Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD w/ built-in 4GB SSD

As a HDD, I am impressed. I wan't expecting SSD performance but I thought it would be more than it was. For an HDD I am presently impressed with it's performance in the U81a and as stated the LT runs alot better now.

I was swayed by the one review that was stating how the Raid0 drives were so close to an SSD. Sorry but they aren't. Agreed it is a faster version of the XT but it still well shows it's HDD section. But again that is ok because I knew I had use for them so it wasn't a waiste.

I am slowly upgrading the P7805 to be my killer laptop for my purposes to last me a while as I retire next year and won't have the money for upgrades as frequent as I do now. Other than now looking to go with 8GB I am very happy with it so far. The SSD and X9100 have really made this a new machine.

While I think a waist in an enclosure the XT with the new FW should be anyones first consideration before putting in a primary or even secondary HDD. I like it that much and highly recomend it to just about everyone. While there are certain users that really will not bennefit much from it they are few and far between..............

 

wats the expected life span for this drive? id like to know if it would be a longterm reliable drive

 

Same as any other drive, as far as anybody can tell at this point. You want to know more, come back in a couple of years.

 

In a couple of years, probably even sooner, these will be an old memory. Just hopefully a good one.............

 

TANWare, I just noticed you have an Everex XT5000T, I have an old one of those sitting around unused...what do you use yours for? haha, with my new vaio I can't figure out a use for it. Gonna put one of these momentus xt's in the vaio once I get some cash.

 

Hasn't even been turned on in a long time................

 

Ah, fair enough, haha. I'm probably going to turn mine into a Linux box for tinkering purposes. Thanks again for the recommendation on the Momentus XT though, should be a fine replacement for my 5400rpm drive in my vaio.

 

I put one in my CW. It makes a great difference without noticeable impact to temps or battery life.

 

I just RMA'd my first one. Hopefully the second will actually work.

 

I have to wonder though if NewEgg and others, or even Seagate, are recycling their RMA'd drives. This would definately be a reason for the high RMA's for if it were returned once it most likely will get returned again by the next person.

It makes me especially suspicious when I hear "missing the static bag" or "box already opened" etc. I can say after my RMA'd drive the next two I got were great...............

 

That would make sense. Although mine looked new except for a few scratches on the underside, and it came in an unopened static bag.

I just checked new egg and they've sold out of the 500gb XT's. I hope they put one aside for me or restock soon.

 

For those who know, how is Amazon's return policy? I am thinking about buying the Seagate Momentus XT from Amazon, and their website isn't very specific as to the conditions of their return policy (especially for something like a harddrive)

 

hi,
my 320 gig momentus xt is running flawlessly and fast. quite satisfied so far. the only issue i have, is that it vibrates. its not that the notebook rattles and shakes, but if the notebook stands on a wooden table you can hear it humming all the time, thats annoying. you can also feel the vibration on the handrest while typing. (my previous scorpio black was running smoothly without any vibration). some posts say that the momentus xt doesn't vibrate at all. so is it just my one? did i get a lemon? i'm thinking of returning it, but i'd like to hear some oppinion about that before, so how are yours?

 

The first one I rma'd, 500gb, vibrated that badly, the subsequent two did not..........

 

ok, thanks. so i might have gotten a faulty on... i think i'll return it and order a new one...

 

The one I have does not vibrate at all also.

 

I just received my Momentus XT 500gb with the latest firmware 23 from Amazon today.

HOLY HECK!!! It is FAST!!! After doing a clean intall of Windows 7 x64 Pro and after a few reboots, the thing flies! I really feel it is significantly faster than my Samsung 128gb 2nd gen SSD as well as faster than a Mtron 32gb SLC SSD that I own (albeit these SSDs are not used in the same computer so the comparison doesn't hold much ground - the SSDs are used in a Samsung X360 ultraportable SU9400 Core 2 Duo ultra low voltage).

Extremely happy!

Will post longer term use updates here. Also note that I am using this drive in combination with Intel Turbo Memory 4gb. In ITM, I am able to manually cache the programs of my choice, so I am going to let the Momentus XT automatically cache my daily use items, while I use the ITM to pin everything else that I use on a less frequent basis - it is pretty clear cut for my use since I either use programs daily, otherwise other programs only once every couple weeks. The other thing I've noticed thus far is that it is significantly quieter than the drive it replaced - 500gb 7200.4 that I've had for at least two and a half years - I got it RIGHT when it came out to the market.

 

this may be a dumb question but here it goes anyways:
if i use an 8gb fast sd card with readyboost on a 500gb 5000bekt how will that setup compare to the M XT in terms of boot up speed times and shut downs?

 

trvelbug,

It won't compare at all. The XT is in a class by itself - readyboost or no readyboost.

(Note that the readyboost cache is build with each reboot).

 

I've asked the SSD Thread this but, for the XT lovers,

Are there any of you guys that have tried both the Seagate XT and a high-end SSD (aka the Corsair F120) on a decent system?

I'm just looking for a personal opinion on how well you can tell the difference between the two!

 

Is the 4GB memory in the Seagate XT as "fragile" as SSD memory? I read that when SSD memory gets built up, writing slows down etc.

 

Torrents are absolutely not a problem for Sandforce drives. Performance degradation can occur after heavy usage but TRIM restores it. And even a heavily tortured Sandforce drive is miles faster than the fastest traditional 7200rpm hard drive. See here.

In the end it comes down to this: for your usage a Momentus XT will give nearly the same feeling as using an SSD. The XT will offer more capacity, the SSD offers complete silence and no vibrations. I say choose what you like

 

Ah I see, well I "like" both

Is it too early to see the long term problems of this Hybrid drive? I'm worried that the 4GB of memory will get chewed up! Does the XT come with TRIM?

I have a feeling as soon as i pull the trigger on the XT, an 8GB XT will come out

 

The SSD on the XTC is SLC, which is very resilient in theory. In reality I haven't heard of any problems. The XT doesn't come with TRIM because it doesn't need it.

And if you buy an SSD, a newer and faster model will come within two months. That's the way it goes with technology.

 

A heavily tortured drive is faster on sequential large writes so long as the "LifeTime Throttling" for writes is not enabled. Reads are always much faster. Even with the throttling enabled small writes are way faster on the SSD.

I jst had to again do a Secure Erase yesterday. So I got two weeks with out doing another SE. I could live with the 80MBs instead on the 140 MBs before it enables but I know it is there and it won't go away on its own so it irks me to no end............

 

Hi guys, I have a question about the Seagate Momentus XT and OS X/Boot camp. I was thinking about putting one in a Macbook. I know that the 4GB SSD is for frequently used files. So when I boot into OS X it will load OS X files, and when I boot into Windows it will have to erase the OS X info on the SSD and re-write the Windows files. Will this be problem, will it make the HDD slow(er), and is that even correct?

 

I think it works somewhat different but the conclusion is the same: it will limit performance somewhat.

The more OS's and applications you use, the less benefit the XT has.

 

This I think is why some reviewers wanted to see more SSD cache space. At some point though I think there would be deminishing returns. With Windows 7 you can experience it slowing down as it kicks files from the SSD cache and then I would imagine with a dual boot from the drive you would only experience this that much more.

Personally I think even under casual use 8GB SSD would be usable. For a dual boot maybe 12GB or 16GB would be better. If you figure another $50 per 4 GB that would put the drive at close to $300 street of a 16GB SSD. Personally at that point maybe a 120GB SSD would be a better option so long as you could have a second drive for storage or could live with the reduced space.

If your intent is too kill cache performance you might be better off getting a WD 500 black or waiting to see what the Seagate 750GB 7200 has to offer........

 

Real world performance of the Momentus XT vs. SSDs and the Scorpio Black 500GB:

SSD vs Hard Drives: A Beginner's Guide to SSD Upgrades

 

That all sounds about right for the WD and XT. I don't have experience with the WD but from the 7K500 to the XT so the results are similar. I think we would have to see 15,000 rpm drives to get close to the XT and even then maybe not.

I am so grunging on having one for my storage for the P7805 now that there is the new firmware. The SSD cache is just awesome even just caching directory, mft and other info to make it almost feel like there is an SSD for secondary storage.

 

is there anything u need to do to the XT before u use it? its my storage drive.

 

Only installing Intel Rapid Storage driver and you're set.

 

Does that mean the latest chipset drivers, or can you download specific hdd controller drivers.

Also sean473 , you can flash the latest firmware if you dont already have it, it`s up to you!

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=215451&NewLang=en

 

Yes upgrade the firmware to SD23 too.

Intel RST driver should be installed separate. At least on my laptop it was not included in the normal chipset driver.

 

The latest chipset is dated 2009 , but the latest RTS driver is 2010 see below.

32/64-bit Intel® RST Driver / Tue, 23 Mar 2010

 

That's the one I'm using.

I think there's a newer one too, someone posted it in the SSD thread.

 

Got in on this thread way too late, 1st page has people hating on it, last page has people using it. So what is the general consensus at this point? I just read 2 reviews on it today and I really do like what I saw. Closer to SSD performance than HDD yet closer to HDD prices than SSD. Sounds like a great idea to me.

I had been checking out a Vertex 2 or X25-M but you just can't beat that value. IMO at face value it offers the best performance to space to cost of any storage device on market. $130 for the 500GB performing near SSD. Only concern is the reports of DOA in the newegg review.

I do however think the device would have been better suited with 8GB or even 16GB SSD part. Based on what I read the device functions by loading your most commonly accessed data into the SSD portion. Just in a Windows 7 installation you are looking at 6GB, that plus your most commonly used apps would fit nicely into 16GB then you still have the HDD portion for all your data.

I had been laptop shopping lately and something I really wanted was dual HDDs so that I could set primary as SSD and secondary as HDD. This totally eliminates the need for that in addition to the trouble of having to have data spread across two drives.

 

While you install 6GB of files you don't access that much each boot. Also alot of the larger streamed files do not require caching or full caching. The algorithm they use is pretty effective.

If you can afford to live with the lower space the XT will not touch a good SSD. The XT is a good HDD killer though, there is just no doubting that fact. There are always going to be some usage patterns that will reduce efficiency of any compromise solution but overall, especially with the newer firmware, the XT is a great device.

You will still have RMA issues just as you do with the 7200.4. The problem here is platter related. these platters for whatever reason vary wildly sometimes in viration issues. When the vibration is high enough it will invariably cause other issues up to and including data reliability recording to the media. if you get a good one though you are set, if not there is the RMA proccess.

If you have a dual drive bay SSD primary is the way to go even with an XT as secondary. More costly but in the end you have the best of the state of the art. I have the SSD as primary and all user data folder on the storage drive. This keeps the SSD as clean and fast as possible for the os and programs without the data accross drives issue at all........................

 

I also expected 4GB would not be enough. In reality it works very well.

My review is here: SSD vs Hard Drives: A Beginner's Guide to SSD Upgrades

 

so you have to have a special driver for these to work optimally?

Something tells me that Intel driver isnt going to work for me,any suggestions?

 

The Intel RST driver gives a little boost in synthetic benchmarks. The effect on real world performance is probably small.

If you got a different chipset I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Have you heard anything about other companies developing hybrids or is Seagate going at this tech alone?

 

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

I wouldnt mind seeing a hybrid setup that actually acted as 2 drives, for a good 2 drive setup that would work in any laptop.

It would have to be something bigger than 4G tho

 

I tried to install it and it seems I made a mistake not realizing the FW already at SD23.

Now the process is stuck on "Unable to execute program. Press <Enter> to proceed"
pressed enter a couple times... it stucks there, should I restart by force?

UPDATE: I know it's gonna be long till someone reply this message. So I pulled the trigger to forcably restart it... nothing wrong with it. I got windows running fine now.

 

Good to hear everything is fine

 

This is actually a bad idea. Sorry!


Not only do SSD's hit the limits of SATA 2 already on certain metrics, they would be horribly bottlenecked by having to share that bandwidth with another drive on the same port.

Another point to consider is that the user would have to make decisions as to what was on the HD and what was on the SSD portion. This is not only a waste of time for the end user, but also very ineffective: an algorithm could do it not only faster and better, but it could be continually optimising the SSD's use as the notebook is used for different things over the course of it's lifetime.

How bad is this idea?

Even if it was offered for sale, I would not take the time to try it.

But I would buy a version of the XT with 40 or even 80GB read-only SSD portion and a 1 TB platter 'main' drive in a heartbeat.

 

Yeah totally. I agree with the concepts of an SSD + HDD in 2 drive configuration or the XT idea of an onboard controller making 2 drives act as 1 but 1 drive acting as 2 wouldn't make much sense apart from where there is only 1 hd bay. I don't think the SSD portion would need to be that big but I think one with double the XT, 8GBs would be close to the most cost effective best performing drive.

Honestly until the cost of SSD comes down and capacity goes up it seems to me like Seagate has the best idea of the lot. Hopefully they are not the only company pursuing a line of this tech. It seems other major hdd manufacturers should be too since they already have the systems in place to manufacture the hdd portion cheaply so they could even subcontract the ssd portion and piggy back them without too much extra R&D. From the looks of it this is all that Seagate did, tacking a 4GB SSD onto their Momentus 7200.4 and adding some extra programming for data separation and optimization. Would seem nuts if at least WD and Toshiba didn't have one in the works.

 

A noob question here.. I've been reading that it is not recommended to clone data from old HDD to SSD, but since the momentus XT is technically a HDD, there should be no problems right?

 

There are less problems right. But still, doing a clean install is a cheap and effective ways to boost performance.

Buying a new hard drive to get a speed boost and then not doing a clean install seems contradictory to me.