Late 2007 MacBook Pro Hard Drive Replacement/Upgrade

The 120GB stock hard drive on my Late 2007 MacBook Pro is just not cutting it anymore in 2014.  I rarely have more than 7GB of free hard drive space (less than 10% free space can impact system performance).  A faster drive, especially a solid state drive could breath new life into my veteran mac.

The folks over at iFixit.com have made an easy to follow Hard Drive replacement guide that shows steps by steps photos of replacing this hard drive.  They say that this MacBook Pro model can fit 2.5" drives up to 9.5mm tall.

Here are my hard drive upgrade options.  If I opt for a SSD, it would need to be 240GB or larger to increase the capacity that I already have.

Some great deals can be found on this list:
Amazon Best Sellers: Best Internal Solid State Drives

Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE250BW: Computers & Accessories 
$156
(may not include adapter for 9.5mm)

Amazon.com: Crucial M500 240GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD1: Computers & Accessories 
$130
500 MB/s sequential reads
400 MB/s sequential writes
80k random reads, 80k random writes
* includes adapter
3 year warranty
BEST VALUE


Toshiba 500 GB 5400 RPM 2.5" Hard Drive - iFixit
$75
8MB cache
Dimensions: 2.5" (69.85mm) wide x .37" (9.5mm) tall

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 ST500LM012 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive - Newegg.com
$50 (regularly $55)
8MB cache
12ms average seek time
5.6ms average latency
2 year warranty

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$190 (reg $250)
512MB cache
Sustained Sequential Read: 540MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write: 520MBps
3 year warranty

5 star reviews

SanDisk Ultra Plus SDSSDHP-256G-G25 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for Notebook - Newegg.com
$170
Max Sequential Read: Up to 530 MB/s
Max Sequential Write: Up to 445 MB/s
3 year warranty
4/5 star reviews


As of January 2012, these drives were available:

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 HN-M750MBB 750GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive
Average Latency: 5.6ms
Cache: 8MB
Warranty: 3 years for parts and labor
$115

2/2/12 Update:
B&H Photo sells this drive for $90 with free shipping.  Much less than Newegg's normal price of $115.

As of 1/2/11, it has 78% 5 star reviews.


Western Digital AV-25 WD5000BUCT 500GB 5400 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Warranty: 5 years
$140
This drive is so new that is only had one customer review posted.  It does have the combination of 5400 RPM speed and the 16MB cache that I'm looking for.