Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200RPM SATA 2.5" Solid State Hybrid Drive - $99 shipped!

I posted a negative review on this previous page, but after updating the firware and the drive figuring out my usage patterns over time I feel like its gotten much faster, indeed nearly true ssd fast. The vibration of this drive still annoys me. It makes my entire m11x chasis vibrate. But it does appear to be a worthwhile purchase after some time has passed.
 
more time has passed and I can really recommend this drive now. Most boot ups are nearly SSD fast IMO. When a system config changes, or something new is installed and it isn't a straight SSD bootup you know the difference, but it seems like 80% of the time or better the thing boots up just really fast, and feels SSD fast, and the other 20% of the time (after some sort of program install or change) it just works regulary 7,200 RPM hard-drive speeds --- so nothing terrible. I had considered buying a straight SSD as the prices dropped, but the prices are pretty reasonable now and I don't really feel the need to upgrade. The vertex 2 SSD in my desktop doesn't feel noticably different for the majority of the time than this hybrid does in my m11x.
 
I don't understand why anyone cares about bootup time. Most people usually just suspend their laptops and only reboot for system updates. The idea that cache be used for bootup (or app startup) time is such a waste. This is the issue I have with readyboost, that it only helps startup times when that's not my real issue. I want to speed up apps that make heavy use of the hard drive, like database or VMs.
 
venm11 said:
I don't understand why anyone cares about bootup time. Most people usually just suspend their laptops and only reboot for system updates. The idea that cache be used for bootup (or app startup) time is such a waste. This is the issue I have with readyboost, that it only helps startup times when that's not my real issue. I want to speed up apps that make heavy use of the hard drive, like database or VMs.
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Yea, but how much of that are you doing on a laptop?
 
I just noticed that the part number listed on Seagate's web site for this drive is STAN500100, whereas this deal is ST95005620AS.

Maybe the new version is much improved?
 
venm11 said:
I don't understand why anyone cares about bootup time. Most people usually just suspend their laptops and only reboot for system updates. The idea that cache be used for bootup (or app startup) time is such a waste. This is the issue I have with readyboost, that it only helps startup times when that's not my real issue. I want to speed up apps that make heavy use of the hard drive, like database or VMs.
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I have 8gb of RAM on my laptop and I don't find hibernate to be any faster than rebooting. (sometimes I think it's slower cause I have to wait so long for it to shut down.) Then there is the random 1 of 5 occassion where resuming from hibernation doesn't work well for some reason and it just seems to hang or act weird.

When I"ve had two gb of ram I've used and enjoyed hibernate. Standby uses battery up so I don't typically use standby.

At any rate - I find myself restarting the machine after each use mostly and for that purpose a SSD or this hybrid drive really seems to shine.
 
I think seagate should maybe test this drive in a 5400 RPM variant to avoid the darn vibration caused by a 7200RPM drive in a laptop. The SSD element would still give the super fast boot ups, and the lack of vibration would be enough to make me do the swap over a slight preformance hit in data reads and writes once the OS was loaded.
 
I have this drive in my M11x and I love it.Not only is boot faster,but frequently used programs load faster also.I dont have any issue with vibration,in fact I never noticed or heard it at all..I have the SD25 firmware for those in the know about this drive..Money well spent!
 
Mif said:
I just noticed that the part number listed on Seagate's web site for this drive is STAN500100, whereas this deal is ST95005620AS.

Maybe the new version is much improved?
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According to someone who posted a review at Amazon.com, the difference:

Specs are the same. The STAN500100 is just the retail kit whereas the ST95005620AS is OEM/bare drive.
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_xt_retail.pdf (STAN500100)
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_xt.pdf (ST95005620AS)
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I have 2 of these drives. One in my Asus G73 and the other in my Dell D830. Both have been flashed to the SD25 bios's. In my Asus, I do not notice the vibration at all, and performance is stellar. In the D830, I do notice the vibration, but it isn't horrible. Performance is also stellar. This leads me to believe that it's because of how secure the drive is mounted in the Asus (utilizing all the mounting screws), and how flimsy the design is in the Dell (2 screws, slide in mechanism). It's not horrible, but it's there. Either way, I'd buy the drives over again if I were starting fresh.

If you haven't updated the bios to SD25, do it. It takes 5 minutes, and will prolong the life of the drive (unless it's mechanically flawed). Here is the link.
 
venm11 said:
I don't understand why anyone cares about bootup time. Most people usually just suspend their laptops and only reboot for system updates. The idea that cache be used for bootup (or app startup) time is such a waste. This is the issue I have with readyboost, that it only helps startup times when that's not my real issue. I want to speed up apps that make heavy use of the hard drive, like database or VMs.
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I never put any computer that I own to sleep. When I'm not using it, its a hard shutdown. I find memory leaks and whatnot degrade performance significantly in Windows if they don't get a fresh reboot at least every couple of days.

Also, I dual boot to Linux, so boot time is important for me.

I just picked up one of these for my Fiance's MBP I am restoring (her sons beat it up pretty badly, but I am replacing the chassis and the screen as a surprise). hopefully it will be a good drive for that computer :)
 
Come to think of it, I'm using a 4gb readyboost SD card in my laptop; how do I know whether the Momentus XT can improve on this?

Actually... the more I think about it, RB could make the XT more effective since it will cache many files that might take up the XT's cache. But all that depends highly on the logic each cache is using.

Also that since the XT is primarily a read cache (with very slow attrition) that it won't help at all with swap or temp or any other nuisance file accesses. I think you really write caching and at least 8GB to see consistent speed gains.
 
Zarathustra[H];1037155704 said:
I never put any computer that I own to sleep. When I'm not using it, its a hard shutdown. I find memory leaks and whatnot degrade performance significantly in Windows if they don't get a fresh reboot at least every couple of days.

Also, I dual boot to Linux, so boot time is important for me.

I just picked up one of these for my Fiance's MBP I am restoring (her sons beat it up pretty badly, but I am replacing the chassis and the screen as a surprise). hopefully it will be a good drive for that computer :)
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FYI, go check the seagate forums. There are a lot of people having issues with these in MBPs. More than any other system, and some issues unique to macs.
 
Modred189 said:
FYI, go check the seagate forums. There are a lot of people having issues with these in MBPs. More than any other system, and some issues unique to macs.
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I've had this drive in 2 different MBPs and it's worked flawlessly. I have 2 of them in my desktop as well.
 
Sweet, either they fixed the issues with SD25, or you got lucky. Either way, NICE.
I have one in my M11x, and love it.

But Zara, still, do your research.
 
Modred189 said:
FYI, go check the seagate forums. There are a lot of people having issues with these in MBPs. More than any other system, and some issues unique to macs.
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I saw those posts too, but it looked like the drive was a misdiagnosis to me.

Their problems with their drive seem to have started right after the OSX 10.6.4 update, and if you look at the Apple forums lots of people ((without the momentus) had the same issues after that upgrade...

I'm going to make sure it has the latest firmware before I install it either way.
 
Archaea said:
I think seagate should maybe test this drive in a 5400 RPM variant to avoid the darn vibration caused by a 7200RPM drive in a laptop. The SSD element would still give the super fast boot ups, and the lack of vibration would be enough to make me do the swap over a slight preformance hit in data reads and writes once the OS was loaded.
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Eh, that wouldn't really make any sense. All 7200 RPM drives are going to be "louder" than 5400 RPM drives simply because they spin faster. I'm not sure how much the Momentus XT vibrates, but my 320GB WD Scorpio Black (7200 RPM) doesn't cause any vibrations at all. The higher RPM can give a nice 33% speed increase over 5400. A 5400 RPM hybrid drive seems counter-intuitive.
 
Jon55 said:
Eh, that wouldn't really make any sense. All 7200 RPM drives are going to be "louder" than 5400 RPM drives simply because they spin faster. I'm not sure how much the Momentus XT vibrates, but my 320GB WD Scorpio Black (7200 RPM) doesn't cause any vibrations at all. The higher RPM can give a nice 33% speed increase over 5400. A 5400 RPM hybrid drive seems counter-intuitive.
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I can hear mine vibrating as well as feel it. It annoys me. One of my friends said he didn't notice it, so it's all probably subjective.
 
I never hear my WDC drives vibrate either nor do I hear the Toshiba drive that is currently being used in my dell. the seagate in my wife's laptop does not vibrate to the point of where it can be felt.......
 
I've had my XT for a couple months now, its whisper quiet, never hear or feel anything and man does it open 3DS Max and Photoshop/Dreamweaver CS5 a HELL OF A LOT faster than the WDC Black I had in it before. The poor black is a backup drive now, but its in a nice USB 3.0 case at least =)

Boot up always blows people away, they think its because its an i7 quad core and then complain when theirs isnt as fast haha.
 
Jon55 said:
Eh, that wouldn't really make any sense. All 7200 RPM drives are going to be "louder" than 5400 RPM drives simply because they spin faster. I'm not sure how much the Momentus XT vibrates, but my 320GB WD Scorpio Black (7200 RPM) doesn't cause any vibrations at all. The higher RPM can give a nice 33% speed increase over 5400. A 5400 RPM hybrid drive seems counter-intuitive.
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I'm not sure that's true. Why would one be any louder, unless the bearing is defective, or there's a different kind of motor? I'm listening to two laptop drives in front of me, one 5400, one 7200, and I don't hear much of a difference.

I've read that the XT spins down more often because of the cache, but also spins up at awkward times when there's a cache miss. So, I'd guess you'd hear the spinup whine more often, and it would be more noticeable overall because the sound isn't consistent.
 
one guy a few pages back claimed it had to do with the hard-drive mounting mechanism in the laptop. That he put it in two different laptops and it vibrated in one and not in the other.

My vibration in my m11x caused by the XT drive is not spin down/spin up. It's all the time, like a little tingle in your fingers when you are using it. You can feel it anywhere on the chasis.
 
i've this drive and hadn't had any problems so far, though i switched it out quick for SSD and now i've that on external enclouser.
 
My brother bought one of these in august for his old DV6000.....it broke in January of course, as I told him it would.

After doing computer repair for years I just can't say enough bad things about Seagate products
 
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