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

I think it's not that far off, but I admit that this was a bit spurious. I apologize if this came out the wrong way. All I was trying to convey is that sometimes, theory is enough to know the answer, although I will readily concede that in a device as complex as today's hard drives, and those XTs in particular, demanding practical proof is perfectly legitimate.

 

Ok about RAID0, yes it works, I have tested it but there is a small, to me fatal, issue. That is the block size of the raid. If you use say 64KB then 64K and under files only go to one drive. This means the one drive only caches the data using up some available cache. while the other drive has its same cache free. over time this can cause some files to be cached then half of that file or so to be ousted for another file. So overall you can get more sporatic results from the reads.

The way to stop this is to have the RAID set to 2K and format at 4K. The problem here is RAID overhead will limit you too 150 MBs if that. Essentially slowing the RAID to the point that it barely is faster than the single HDD. Especially considering CPU load combining the blocks.

This is why I tossed the idea of raid in my P7805. If you had a true hardware controler this may be a different issue altogether. The GM45 is kind of a hardware/software hybrid RAID. It is a postable raid like hardware but uses the CPU etc for the controler.

I hope my experience with mine helps some others out............

 

too bad you couldnt do a few benches for us. im sure you feel the snappiness, but it could have quantified it for the rest of us.
i personally dont see how running a few benchmarks could affect your production machine but its your machine, your choice.
1tb with near ssd speeds really is compelling. was contemplating tring it out myself. until i saw that post and others commenting how raid didnt seem to be effective on the xt.
tanwares post above makes a great explanation. thanks man.

 

Ok, just found a Seagate forum thread full of people with complaints about this drive. (Not trying to make the drive sound bad, just doing my research before buying!)

Seems no one on this thread has encountered any of the issues - random spinups/spindowns, crashing, data corruption?

 

really didnt read the thread but spindowns were corrected by the latest fw and/or keeping the power on high performance mode.
also for some reason the mb and mbp seem to have issues with the xt.

 

Also some/all Lenovo's too from a few posts I've seen lately.

 

Some Apple owners have issues with it, while others are very happy with it.

 

well i have had it for a while now and i know the experience are different from user to user but on my side its been deciving.
the boost in speed is really irregular depending on what you do from what i noticed if you are the kind that do boot1 - prog2 - prog3 - shutdown4 and then start over the same ritual then yes it seems to work fine, i would put it this way, its a fine disk to tango 1234-1234-1234-1234 but its really bad in a mush pit 1634-1834-1924-1524- etc, etc... i guess i can smell the ssd coming for me but dont get me wrong its good as long as it used in a computer that does constantly the same thing.

 

I had the drive for about a week and to be honest I can not tell any difference performance wise at all. Its 500gb and my old one was 160gb so it has more space to use is the only advantage I see.

 

Is that the most you found it to store? 4 programs worth of frequently used data? What were the 4 programs you used most often and/or saw benefit in?

I only use about 10 programs on my computer altogether, tops. Aside from the booting benefits, I'd expect to be able to get NAND storage for more than a few internet programs (say, browser & Skype), Openoffice and CCleaner but I can't easily see it being that limited or clear cut. Then again, I've not used one of these drives.

 

RWUK, I was indecisive as you and when I finally got it, the performance was pretty underwhelming. SSD prices are really starting to come down. Get a 60-64gb ssd for a boot drive and stick a large hdd in your ultrabay. The end cost will only be $50-60 more than an XT.

 

Somethings wrong. Have you installed Intel RST driver?

You may want to run some benchmarks: Bootracer and CrystalDiskMark and post the results here.

 

What laptopo are you using? The xt has reported to have problems with the lenovos and macs, but not all of them

 

some people speak about how good seagate momentus xt is others say cant compare to ssd.

does anyone have any info about any ssd and its performance over time ?

you buy new ssd and it will be as fast as 200mb/s read and 150ms/s write and .3 seek time or whatever.

but what after a year or two of heavy usage, will it be stilll as fast?

i heard on other forum someone said after year of usage the read speed go down to 30mb/s the same write and seek time will be much worse too.

if it is true than it is nonesense really to buy any ssd.

why max warranty for ssd drive is only one year ?


other question what about 500gb momentus xt ? i saw on other forum someone did a test using hd tune and the seek time averadge was 16ms read test 70mb/s

i have at the moment wdc 5400rpm and i tested it using hd tune its seek time is the same 16ms and the read test averadge 55mb/s

and this hdd is year old


so why really should i upgrade to anything ? i planned to buy momentus xt 500gb or ssd vertex. but not anymore.

 

If you are an average user a modern SSD with TRIM should stay as fast as it was in the beginning.

To see how the XT compares with a 5400rpm drive check this review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5818&review=ssd+vs+hard+drive
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640GB Review

 

ssd wont stay as fast if it was in the beggining when you bought it if it did they would give you 5 or 10 years warranty
but buying any ssd you will get max 1 to two years

there are articles about ssd performance over period of time, thats the most important thing about any disks. no matter how fast your drive is today what matter how fast it will be tomorrow.

second as i see from the link you showed to me, wdc black 640gb 5400 rpm is almost as fast and the seagate momentus xt only windows booting time is better file copying application launching everything almost the same it suppose to be something a way better than 5400 rpm hdd. it really isnt.

 

That's true for people who write a lot of data to it and/or don't have TRIM.

The average user only writes 5 GB per day. With TRIM a drive will easily last more than 3 years.

Read this: http://www.storagereview.com/demystifying_ssd_endurance

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. The XT is way faster than the Scorpio Blue as you can see in the review.

Also see here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5818&review=ssd+vs+hard+drive

 

Intel offers a 3 year warranty on their SSDs, as does Western Digital with their SiliconEdge Blue SSDs. In fact, most brand-name manufacturers offer a 3 year warranty on their SSDs, and most hard drive warranties have also dropped to 3 years as well.

Um, the WD Black is a _500_ GB drive running at _7200_ RPM. If you look at those charts, the 5400 RPM drives (The Scorpio Blue and the Fujitsu) are much slower.

The reason the XT is nearly the same in many of those tests as the Black (7200 RPM) is that those tests (apart from rebooting) doesn't use the flash portion of the XT, which turns it into basically a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive... just like the WD Scorpio Black. Where the XT shows a benefit is in booting, and in programs you constantly use, which will startup faster.

 

Most SSD's that I've seen have a 3 year warranty. Chances are I'll be on to another laptop or drive within that 3 years anyhow. If you do a lot of writes, then best to invest in an SLC drive with much longer lifespan.

The momentus XT in my laptop has definitely helped with system boot times as well as application load times. In general it feels faster than the regular Momentus drive it replaced. I'll take a $120 500GB drive with partial perks of an SSD than $120 for a drive with 1/10 the storage. In a laptop it seems to be your best option for the dollar at the moment. If you have dual drive bays then it wouldn't be too bad to get a 60 or 64GB SSD for your boot drive and larger HDD storage drive.

 

Well hopefully within a few months I'll have a 13" notebook but only room for 1 hard drive so the SSD/Caviar Blue option is out.

With all the new stuff coming in the near future, I'm not about to pick something up now but I'm in no immediate need of anything so I'll just lurk and read as things progress.

 

well the xt's price has been steadily dropping; seagate could be moving out inventory to make room for some new hybrid models

 

I hope you're right trvelbug!

I'm ready for a larger (platters and nand capacity) V2 XT!

Seagate, hurry up!

 

Using it on Dell 1525

 

I installed the Intel Driver, but haven't ran many benchmarks other than HDtune.
I'm not so big on benchmark programs...I just use if it looks and or feels faster it is or isn't.

 

Well if it's not faster than your previous drive there's something wrong.

If you would want to fix that, posting those benchmarks would help.

 

After reading through a good chunk of this thread I decided against the XT and plumped for a Samsung Spinpoint MP4 (640) - got to say it feels every bit as fast as some of the benchmarks that the XT has and for a fraction of the price..

 

The Samsung HM640JJ is definitely a nice hard drive, but the XT is a whole lot faster when the tasks are cached.

The Samsung HM640JJ performs similar to a WD5000BEKT. The XT and the WD are compared in the review in my signature.

 

I sent an email last week to Seagate Support asking about an XT refresh. Their current projection map goes up through 12/2011 and shows nothing new or expanded within that time.

According to Western Digital, they have no plans to release a hybrid at all. Shortly I will contact Hitachi (seems the 7k500 is on the move out) and Samsung (though unlikely with the 640JJ just released) only to cover all the bases.

For what it's worth though, both companies were very quick (1 day!) with their responses.

 

Why would they share this information with anyone? I'm sure the real details are with the engineers and managers. Sharing that detail with the public affects sales.

 

My Seagate XT arrived yesterday and I used Acronis True Image to clone my old 640 GB WD Scoripio Blue to it. I already notice faster system restarts, quicker hibernation and resume and program loading and overall system speed is better. I recommend it to all. However, I hope they release a version with a larger SSD portion because I am sure that could be put to more use.

 

Good to hear! I would also gladly see one with a larger NAND smart cache.

I still think it would be awesome if they could integrate a 32GB or 40GB SSD and let the user take control of it, or at least a portion of it for an OS install, and the rest for a smart cache, even make the size of the smart cache user configurable.

 

Actually if there were a 32GB, or better yet 64GB, NAND with stronger alogorythm for kicking out files it would then inevitably cache all OS files and frequently used program files leaving data files infrequently used out of the NAND picture.

We can dream all we want, a manufacturer commitment would be nice though. It is hard to convince a consumer they need to spend $200 premium for their mass storage device. We here unfortunately are a very small piece of the overall market and not even all of us are willing to drop the premium even at the $50 or so it is now.

I would be a ton happier if with the new NAND die shrinks if they went to go with a 8GB NAND and if the new 750GB platters are vibration free then combining it with them. I have two smooth drives but these would be generally accepted alot more if the mechanical issues were fewer and farther between..........

 

Im with tan 8 or 16 gb combined with 640 or 750 would be the new sweetspot for me.

 

Good work and thanks for sharing. I hope Seagate will secretly release a 750GB XT.

+ Rep.

 

Hey guys I am really seriously considering buying a 500GB version of this hybrid drive for my laptop... is there anything I should know first? I've watched the videos on their page and they're really convincing =p

I'd be coming from a 5,400RPM HDD so the speed should be pretty noticeable, right? I've seen comments on newegg giving such mixed reviews, including saying that it's caused their computer to crash a ton >.<

 

As long as you don't have a Lenovo or Apple you should be fine.

It will be a huge upgrade over a 5400rpm drive.

 

I'm kind of worried about buying something that's the first of its kind though... perhaps I should wait until one comes out for a 10k drive or with 16GB of RAM or something... I'm a bit conflicted. I also got a free warranty deal with sony so even though I didn't pay for it I don't know if it's worth voiding =p

 

It's worth it. 4GB is enough to give a big boost for most users. Replacing the hard drive does not void warranty.

If you want to spend less money look at Samsung HM640JJ or WD5000bekt.

 

What? Replacing hard drive would certainly void my warranty, wouldn't it? Isn't opening up my laptop enough to void my warranty?

 

That really depends on the exact warranty. In general, simply opening your notebook will not void your warranty; if it will, there are commonly stickers over the screw holes to detect tampering. If/Once you open it up, similar practices will apply; stickers are commonly applied over attachment points or screws to make it obvious when such components have been modified or removed - in fact, these stickers will commonly say "warranty void if removed".

 

I spoke to a sony respresentative, they say I can't open my case not even to clean it.... I'm gonna call tomorrow,, that's pretty ridiculous that I can't even properly clean it out.

 

Apparently I can turn my disk drive into a hard drive with this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ssd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html

I'm thinking I'll turn that into a 30GB or so SSD and replace my current HDD with the hybrid.

What do you think?

 

Do it the other way around. Put a ssd in ur current primary drive as an OS/boot drive and put a large fast hdd in ur optical caddy (duznt need to be hybrid as the full benefits of th 4GB NAND wont be seen on a non boot drive)

Some systems have problems booting from ODD bays

 

Ok I'll do that.

Would I literally see 0 benefit from the 4GB Nand? The drive is so cheap lol I just figured it would be worth it.

 

I'm thinking this as my boot drive:
Newegg.com - Corsair Force CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I'm going to put that where my current HDD is and then I'll put the hybrid in the optical drive.

 

It wouldn't be 0 benefit, but it wouldn't be as great a benefit. A lot depends on whether or not you end up installing programs to that drive; the NAND ends up storing the data that you use the most, which means that that data would load faster. If that data is a program, then yes, you'll notice that said program will start up faster, and be available more quickly. Most people tend to use an extra drive like that just for storing media, such as movies or music files. In that case, since you'll be accessing those files infrequently anyway, the fact that it takes a little extra time to get to them probably won't be a big deal. As well, although the XT is cheap compared to an SSD, it's still often close to almost twice as expensive as a regular 7200 RPM hard drive (which is what it is, except for the extra NAND), at around $100-$110 on sale, when regular 7200 RPM hard drives can often go for $60-$70 on sale.

 

The only other 7200RPM hdd's had 16MB cache though, will that matter at all? Honestly 50 dollars isn't a whole lot when you look how how much a SSD costs.

 

My opinion? An XT is just as capable (ie: faster) as a data drive as when it is a system drive.

If you want the fastest possible 500GB drive, this is it. And, well worth it.

 

Honestly, when it comes right down to it laptops don't get upgrades like desktops do. I'm not upgrading my motherboard ever so the big upgrades I get now are the upgrades I'm going to use until I move on to a completely different computer.

If I don't have to worry about new tech coming out in the future I may as well put the best tech in it now.

 

And even if the cache isn't as optimized for standard HDD use, it's still a fast drive, with 32mb of cache AND a nice bonus for that flash drive, which certainly isn't slowing it down.