara, CA, had a Genius that knew how to do it. Now this downgrade does limit the SATA interface speed to so-called "SATA-I" which means 1.5Gbps transfer speeds. But this speed is more than enough for a 7200RPM drive, it's only a SSD that would be limited by the slower SATA speed.

As a further explanation, the EFI 1.7 firmware update was meant to enable "SATA-II", meaning 3Gbps transfer speeds, that are necessary for SSDs. However, it introduced this incompatibility that prevents these Macbook Pros from functioning with 3rd party "SATA-II" drives such as this one. Search the Apple community support forums for a topic titled "Firmware update and SATA II hard drive" for more information on this problem.

Let me reemphasize a point -- this EFI firmware downgrade is only necessary when using the hard drive internally through the SATA interface. When the drive is in an external USB enclosure it works fine with EFI 1.7.

As for the drive itself, it seems great so far.

(Some people might think this review is slightly off-topic, but I wish someone else had figured this out and posted this here before... I spent almost a week discovering this, even returning 1 disk to Amazon, thinking it was faulty.)

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