Seagate hybrid drive shipments pass 1 million units, new generation incoming

Seagate hybrid drive shipments pass 1 million units, new generation incoming

Press release: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=07481600a0ba1310VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

 

"before the year is out"

exciting. I can only use a single drive in my computer so... the hybrids are the best drives for my needs. I may very well buy the next gen depending on what improvements we've seen.

Thanks for the info Phil.

Any rumors as to what will be in the new drive?

 

brilliant. i was about to cave in and get an ssd for my thinkpad but was hard to justify the cost. i reckon i'll wait for this

 

Yeah, I use up a lot of my drive's space. I just can't justify spending hundreds of dollars for less space.

Hopefully we see an 8GB NAND and a better HDD.

It's exciting. I'll put my current one in another laptop probably.

 

It's coming out at before the year's end so it seems likely it will be 1TB 7200rpm.

For the cache size I can only speculate. Since the last time the XT was introduced NAND prices have gone way down so 16GB cache should be possible.

I'm guessing either 8GB or 16GB cache.

 

1TB 7200 rpm? I'm contemplating getting the 1TB samsung M8 or the wd blue for my precision, any idea when we'll see 7200rpm versions? if they're around the corner i wont bother making the purchase....

 

I guess we might see the first 1TB 7200rpm drives in Q4 2011. Or else Q1 2012.

 

16GB would be a lot. If it's 16GB I'll be buying it immediately =p hopefully there'll still be a 500GB version as a cheaper alternative to a 1TB version.

 

somehow i doubt it will be 16gb. since the XT is already selling well with measly 4gb and there is no competition to speak of.... they will probably be penny pinching

 

Yes I think 8GB is the more likely size. That way they can say "200% faster than the first generation!" =p

 

I can't wait for this as the 500gb was to small so I passed. So I hope this does have 16gb cache!! If it does I will definitely pick this up. Probably will be 8. But it should have at least 750gb, hoping for 1tb.

 

Good news! Will be watching out for those upcoming units!

 

I think 16GB might just push the price a bit too high. This is really supposed to be a budget SSD alternative. And considering how incredibly close to SSD speeds it already gets at 4GB I feel that 8GB would most likely be the sweet spot for price/performance.

Either way I'm excited to see development.

 

its a little worrying that some users have posted that they had multiple drives fail on them and also about not seeing a noticeable speed increase :S

 

I've only really seen problems from mac users, otherwise it's just the typical stuff you see with any drive.

The speed difference for me was very noticeable but I also came from a 320GB 5.4kRPM drive. Still, I've used 7,200RPM drives and I'm definitely booting faster and opening programs faster.

 

As far as I know that was one user, and when I asked that user to supply any proof (of purchase or RMA) I did not get any answer. My advice: take it with a grain of salt.

if someone doesn't notice the speed difference they've got a defective unit. The speed difference is very apparent, as has been shown in many reviews.

 

750GB, 8GB SSD Cache, 64MB Buffer and SATA-600?

Hopefully, it's less noisy and generates less heat since there's most likely going to be more cache.

 

I doubt that they would give us something like this good. They have complete monopily on hybrid drives. We'll get milked like consoles.

 

Maybe. Maybe not.

I think those traits actually seem fairly reasonable. Most new drives have 64MB HDD cache. 8GB cache would make sense. And 750GB isn't all that uncommon anymore either.

 

Were you talking about SSDs? Mechanical drives are 8 MB for 5400 rpm (most cases), and 16 MB for 7200 rpm drives. 750GB is more scarce compared to 250, 320, and 500 GB. Seems like though for moderately priced laptops (500-800) that 500 GB is now the "standard" and 640/750GB are now being offered in the higher tiered laptop (not like HDD space makes a huge difference for a buyer like me who gets the lowest configs and upgrades up later).

Wait we weren't already? 500 GB MomentusXT normal price is 119, on sale for 99 or lower. Had it dropped to that 89 price point normal price, they would be selling alot more IMO. Also given you can get a 500 GB Scorpio Black for 55-60 range, and now dropping, it gives Seagate additional "incentive" to lower the price of the XT's.

 

i think the direction things are going to go will be an mSATA-HDD combo. Most users would enjoy an excellent performance increase if they had a small (even as small as 32gb) boot drive with OS and most often used programs and everything else on a normal HDD. so im hesitant to get a full size ssd, and it is a little frustrating that the XT commands a reasonable price premium. if only my x201 supported mSATA

 

You never know with Intel SRT 311 cache SSD's coming in 20GB capacity, 8GB or even a 16GB (not likely) on Momentus XT are highly viable options since they're pretty much in direct competition.

As for 750GB, that I think would be a standard since Seagate wants to push more performance throughput out of the next Momentus XT what would make more sense then a dual-platter 750GB (320GB per platter) hard drive.

The 64MB buffer cache is just something I threw in since I think it'll help maintain high read/write speeds and may also help with the 8GB SSD caching.

SATA-600 maybe or maybe not, since this one forces Seagate to add additional jumper settings to make the drive backwards compatible with SATA-150/SATA-300. This is more of wishful thinking.

Just think a 750GB Scorpio Black/7K750 with 8GB SSD caching and some really good 4K read/write speeds and you got yourself a 2nd gen Momentus XT, I'm thinking it might even be better after seeing some Intel SRT reviews but my fingers are crossed.

 

Finally!! More cache, 1TB platter, 7200rpm motor AND 16GB NAND. Seagate.. MAKE IT SO. I want new storage drives