My 15.4 inch MacBook Pro now sports a shiny new Samsung 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive versus my old 100GB 7200 rpm hard drive. Why did I go with the Samsung model? It’s the only model (I know of) in the 500GB flavor that is 9.5 mm thick. The 15.4 inch MacBook Pro can’t take drives that are thicker, unlike it’s larger brother, the 17 inch.

I ordered the hard drive online from MWave.com, a local (relatively) dealer in Walnut Creek, and I have to say that I am very satisfied with their service. They were very fast to ship it. For whatever reason, they didn’t have it in stock at their store or whatever, but it was shipped from Los Angeles area. I opted for 2nd Day Air for a nominal fee and also had to pay tax since it was a California sale, I still ended up paying less than other sites that were selling the hard drive. So if you are looking for computer parts or a 500GB hard drive for your Mac, I highly recommend MWave.com.

The installation of the drive went pretty smoothly. I was a bit hesitant of disassembling my MacBook Pro, but thanks to the detailed pictures and directions at ifixit.com (EXCELLENT SITE), it was a breeze. I recommend that you take your time, be gentle, and don’t rush the process or you could damage a critical electrical component. It took me about 45 minutes from start to finish and everything booted up perfectly and I was able to install Mac OS X Jaguar (10.5) without a hitch.

How much actual space do you get? Four hundred sixty five (465) GB. This is because 1 gigabyte equals 1024 megabytes. The 5400 rpm drive is a tad slower than the 7200 rpm counterpart, but that’s a compromise I was willing to take; I need the extra space more than I need the speed.