New Seagate Momentus XT 750GB w/ 8GB NAND (and more)

Well there is one point, no advance sector format.....................

 

They could also make a single platter version at 7mm high. There are more and more notebooks coming out that only accept 7mm drives.

 

Nice little 'review' from Macrumors.

 

Thanks for link Phil.

I just know you're itching to get one for yourself but I'd would say wait for a price drop or sale before making the upgrade.

For myself, I'm going the SSD route because I have the option to via mSATA SSD but if I didn't I would highly consider the Momentus XT 750GB again only after a price drop.

 

Wait. Didn't the Samsung Series 7 Chronos already come with a Hybrid Hitachi 750GB 7200RPM 8GB cache drive? Does this mean they are replacing them?

 

I thought the Samsung Series 7 Chronos comes with a Momentus 750GB + SSD with Diskeeper's ExpressCache software to create a hybrid drive via software.

ExpressCache - 3x Your PC Speed | Diskeeper

 

Notebookreviews has it as a Hitachi. I wonder why everyone has a different company for their hard drive. I hope when I get mine it'll have the Seagate Momentus XT.

 

Um...you won't get a Momentus XT with the Samsung Series 7 Chronos from factory. The above post means a regular Momentus 500/7500GB + on-board SSD (8GB soldered onto the motherboard like on Android tablets) combined with Diskeeper's ExpressCache software.

Of course a Hitachi or any other brand hard drive can work with this method for creating a hybrid drive via software but when it comes down to performance, reliability (hardware or software) and convenience a real hybrid drive like the Momentus XT 500/750GB is always going to be better.

 

hmmm......ok

 

From £263.99 all of the way up to £339 in the UK on Amazon.co.uk.

 

It's only 165 euros in the Netherlands. Same price as a Crucial M4 128GB.

I'd like to get one but I just bought a 500GB XT for the old price. The 4GB cache serves me well. And I don't really need more than 500GB.

 

You can actually get the Samsung 470 SSD (unused) from eBay for an extra $30 USD.

 

I suggest we don't use this thread for comparing US Ebay prices of SSDs to European retail prices of the XT.

 

Any word on the reliability of these yet? They are still interesting to say the least.

 

There's going to be a 500GB model too: ST500LX003.

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/docs/manual/notebook/momentus/XT/100665905d.pdf

 

Yeah I remember reading about a 500GB 8GB SLC in PDF copy of a webcast. They listed it under 2011, so I wonder if they still plan to release it soon. Depending on how cheap it gets, I wouldn't mind just having 500GB.

http://wcc.on24.com/event/34/73/62/...inar_momentus_xt_product_presentation_126.pdf
(look under Drive history)
Seagate Webcast File - Storage Forums(orginal thread)

It is also interesting that Seagate plans for 80% of their products being SSHDs in 5 years...

 

I would have liked to see a single platter version too.

I've never seen any 375GB HDDs so I guess it would be a 320GB.

 

Since the 500 GB shares SATA specs it should be the same platters but just the reduced capability but if you look at the specs is shows both the 750 and 500GB using 4K sectors or advanced format. If this is true it could be confusing for some people and thereby the drive will unfairly get bad ratings...........

 

Why would it get bad ratings?

I would expect only the fastest part of the second patter will be used resulting in slightly higher average transfer speeds.

 

Because you know people with older systems unable to support AF will purchase it not knowing and claim DOA etc.............

 

I thought AF alignment was done automatically onboard the hard drive's controller on Momentus 750GB's unlike required software alignment on WD Black 750GB's and 7K750's.

Is the AF alignment also mobo SATA chipset/controller dependent even on Momentus 750GB's?

 

I'll wait for the 500GB to see if there are better prices.

 

Just a heads up that anand's review of the drive is up with a nicely simplified explanation of how the drive nand cache works: AnandTech - Seagate 2nd Generation Momentus XT (750GB) Hybrid HDD Review

 

From AnandTech's article - this quote was extremely interesting!

 

Interesting. Thanks jclausius.

Any word on the 500GB?

 

From what i understood in Anand's review, the 500GB drives with the 4GB cache won't get the update because Seagate deems the cache too small to allow both read and writes. I have a feeling we'll see a 500GB drive with a 8GB NAND cache pop up some time though.

 

Some "older" bioses need to be aware of the 4k rather than 512 sector size. AF is before Sata III so modern boards should not have an issue.

 

Who would technically fall under this category? I was planning on getting one not for myself but for my sister and brother.

 

Every bios is different. You would be best off searching for support for your system. In most casers if theye are running larger drves already such as 640GB and above then you should be fine as those usually are AF drives.

In the case where AF was not in the original bios there may be an update available from a newer bios. Just rememeber the new 500 GB looks to be AF where the current one is not.............

 

Well, my brother has a Samsung R580 and my sister has a Dell Inspiron 1520, like me.

 

Sorry I'm not familiar with those systems. Again in the specific system forums or reviews if you find people using AF drives then there will be no issue. The R580 seems like a newer system and may be fine as is but the 1520 seems as if it is much older.

 

I took the plunge and got a Momentus XT 750GB before the 2012 New Year along side 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600.

I had the option to go with a Intel 80GB mSATA SSD which I could have gotten a few months back but opted to wait for bigger 120GB mSATA SSD from Intel that never got release, so screw Intel I'm sick of waiting.

Besides with the Momentus XT I'm feel more future proof (although slower than a real SSD) in the case I'd like to upgrade to Windows 8 in the near future, with the Intel 80GB mSATA SSD I'm confined to just 80GB for the OS and programs which is good my current Windows 7 usage but might not be enough for Windows 8.

I'll post up some benchmarks once I have Windows re-installed.

 

Out of curiosity, is the Momentus XT also affected by the Thai flood pricing?

If it drops below $175 or so I'll be all over it.

 

Yeah, all mechanical HDD prices were affected.

 

That will be a bit of a wait but sooner or later..............

 

I got mine for $199 on Boxing week sale. I'd prefer just to pay $150 but with the current prices of hard drives the $199 price-tag isn't so bad.

 

Just to clarify... Which drive did you get? The 750GB/8GB Hybrid? Or the 500GB/4GB Hybrid?

 

The newer one 750GB XT with 8GB/NAND, the drive should be packaged and shipping out in a couple days...

 

Brilliant. Nice find!!

 

Update:

My Momentus XT 750GB arrived today but I haven't yet opened it, I'm having second thoughts and thinking maybe should have gone with the Intel 80GB mSATA SSD.

This is what I'm currently looking at:

Intel 80GB mSATA SSD + 750GB Hitachi = $320 (tax in)

Momentus XT 750GB 8GB/NAND = $220 (tax in)

Considering my laptop can accommodate a mSATA SSD (Intel 80GB) and a regular 2.5" hard drive (Hitachi 750GB) paying $100 more for a Intel 80GB mSATA SSD is probably the better choice given the current situation with hard drive prices which also currently affects the Momentus XT 750GB.

Thoughts?

Edit:

While it would seem like an easy decision just to the return the Momentus XT 750GB and get the Intel 80GB SSD + Hitachi 750GB hard drive in the end it's still $100 more expensive then the Momentus XT and I'm not too sure if 80GB (75GB formatted) is enough for Windows + my programs in the long run, this is the very reason why I held back on Intel 80GB SSD a few months back.

With the SSD + HDD combo I'll be getting 80GB more hard drive space overall but honestly I don't need the extra 80GB over 750GB for game and media files, what I think I might need is more than 80GB for Windows + my programs in time and with SSD + HDD combo I'm confined to only 80GB.

 

Curious......if you buy 2 750gig XT's with 8gig of NAND, will that mean that in Raid config wouldnt you then have 16gigs of NAND? 16gigs of NAND and 1.5TB for realtively cheap money doesnt seem to bad once the drives drop back down below 200......

 

I think there are few users on NBRF that has the first gen Momentus XT 500GB in RAID configuration.

Try checking this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...e-momentus-xt-hybrid-hdd-w-built-4gb-ssd.html

 

Update:

I've decided to return the Momentus XT and go with the SSD + HDD combo. I still can't believe I've waited this long to get the SSD + HDD combo. I guess partly is because I waited see how the Momentus XT 750GB would turn out hoping it would be $150 and partly because I thought Intel was had a bigger mSATA coming at the end of 2011.

I got screw either way, sorry for putting anyone's hopes up for the benchmarks.

 

I have a SSD + HDD and I have only used up approximately 40 gigs. I install the programs I use most often into the SSD while my unimportant programs or programs that take large amount of space in my HDD.

No regrets

 

Is this available to consumers yet? I haven't seen it on Seagate's website

 

Yes.

10chars

 

Well, I've returned the Momentus XT 750GB and installed the Intel 80GB SSD and I must say I'm impressed by the speed of the SSD.

However, considering I've once owned a 500GB Momentus XT that got returned because of clinking noises I must say for anyone who cannot afford a SSD + HDD combo or do not have the room for such a setup, the Momentus XT 500GB is pretty darn close to SSD in OS boot and application load times.

With the Momentus XT 2nd gen being even faster than it's predecessor and Seagate promising write cache enabled firmware for the drive in the near future you can't go wrong with a Momentus XT 750GB if paying $200 or less with the current prices for mechanical hard drives.

The only real thing that I noticed a lot faster on the SSD as compared to the 1st gen Momentus XT is installations and heavy multitasking (with zip/virus scan in the background) both of which are not done often by the average user myself included.

For everything else such as OS boot times, multiple application loading and even file transfers (speed is limited to the drives you're transferring from and to) the difference between a SSD and 1st gen Momentus XT is noticeable but not tremendous and if compared to a 2nd gen Momentus XT the difference in speed is most likely a tad over marginal at best.

 

Nemix77, right.

And a couple of years ago when SSD's performance was far below where they are currently,they were barely better than a properly prepared and looked after 'normal' HDD - (when capacity was also considered just as important as the speed).

While I am running an SSD+HDD setup now in almost all my workstations, the 750GB XT continues to impress me with how little performance is 'lost' by settling for a mechanical HDD solution instead of going to a pure solid state storage solution.

With the promised firmware that will allow write caching on the XT 750GB's nand - I think that is when we will finally see SSD prices plummet for anything less than ~256GB capacity - because the performance delta will effectively be nil for most 'lite' usage scenarios.

 

Should we expect competition in the foreseeable future, or Seagate would remain the King? I'm really interested in this drive, but I don't like the price, availability (have to buy it from eBay, import duties and etc) and to be honest, I'd much rather buy WD or Hitachi one.

 

I too am leary of Seagate's 'normal' HDD's.

However, the XT's have been an exception - even though I have seen a few of the original 500GB XT's die (chance? more than likely).

For the modest increase in cost, the increase in performance is well worth it.

As for competition - we have to all stop buying the lowly (small capacity/cheap) SSD's and buy XT's instead. Not only will this force SSD's to become real system performance enhancers (in all capacities...) but it will also give a clear sign to the competitors that Hybrids are where the money is at.

Alas, Hitachi (my favorite HDD company of all time, btw) is out of the running - bought out last summer...