M11x users - Seagate Momentus XT 250GB vs. Intel 120G SSD Vibration and Battery life?

I finally got a decent build M11x R1 from the cyber monday deal ($499 woot!), my refurb came with a 500GB 7200.4 regular momentus. The vibration puts my hand to sleep. The original M11x I got (did an exchange) had a 250GB regular momentus and sitting side by side the 250GB ehibits no noticeable vibration.

I would like to get a Momentus XT 250GB though. Anyone own the 250GB version and what can you attest to vibration and battery life? I don't want to spend $200 for an SSD if I can help it, but if vibration and battery life are not good, then I may have to bite the bullet and get the Intel 120GB SSD.

Thanks for any input.

 

My first 500GB XT vibrated so badly that I couldn't type longer than about 4-5 minutes before my hands would go numb. Returned it to Newegg for another and it's exactly what you'd expect from a 7200rpm dive - just a slight tingle that you get used to.

 

I went with the 500 gig, since its a much better Price/Performance ratio, and honestly I can't feel vibration any different than from the 5200 rpm. especially while ur gaming and typing I can only feel vibrations when the laptop's fan kicks in.

Also at 120 gig of space, it really feels like a step back to 2004/05, which even back then, 250 gig was becoming standard. but most ppl had 80 gig-160 gigs.

And Considering that I give the OS 60-120 gigs (depending on my HDD space), that leaves u with 60 gigs for download, games, movies and music. My steam folder alone is about 100 gigs

So in my opinion, unless ur putting the 120 gig SSD in a Desktop coupled with another Hard drive for space, or unless you can find a reasonably priced 256 gig SSD, I prob wouldn't kill 200$+ on something that soon enough will become as cheap as 7200rpm hard drives are now.

If we compare, I use to pay 150+ for a 500 gig HDD. Now you can get a 2 TB hdd for under 100$.

I bought a 64 gig SSD on sale for 100$ for my desktop, and I am still kicking myself, it felt like it was still overpriced.


Anyways its completely your call, in terms of battery life, I dont see it being worth the difference at all.

Seagate's Momentus XT Reviewed, Finally a Good Hybrid HDD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Seeing as it can range from any where from null to 2 watts difference in power consumption.

 

Thanks guys. I have a 500GB Momentus XT in my 15" notebook. I don't notice any vibration other than a very slight hum, but it may be the system fan too, I don't know. But in the M11x, it's definitely problematic. I stuck it in there just for giggles, paused it at the BIOS screen and it was more than I care to manage.

I'm ok with 250GB. It's a single platter drive so should be much quieter and also consume less energy. My Intel 80GB in my current netbook gave me over an hour of battery life compared with the WD caviar blue drive it replaced, which is kinda like, once you get something you hate to give it up.

 

If you are that sensitive to hard drive vibration, then any mechanical hard drive that you buy will have vibration. Nobody can really answer whether a Seagate Momentus XT 250GB will be acceptable for you, since nobody really knows what your tolerance for vibration is.

If you're really interested in reducing vibration and increasing battery life, then an SSD would absolutely solve your problems. The way I see it, trying out different mechanical drives would be dancing around the issue to see if one mechanical drive gives a small incremental improvement over another mechanical drive.

If I were in your shoes, I'd go with something that I knew would solve the problem on the first try, and stick an SSD in that machine. This is especially true if you've already used SSD's. Going back to anything mechanical is like booting back up on Windows 98 on a Pentium-90.

P.S. I'd also recommend you check out drives based on the SandForce SF-1200 controller, like an OCZ Vertex 2 or a G.Skill Phoenix Pro. They have equal-to-or-better performance than an Intel X25-M drive, and consume less power under load than the Intel drives (idle power draw is equivalent at about 0.5W each)

 

Thanks for the response, but I already noted that I tried a 250GB Momentus, 500GB Momentus, and 500GB Momentus XT. I also have done some testing with Intel 40GB, 80GB, OCZ Vertex 2 60GB, Kingston 64GB and find the Intel is the most all around best performer for performance and power consumption. I just haven't had the opportunity to see/use a 250GB Momentus XT.

Also, I'm most interested in idle power consumption, mainly that's what the SSD / hard drive will do 90% of the time, sit in an idle state.

The Momentus 250GB has no noticeable vibration in the M11x. The 500GB Momentus and Momentus XT is noticeable not to mention more power consumption. I know vibration is subjective, but this is like whole machine vibrates vs. nothing really noticeable. If someone states they notice the vibration of the 250GB then clearly that's not good.

I just really don't want to spend over $100 more for vibration and power if I can help it, when 120GB is borderline within my size requirements. If it was a 160GB SSD for ~ $220 I wouldn't bat an eye.

 

Well today's sale of the Intel 120GB just changed my mind to go with SSD.

Intel 120GB $204.99 - $35 cash card = $169.99 - $25 newegg gift card = $155 - 3.5% ebates rebate = $148!!!

At newegg, $25 gift card today only. I just bought one.

See Cin's post for details:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...5-200-50-300-100-500-today-12-13-10-only.html