Seagate Momentus 7200.4 thread

2.5" drives are 3x more expensive than a 3.5" drive of the same capacity and rotation speed. That means for the price of a momentus 7200.4 (500gb) you could get a barracuda 7200.11 (1.5gb)... which is also one of the fastest mechanical drives out there, beating the velociraptor in many tests, but losing in others (things like seek time and operations per second, but wins in sequential read/writes).

and the speed of an external drive doesn't matter at all in most situations, unless you're running eSATA (or USB 3.0 beta?).

 

has any tested the 7200.4 in a sony vaio z?

any vibration issue? noise issue? Heat issue? Power consumption issue?

I am in the market for a good 500gb that does not cause vibration issue and battery lost ..

my first choice was the wd 500gb blue/black , but read some reviews and found out that vibration was a big problem in those drives . ..

Plus i notice this seagate has g-protection which is a plus ++

 

Vaio Z already has g-protection, so there isn't really a point in another one. The 7200.4 is cheaper and better available afaik.

 

We still do not know if it is better. No one has provided real life benchies

Come on guys, it only takes 15 minutes to download, install and run PCMARK or crystalmark

K-TRON

 

Hello i was wondering if anyone could help me out. i don't really have the time to sit and read all the 98 pages so I'm just going to ask. I have an inspiron 1521 laptop.
#1. How reliable is this hard drive?
#2. Is this one of the best hard drives for the money and size out there?
#3. how is the vibration and the noise emitted from the hard drive?

I really appreciate your help.

 

We don't know it, mate. This HDD stock is scarce...
The 2nd batch probably gonna out few weeks from now.

 

Not a good drive for size/money. Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM for <$70. You pay premium for capacity and speed since 500GB 7200RPM has higher density. I know several people had them, wish there were benchmarks and reviews but lately 7200RPM drives have been pretty good on vibration, noise, power consumption, etc - especially since it only has 2 platters.

 

Just for the sake of argumentation:

 

The 7K320 goes for $70 today, but after rebate its $50
The 7K320 is 80% the speed of the 7200.4

The 7200.4 was going for $140, which is 2x the price before rebate, and nearly 3x the price after rebate. So if you want to spend 3x more to get barely any more performance than that is up to you

K-TRON

 

Agreed.

I think I will buy 5K1000 instead.
(assuming Hitachi will release this along with the "confirmed" 7K750)

 

Sorry your quote is outdated. Check out prices lately?

 

Nope.

My point is, according to Gophn, 5400RPM with larger capacity and lower price will perform like 7200RPM with smaller capacity and higher price.

 

Well the 320GB 7200RPM doesn't have a smaller capacity (same density, so that nullifies the performance gap that you mentioned) and is actually cheaper (or as cheap) as the 5400RPM drive. We aren't talking about the last generation 200GB 7200RPM drive. Plus 7200RPM drives have lower access time which is important.

 

Rumored where? I can't find anything on google.

 

dont agree wit u. unless u can show us tat the access time is same as 7200rpm.

 

Which one? 7K750 or 5K1000?
Either way:
1. 7K750 is confirmed being tested by Hitachi. I forgot who post it, K-Tron IIRC, he got the info from an insider. And the info so far is accurate because he also have a leak that Hitachi joining Intel to develop a faster SSD which now we can see the press release in Hitachi GST website.

2. 5K1000 is only a guess I make based on the fact that Hitachi usually released a bigger 5400RPM drives shortly after a new bigger capacity 7200RPM drives released.

Appendix:

3. The naming scheme is also my guess based on the fact that Hitachi always name their product based on spindle speed + highest capacity. So, 2.5" 750GB will be labeled as Travelstar 7K750.

 

I never said that they were going to be called 5K1000 or 7K750
I said that Hitachi has a 500gb and 750gb drive in the making (i.e, the firmware is being tested and perfected)

K-TRON

 

Yup, I know that. Sorry, I'm not trying to put a word in your mouth
I'll edit my post

@all
the naming scheme is also my guess based on the fact that Hitachi always name their product based on spindle speed + highest capacity. So, 2.5" 750GB will be labeled as 7K750

 

just got my 7200.4 in the mail. gravity sensor model.

gonna wait till tomorrow when i get my thermal paste before tearing the macbook pro apart.

 

dont forget to post a HDTune benckmark screenshot...

 

hdtune shows nothing about real life harddrive performance
Please post Crystalmark results or PCMARK scores, that information is much more valuable than a hdtune run

K-TRON

 

I just got my 7200.4 in the mail today, I'll be installing stuff later.

Do I need to have a clear HD to run those?

 

u ordered from?

 

Dell, so it's the anti-shock version

 

well so far out of 4 of these ive had to send 2 back that died. so imo for me at least not the best track record. i have yet to send back a wd drive 500gb. now they are not 7200 rpm but..

please know the 2 i sent back were from the first batch released so it could be just bad from the start.. ill report back when i put my other 2 throug the ringer and beat on them some more

 

If anyone has the possibility to do some real life testing please do so. Time some boots, copy and unzip actions. Comparison with 320GB/7200rpm would be nice.

 

Someone should create a .zip file and host it on rapidshare or megaupload so we can all use the same file to unzip. We should also decide on a particular version of the archive program (for example, 7zip) to remove that as a variable.


I'm running Win 7 x64 (7068)
2.5ghz C2D Penryn
4GB RAM
8800m GTX
7200.4 500GB HD (partitioned into 150ish GB & 345ish GB)

My startup times won't be very comparable to other people I think and I won't be installing another OS on it.

 

well dudes. i probably won't do any benchmarks. but one thing i've noticed about this drive, versus the 160gb 7200.2 i upgraded from is that this thing is loud.
oh yea boot times are faster, but that's probably because i did a clean install of leopard. plus my 7200.2 only had like 5 gigs left.

there is a significant difference between when the thing is spinning and when it's idle.

i never noticed an audible noise when using my 7200.2.

im gonna pop open the hood later to makes ure im not covering the air intake for the harddrive... see if that's the problem.

 

Dead On Arrival or sudden death?

Sudden Death = running flawlessly, everything fine for sometime, and then... bang, its dead.

 

sudden death

 

Well, my fear of Seagate's "Deathstar Age" has been proved.

 

What does that mean?

It's the ultimate power in the universe, but gets taken down by a farmboy who shoots helpless animals for fun by attacking a cooling vent?

My 7200.4 is running perfectly, I don't notice the sound of the drive over the graphics card fan... so I'm not sure if it even makes noise.

 

LOL... No, I'm not talking about Star Wars.
Just google IBM Deathstar or read it at wikipedia.

Oh, btw, zfactor said his 7200.4 HDD going sudden death, meaning everything works fine and then suddenly the HDD dies. So, dont forget to backup your data... more frequently.

 

Hey everyone, I'm obviously the new guy here.

I run a MacBook with a 2.16MHz C2D with 2GB 667MHz DDR2. I want to upgrade my (cringe) 4200rpm 200GB Toshiba to a 500GB drive. I've been reading through this forum for the last couple of weeks but I thought I'd ask if anyone knows if the 7200.4 would show a significant performance boost over a 5400rpm 500GB. Being a MacBook user, I'm obviously not a gamer, so that's no concern of mine. The most demanding application I use regularly is probably Photoshop.

So, do you think the 7200 would have a significant performance edge over the 5400 for me?

Thank you, and please excuse my being a bit self centered.

 

I would stick with the 500gb 5400rpm drives. Go with the WD5000BEVT or the Hitachi 5K500.B

I say this because the macbooks are made out of an aluminum alloy so they amplify the noise of the drive and pick up any vibrations it may make. A 5400rpm drive will produce less noise and vibration, so it would be better for you. Plus they are cheaper, are proven reliable, and they will get you good battery life.
The 7200.4 no offense is not a good drive. With Zfactor's new addition that is 7 drives dead if you follow nbr's 7200.4 searches. That is only from around 35-40 drives, so the odds are really bad for that drive

The 500gb 5400rpm drives are the fastest 5400rpm drives and rival the 320gb 7200rpm drives in performance. The performance upgrade to a 500gb 5400rpm drive will be substantially faster than the drive you are currently using

K-TRON

 

K-TRON, between the WD and the Hitachi, do you have a recommendation?

 

wd are simply awesome drives.

 

Remember this, Ajreynol, your comment about Seagate being the most reliable HDD ?? LOL

 

Attempted to order this drive from Dell....Expected ship date....5/19/2009....OUCH.

 

I think for the current time, WD and Hitachi are the best choice.

But don't get fanatic over the brand though, every HDD vendor has it's own "dark ages".

 

indeed. very disappionting to hear of all the Seagate troubles with this drive.

this is why I refused to buy the Dell rebrands. potential to fail outside of the Dell warranty year appears significantly higher than it should be with these drives.

Seems the proper logic suggest to buy the Seagate branded one if you absolutely must have this drive...and back up regularly. Or better yet, buy a proven reliable 5400rpm and save yourself a lot of the worry.

 

I do recall. lol. but hey...my 7 year-old Seagate HDDs are running like champs. What can I say. I'd like to think the HDDs having problems are from the initial offerings, but that's not 100% true (though mostly true). there is, of course, hope that they will have fixed their firmware issues in the next wave, but it's a pretty big chance to take.

feels like the initial launch of the Xbox 360 all over again.

 

well, if you want the 500GB, i already said it before, K-Tron got a leak that Hitachi is testing 500GB and 750GB HDD currently.

I guess the 500GB is the 7200RPM and 750GB is the 5400RPM.

 

i see.

is there an ETA on them?

 

hmm, no date yet. you can read the details here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4658627&postcount=55

 

What do I choose, I choose Hitachi and Samsung because I have had the least problems with them. I had some bad run ins with Western digital a few years back and well Seagate was great in my opinion to about 2003 and than well after that none of their drives ever lasted for me. I prefer Hitachi and Fujitsu for Enterprise drives, SAS, SCSI, Fibre, 10 and 15K, and Hitachi and Samsung for 5400-7200rpm notebook/desktop drives.

I had a Seagate go strong from 2000 until 2008. I replaced the drive in June of 08 and it died before the start of the year. It was a 7200.9 too After RMA it was sold and replaced by a Hitachi

I am a fan of Hitachi because I have had the least problems with them, but to be honest the general concensus differs per drive, but generally people like WD and Hitachi

K-TRON

 

cool, thanks. I'm not in a big hurry, so I think I'll wait and see if these Seagate's get themselves together and what WD and Hitachi bring to the table.

 

Hmm, does anyone have insight into what exactly Seagate are doing right now? I mean, it's been months since the last batch (first?) was made. I know that OEM manufacturers have higher priority in general, but it's not even possible to find a preconfigured laptop anywhere with the momentus 7200.4.
I agree from the drive failures presented in this thread, it sounds like something is wrong here - but then again, if they were not packed properly, or was dropped that might also influence the reliability.

I'd rather avoid Hitachi this time, because my external drive (box with a P7K500) has random problems with the heads hitting the spindle... for some reason it sounds like it scates across the drive platters once in a while. That, and the travelstar 7k60 in my old laptop is rather noisy and vibrates more than my current laptop momentus 7200.1.

But of course, if Seagate cannot get this right, then i'd rather not waste my time

 

But if the packaging is bad, usually resulted in DOA, not Sudden Death.

I also use Deskstar P7K500 with Sarotech external enclosure, connected to my laptop using USB. No problem in Vista, but in XP keep disconnecting after few minutes. I believe it's got something to do with the USB driver in XP. After I downgrade the Intel INF driver, it's more stable now.

Oh, and the sound you heard, it's not head hitting spindle. I believe it's how you set the power management, so the heads will park on the loading ramp if the HDD is idle for X minutes. Nothing to worry about. In fact, my Deskstar P7K500 is so quiet that sometimes I thought it's dead

 

That would be a good idea but in order to get the most reliable benchmarks the hard drives need to be run in the exact same system.