What makes an Apple hard drive special?

Posted by Michael Shnitzer on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Michael Shnitzer
Published on 2010-02-28T16:33:57Z Indexed on 2010/03/11 20:05 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 204

Filed under:

hard-drive

|

apple

|

prices

The Mac Pro has a specific hard drive for sale in the Apple Store for $549.00. The drive has the following specs:

Serial ATA
3GB per second
7200 RPM

Amazon has a hard drive with the ~~same specs~~ for $169.99.

The only difference I can tell is that the Apple hard drive label says it has "Apple HDD Firmware". What exactly is the benefit of this firmware and is there something I am missing that make up for the price difference in these two drives?

Update: My initial comparison between the two drive was unfair. Apparently 2TB drives that are 3 GB/S and 7200 RPM are quiet a bit more than $169.99. Dell has a 2 TB SATA Caviar Black from Western Digital that is $319.99, which is closer to Apple's price.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about hard-drive

Move smaller hard drive to partition on a larger hard drive

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
My parents bought a new hard drive for a laptop that I've owned for several years. It's much larger than the current one, so I plan on splitting it up to dual boot it with Ubuntu. I have no problem with partitioning a drive (I always keep a LiveCD handy), but my question is this: how can I go about… >>> More
Copy the contents of one hard drive partition to anohter hard drive partition

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have made a C++ program which can copy the whole hardrive partition to another hardrive partition, but now I am looking forward for the program which can only copy the contents of one hardrive partiton to another hardrive partition. >>> More
Using an ATA-100 Hard Drive with a Thermaltake BlacX External Hard Drive Dock

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Is it possible for a Thermaltake BlacX HDD Dock to connect to and recognize an ATA-100 Hard Drive? I know that the specifications for the BlacX say that it only supports SATA & SATAII, but I was hoping for one of three things: 1) for it to still work even though it isn't supported 2) for there… >>> More
backup hard drive image on external hard drive for Windows 7

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hello, I am looking for a backup tool for Windows 7, that will allow me to backup my laptop’s hard drive on an external hard drive as an exact image. In a case of a problem with the main hard drive, I would like just to swap the drives and to continue to work using the backup hard drive. Thanks >>> More
Copy the contents of one hard drive partition to anohter hard drive partition

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have made a C++ program which can copy the whole hardrive partition to another hardrive partition, but now I am looking forward for the program which can only copy the contents of one hardrive partiton to another hardrive partition. >>> More

Related posts about apple

Evolution of Apple: A Fan Spliced Mega Tribute to the Apple Product Lineup

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Whether you’re an Apple fan or not, this 3.5 minute tribute to the evolution of Apple products is a neat look back at decades of computing history and iconic design. Put together by Apple fan August Brandels, the video splices together Apple commercials and promotional footage from the last… >>> More
Why is iTunes starting and stopping play randomly, and how do I stop it?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Since yesterday morning my copy of iTunes has been starting and stopping randomly. If iTunes is not running, then it opens and sometimes begins playing, other times sits idle. Eventually, after a random interval it will begin playing a song, and then stop, and so on... Needless to say, it's driving… >>> More
iTunes crashes with "Attempt to allocate 1073741824 bytes for NS/CFData failed" error

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
This is a pretty common occurrence. Every two days or so iTunes will crash on me with this error. FYI, 1073741824 is 2^30, which is gigabyte. The crash log is below if you're interested. Process: iTunes [40778] Path: /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes Identifier:… >>> More
Active Directory and Apple's Workgroup Manager

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I thought I'd share my experiences here. I work for a small business with only ~20 users. I wanted the ability to use managed client preferences to assign things like the software update server. Basically the ability to manage my Macs easily and in a native way. At first I tried the magic triangle… >>> More
Kernel Panic every time I open a print queue

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Every time I open any printer queue I get a kernel panic and have to reboot. It's quite frustrating. I've tried removing/adding printers, clearing all caches with Onyx, repairing permissions, all manner of things to no avail. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! ==== CRASH REPORT ==== Interval… >>> More