A couple of months ago, I ordered a new hard drive, intending on installing it in my MacBook Pro.

It’s a Seagate 500GB Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (2.5-Inch | SATA 3.0Gb/s | 7200RPM | 32MB Cache), if you happen to know what all those things mean, or what difference they make (I’m not sure that I do). I ordered it from Other World Computing, where I’ve bought hard drives and computer memory several times in the past. [I don’t get any benefit from mentioning the company, but I’ve been pleased with their products and service in the past.]

They call it a hybrid drive because it includes 4 GB of solid state memory, and supposedly loads things you use most often into that memory for fastest access. In addition, it runs at 7200 rpm, well about the 5400 rpm of standard laptop drives. So theoretically it should boost the computer’s speed in two different ways, with faster overall performance due to the fast disk speed, and then an added boost from the solid state memory.

But it arrived about the same time my computer was having “issues,” so I just installed it in an external case and used it to back up the internal drive.

And that’s where it sat until this morning, when I decided to go the next step.

So I did a final backup, watched the video that gave a step-by-step guide to opening the specific MacBook Pro model, removing the old drive, installing the new drive, and then putting it all back together again.

I’ve only operated inside my laptop once before, and that was to install additional memory, so I was a little nervous about the operation. But I followed the instructions, went nice and slow, was careful to control potential static electricity, and was rewarded with a nice, normal chime when I eventually tightened the last screw and restarted the computer.

I’ve only been using it now for 30-minutes or so. The faster drive gives a nice kick. I imagine it will take a little time before the solid state memory begins to speed up routine operations.

For something around $120, it seems like a pretty cost-effective upgrade that will deliver lots of benefits.