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

Taetertot, try looking again to see if you can find out what the differences are. Look closely, this is a hard one

 

So, is it already confirmed that as of now this drive is the best drive there is for notebooks? Is it better than my current 7K500 Hitachi drive that it will make me want to upgrade?

Thanks.

 

I had the 7K500, bought the XT and now the Hitachi, although still loved is gathering dust in my office.

 

Yes it is. See how it beats the WD Scorpio Black here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5818&review=ssd+vs+hard+drive

 

Maybe this has been covered alread (search says no results) but does anyone dual boot with one of these?

I'd like one of these for my laptop but I'm also thinking about setting up to dual boot Vista and XP. Would this cause problems or negate the effects of the NAND portion?

 

Since the nand is 'invisible' to the rest of the computer, I don't see any problems arising from dual booting.

As to negating the effects of the nand - I still think this is faster than any other mechanical HD - whether the nand is boosting performance or not (the 32MB cache helps, I'm sure).

 

woops. nothing to see here.

 

Well, I just ordered a 500GB Momentus XT. it's $10 discount at Newegg.com today! Just go to the 500GB Momentus XT page on newegg and it gives you the discount code, plus free shipping. So it's $119.99 shipped. Not a bad deal at all. I'm coupling it with an OCZ Vertex 2 60GB. I figure SSD for boot drive and get the benefit of the 4GB cache in the XT for all my other programs should be a good combination.

I was going to spend almost $600 for a 256GB SSD, then I realized that would be stupid considering I got this combination of SSD and Momentus XT for about $245, plus bought a Kingston 64GB SSD for $95 after rebate for my desktop, and still money to spare. Good thing because my xbox 360 finally gave me RRoD after almost five years, so have to replace it. But a quieter x360 will be worth it.

 

Lol. You know what it is though? When you search on Amazon for 640gb, you get everything that includes "gb" evidently. So it's not just me alone being a boner Amazon search really sucks. You can't even freakin sort by price as far as I can tell, it comes back completely random.

 

htwingnut,

that'll be a killer combination you have there! Just make sure to leave as much free space as possible on the SSD.

 

Well, I figured about 25GB for Windows 7, Office and a few other apps. Then I'll probably put a couple games on there that will benefit from the faster load times, rest of data, programs, and games will go on Momentus XT.

 

Thanks for the info. Is there a "batch" of these that are better than the others in terms of noise or whatsoever? The first time I subscribed to this thread I'm reading some posts of RMA'ing because of noise and speed problems.

Also, when you install Win7 into it, is the process same as installing into a normal HDD? Would short-stroking still have an effect?

 

I previously had this drive in a Dell Precision M4300 and it performed admirably (quieter than a 500gb 7200.4 Seagate that I had for 2 years). I then moved this drive to a desktop and it has been making the beeping/chirping noises quite often. It did this on the laptop, but only once every few days whereas on the desktop it is making the noise several times a day. It is very disconcerting as this sound is usually heard with failing drives. However it's been like this for a month now and I haven't seen performance problems that accompany the sound (e.g. the lag spike that people have with the power down of the drive). I was loving this drive so much on the laptop, but now I'm not quite satisfied with it in the desktop environment. I wonder if different chipsets have different results w this drive, seeing as many of the macbook pro owners with nvidia boards have issues with this drive, and seeing that my desktop is an AMD board (790FX) compared to the 965 chipset of the laptop it was in before.

 

kevin, the guy i got mine from has the new firmware already installed. 3 of us have confirmed that his xt's dont vibrate and are quiet, though not as quiet as my 5400 wd500bevt.
using phils tweak, made it more responsive (at least in benches) but increases temps to 41-46 even on an room with a/c.
pm me if you want that contact.

 

phil i just noticed today that i got this conflict on the device manager under processors.
the only thing i have done to my computer is apply this tweak and uninstall the intel control center that came with intel rst driver.
is this a normal consequence of apply your tweak?

 

The tweak made no difference to the XT on my U81a, made a big difference on my P7805 and SF2.................

 

what exactly does the tweak do

 

Apparently someting with the power states. The CPU driver(s) on mine also come up with an error so it may actually be something else that is causing the issue from the drivers but since they are in error whatever it does when the CPU driver enables it isn't now doing..................

 

have you tested if it had any performance effect on your cpu

 

Yeah, short stroking will still work it's magic - even with the XT Hybrid!

 

The ide is supposedly to effect the CPU when it is idle. From the onset of this thread the 4K's were better when the CPU was loaded. Myself, I have not investigated effect otther than I ran 3DMark as it seemd to have no ill efect.

The XT had no real bennefits so I went back to default settings, I am playing with it on the P7805 as the 4K write took a big jump at 1Q............

 

Sandforce SSDs perform the same, whether they're 10% or 90% full.

No need to leave free space.

it's normal and not a problem.

 

Phil, what are your thoughts regarding the problems encountered by some people with this drive?

 

I didn't experience any of the problems. Going by what I've read I think the majority (not all) problems are related to:
- certain Macbooks
- not having the latest firmware
- notebooks with SATA I

As with all computer purchases I recommend buying from a store that has good service and return policies. If the drive causes problems then you can RMA it. If it continues to cause problems you can just return it.

 

Ok. The review you've made doesn't show the comparison with the 7k500, is it already proven by benchmarks and real-world performance that the XT kills the 7k500?

Also, when using the XT is it just like a normal hard drive?

 

As far as I know the real world performance of the 7K500 is similar to the WD5000BEKT.

Yes it's like a normal hard drive to use it.

 

I ended up getting one of these drives because I ran out of space on my Patriot SSD. I ordered from Newegg and received a drive that had the latest firmware. No problems so far. It seems to perform well, and the extra cash in my pocket is much appreciated.

 

Edit: Sorry, I thought (for a second) that the BEKT was the Scorpio Blue (I know - it's the Black...).

 

What's the latest firmware of this drive and when was it released?

 

The latest firmware is SD23 and was released the end of July 2010.

See:
Momentus XT Firmware Update

 

XT has been awesome but seriously can't match C300.. But still a super upgrade over my 5400rpm toshiba.

 

Of course it won't be able to match a C300 SSD, but we didn't expect it to did we?

 

seans just gloating
how is the xt as a storage drive?

 

way faster than my toshiba.. but i haven't filt it yet.. only 30GB

 

i wonder if anyone knows how big the typical windows 7 startup files are. i mean how much of the 4gb ssd is assuming all startup and shutdown files of a typical win7 setup is cached to the nand?

 

Does this drive work like a regular SATA drive that needs the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software/driver? The 4GB SSD in it just automatically kicks in without any special setting or something?

 

Doesn't matter how big the Win7 startup/shutdown files are:

If it only caches the directory entries (allowing NCQ to really fly) then it will speed up the system - as it has shown it does.

The 4GB SSD is totally 'invisible' to the OS - the internal hardware/firmware is what allows the nand cache to 'help' the platters perform their best.

I have installed the IRST drivers with my XT and it indeed helps.

 

Looking at the Newegg reviews the 250GB is indeed more quiet than the 500GB.

Hmm I'm tempted.

 

Hmmm. Why is that?

 

one platter in the 250gb vs two in the 500gb

 

It only uses one platter, while the 500GB uses two platters.

Tinderbox confirmed that his 250GB is also very quiet.

The 250GB is relatively expensive though.

 

Ohh, I did not know that the XT uses 250GB platters. I'm also tempted but 250GB is just not enough storage for me

 

I am very skeptical of a single platter HD (inside a notebook) being quieter than a dual platter version.

Did the reviews on the web actually compare the two drives directly?

Theoretically, it should be quieter (if all the spec's are 'loose' on the drive in question). But, given two 'on spec' modern HD's one with two platters and an otherwise identical one with one platter, the difference is too small to notice once installed.

 

compared to my wd 500bekt 5400rpm the xt is as quiet and has very slightly more vibration. it gets a little hotter though.
other than that i think its a v good drive

 

Then it has 2 outer edges instead of one. Does that mean that by short stroking it @ 250 GB it would be faster vs the single XT 250 GB one? Seems logical.

If one needs only 250 GB @ the present, would the speed gain & future possible storage space expansion justify the $30 extra cost?

 

That's correct.

Depends on your finances. For me, the 30 bucks are trivial, so I see no reason to stick with the smaller drive. Obviously, dollar for byte, the 500GB drive is a much better deal.

 

Personally , I would agree.. I hear clicking sounds sometimes from my 500GB XT.. its quite weird because i had heard them first and thought it was a G73 problem but its actually the XT clicking..

 

The clicking noise can be solved. It's the vibration I'm afraid of.

I had the XT 500GB in my DM3, I know what it's like. It's not that bad but quite noisy compared to SSD. That's why I'm considering the 250GB.

 

My 250gb is in storage now while i play with my new SSD.

 

I have the 250GB XT. It replaced an Hitachi 7K500. I didn't need the extra space the 500GB XT provides and valued the possibility that the 250GB XT was quieter than the 500GB XT.

Purely by my feel, nothing scientific, vibration is less than the Hitachi.

I've also never heard a clicking sound come from it, it's pretty quiet.

Very happy so far with the snappier feel vs the Hitachi.