Hard drive upgrading

Hi,

I'm having a really hard time trying to decide between a Moments XT 500GB and Scorpio Black 750GB.

I want the boot and application loading speed of the Momentus but at the same time could make use of the 750GB on the Scorpio Black.

How much better does the Momentus XT get after is remembers your regular programs?

Between the two which would be better on battery life and CPU usage?

It'll be so much easier if they have a Momentus XT 1TB, 8GB SSD and Advanced Format 4K Sector...

 

The XT doesn't "remember" anything from what I understand. It sees what you're doing and then, using complex algorithms, pulls up 4GB of likely chunks of data you'll be using. If you do the same thing over and over again in a row it'll be easier to predict what you're doing and that gives the illusion of memory -- the cache is completely dynamic though, it'll never "settle" or completely learn your actions.

I have one. Very fast.

 

Thanks for your input.

From the review it seems the Momentus XT is faster with booting Windows application loading but the reviewer did not say whether or not he ran the programs a more than couple times on the XT to get the results.

Western Digital's Scorpio Black 750GB notebook hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 1

Also the one thing I really liked about the XT is that it is firmware update-able but seems now WD has it's own firmware updater for Scorpio's, this just made things more tight in my situation.

Really though I don't think I can go wrong with either but I want performance and at the same time rather have all my files on hard drive and use my external just for backup (it's really a drag if you have to plug in a ext for a movie/video when laying on the bed) and in my situation I do not have a computer table.

Right now I'm kinda leaning towards the 750GB Scorpio Black, both are 5 years warranty...I do more research into noise and power saving features because that's also a real big thing for me. I hate it when a hard drive is too aggressive with power save making clicking noises in between the power states.

Is your hard drive loud while seeking and when idle, does it make a low pitched whine?

 

Owning 2 MomentusXT 500GB, unless it is dirt cheap 89-99, IMO they aren't worth the premium over the 500 GB Scorpio Black. Given you can find a sale on the 500 GB SB for 60 bucks, 120 for the MomentusXT isn't worth the premium. It isn't the fastest drive out there, and users only really benefit from tons of reboots or consistently doing the same tasks every single day..

 

That's what I was wondering too, doesn't Windows SuperFetch after so many uses of the same program over and over again?

Or is the 4GB SSD faster than Windows SuperFetch?

How is is the Momentus XT able to pull these number when it's almost like SuperFetch with it's own brain?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...corpio-black-2-5-750gb-7200rpm-benchmark.html

Check that out. If you do not care about boot time get the Scorpio.

 

I'm going with either a WD 500GB or 750GB Scorpio Black with Advanced Format 4K Sector.

Thanks guys.

 

I bought a laptop from HP, and chose a 640GB 5400rpm HDD over a 640GB 7200rpm HDD by accident. I also made a couple other mistakes. Long story short, I cancelled it but they still shipped it, and to get it returned and process and receive the laptop I want will take an estimated another 1.5 months or so, which I cannot (and will not) wait for.

Is there a big discrepancy between a 5400rpm and a 7200rpm. I can live with the other mistakes, but this one bothers me bit. I'm afraid my boot time will be much slower than it could of been and everything will load slowly.

"Your computer is as fast as its slowest part" keeps ringing through my head, which is sad since this is on a quad core...

 

So just buy a 640GB 7200RPM drive and use acronis to transfer everything. It'll cost you a little more, but you're already wasting your valuable time by sending it back and stuff.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Honestly no, paying 60-70 for a slight speed increase IMO isn't worth it but really boils down to what you do primarily with your laptop? Tons of reading/writing? Yes go for that 7200 rpm drive or SSD. Just normal usage, gaming? No need.

 

Primarily gaming, college (electrical/computer engineering major), and normal usage. Will the only thing I'll notice is an extra 10 seconds of boot time or so?

 

There's some truth to that. a 5400rpm drive will definitely slow down booting, multi tasking and application launching. See the bottom review in my signature.

I suggest a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB. Best value for money imo. Experience is close to SSD in many aspects. SSD is still faster though.

WD 750GB Black will also be faster than 640GB 7200rpm.

 

Really, unless you're concerned about file transfers, boot times and gaming, then upgrading to a 7,200RPM hard drive is a waste of money. However, with a 5,400RPM hard drive, you will experience longer battery life over a 7,200RPM hard drive, and probably a lower overall operating temperature as well.

 

The thing is, I don't have the extra cash to buy an external hard drive or an SSD right now. I'm just wondering if I should be slapping myself right now, or if I will even notice the difference besides boot time. The laptop that I use now, boots in just under 2 minutes, and it never bothered me....

 

A quad core laptop with a 5400rpm hard drive is out of balance in my opinion.

 

It's hard to resist making fun of people with HDDs

(jk )

Mr. Mysterious

 

Regardless of the error you made, beating yourself up over this now is pointless. The fact of the matter is that a) you now have a serviceable laptop, and b) hard drive prices will only fall as storage capacity increases. In this case, when you are ready to upgrade the hard drive in the future, you will be able to do so cheaper. SSD prices are also falling, so it is not inconceivable that in the future, you could swap out your 5,400RPM hard drive for a speedy, affordable SSD.

I'd have to agree with this, but again, hard drive prices are falling and capacities are increasing. The money saved on avoiding the hard drive upgrade through HP now represents more buying power in the future, more "bang for your buck" as it were.

Or those that cannot afford them? In any event, some people, like myself, see no need for a costly SSD in their laptop since the advantages that an SSD brokers is not required for the type of work we do on them.

 

Wow, I was joking man...take it easy

Mr. Mysterious

 

The 7200rpm one was the same price. -_-

 

Ai that was a mistake. But you're only human for making one

 

Ouch! Well, like Phil said, we're all human. If you weren't, you'd be dead since dead people never make mistakes.

 

I would just live with the 5400rpm drive. If you are used to other 5400rpm drives, you probably wont notice anything. If you are coming off of a SSD, you might find it slower. In that case upgrade on your own.

Buying a ($60 - 70) 7200rpm HDD on your own may turn out not too far behind for you, compared to getting it replaced by HP. You ought to factor in shipping costs and the opportunity costs of waiting 1.5 months more (they already have your full money for the system now!).

 

Guess I'll stick with the 5400rpm. Hopefully find some cash in the near future to upgrade it myself...

Does anyone know of any stores (not online) that sell 7200rpm drives for cheap?

 

HI,

I've been trying to decide the same thing between the Scorpio Black and the Momentus XT. I have also decided that the 750gb Scorpio Black is a much better deal and has performance well enough to more than meet my needs.

 

OK, I got a new used laptop (Inspiron 1545) and putting some 'higher end' stuff in to make it the best it can be for a Core2Duo based. I've gotten the proc (T9550), RAM (2x4gb PC2-6400), etc etc and now it's time for a hard drive. Firstly, SSD is out due to price/storage expense and I have only one place for the drive and need room.

Here are the contenders:
For Seagate, I'm looking at their Momentus XT hybrids model(s) ST95005620AS or STAN500100 (retail box) - both 500gb
For Western Digital, the choice I'm deciding is Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT (750gb) or WD5000BPKT (500gb)

What is everyone's EDUCATED (read as please no random "WD sucks, they f-ed my RMA up") opinions, I've done a bit of research on these, and the XT looks to be ahead of the Scorpio Blacks, though I recently saw the XT's were getting some firmware upgrades due to issues over time with the drive. Anyone have real world with these drives, or know a good comparison where they put the SB's against the XTs? I saw one and the XT beat the 500gb Scorpio Black, but the 750 wasn't out at the time and it's always good to have 2nd and 3rd/4th/5th opinions!! I don't have a pref between 500gb vs. 750gb, and put the WD 750 in for reference and comparison against the other drives. If it's better, fine. If not, 500gb is enough space for me...

 

I don't have a huge amount of knowledge on HDD's, but I've read of several people here on NBR with multiple failed Seagate XT drives.

I personally prefer Samsung's drives.

Have you looked at the Seagate Momentus XT thread in the "Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades" section?

 

If you have a 1545 you could do an SSD in the main HDD bay and a secondary storage/program drive in the optical drive bay and hot swap it whenever you need the optical drive.

Honestly owning 2 XT drives, their performance is disappointing, and their prices high. I own a 750 GB Scorpio Black and a 320 GB SB, both very good drives for the money. The XT drives are only good for users who do tons of reboots and have the same consistent computer usage scenarios everyday. XT's aren't the fastest drives in terms of read/write. So unless you do the above, I would stick with the Scorpio Black.

 

People misunderstand the XT. Let's say I only use Chrome for a week. Yes, Chrome will be fetched by the SSD. But if I suddenly use Office it won't say "Sorry, not enough room, too busy caching Chrome."

As soon as you open office it starts caching office and pulling chunks of data that it thinks office will use. That's why when you open it a second time it's so much faster.

It's not just reboots that are effected.

 

Seagate seems to be coninuously working out the kinks with the momentus XT drives. I bought two of them very recently and they shipped with the latest firmware already installed. I have had no issues with them at all, but with that said they are very new still...

In my limited experience with them, for repetitive tasks that you will do often that they commit to NAND memory, they are extremely fast, and will outperform any standard spinner HDD on the market... But, for random things they are slightly above average.

Compared to the WD Scorpio Black 320GB that I replaced, the momentus is right on par with it for things coming off the platters. I would imagine the newer Scorpio Blacks have had their performance increased, so for accessing the platters they may be a bit faster.

So to echo what Tsunade mentioned, if you do a lot of random things, the Scorpio would be the drive to get. But if you do a lot of repetitie tasks, I think you'd be really pleased with the Momentus XT. Seagate seems to really be committed to getting these things right, and their customer service folks and engineers have been very willing to work with adopters of the technology to make sure they're taken care of. So try not to be too worried about reliability of the Seagate, more often than not I think they're willing to work with you to get it right.

It is new technology though, so don't realistically expect it to be perfect if you go with the Momentus. I've been very lucky, but fully expect a problem going into the future.

 

Newegg and Amazon typically have a deal with the 500GB XT for $90-$100 usually. Personally for $100 I think it's worth it. But at the same time you can buy a 60-64GB SSD for that price or less and put a 500GB drive in your optical drive bay, and that is the best solution IMHO.

 

Source

If you're an average user the XT offers the best price performance in my opinion.

I have a Vertex 3 here, but I'm now using the XT again. For my (light) usage the Vertex 3 isn't really worth the premium.

I don't think I'll enjoy going back to a regular HDD. I don't like waiting for applications to launch.

 

Hello all,

Will shortly be purchasing a Samsung SF311 specs after quite a bit of looking around this laptop seems to hit my sweet spot of price, portability and relative power.

One of the downsides to this laptop is the slow 320GB 5400rpm hard-drive and I would be seriously interested in upgrading this to a hybrid SSD/HDD, so I am looking for suggestions for a 320-500GB fast/hybrid drive, at this stage an outright SSD is far too expensive.

Thanks in advance!

 

they only have 1 hybrid drive which is the momentus XT. I have it installed in my laptop the 500gb version. It boots up windows and loads frequently used programs faster than my old 5400 drive but it also runs hotter. You can check in the SSD forum there's a long thread about it.

 

Also I heard that the XT has many mechanical problems that even with firmware patches for some will still not solve their problems. For the price of a XT, I rather just try to save up and go for the big boys (true SSD's) or save and get a 500GB WD Scorpio Black or get a 750GB WD Scorpio Black HDD.

 

Well I haven't ran into any problems with this drive so far. I'm still on the SD24 firmware also.

 

Any other views?

 

My XT runs great. It boots OS X in 16.3 seconds, the Vertex 3 needs 14.5.

Check the reviews in my signature. As you can see, in common tasks it's a significantly faster than the Scorpio Black.

I've owned a few Scorpio Blacks, they were relatively noisy and vibrated significantly. The XT I have now is totally silent. The first one I had last year did vibrate.

For my usage pattern I have a hard time justifying the premium of SSDs over the XT.

 

From what I've heard replacing a HDD is a relatively simple process, would you agree? One area that would concern me is buying a laptop that would come woth no installation disks, is there anyway to transfer the OS to a new HDD?

 

Yes it's easy.

You can download Windows 7 legally and burn your own DVD. I recommend doing a clean install. It will boost your systems performance.