Time Critical - Quick HDD Question! WD vs Momentus XT

Hi!
I just ordered the Acer AS4820TG.

I'm replacing the 5400 RPM drive with either the WD 500GB 7200RPM Scorpio Black HDD (for $69.99) or the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM Momentus XT Hybrid SSD Drive (for $99).

By the way they both have 5 years warranty!
I can't decide if the extra $30 is worth it for the Momentus XT (heard about some issues)!!
Can you guys help me decide? Or give me another option (7200RPM and 500GB+ only)

P.S. it's time critical because I just ordered it from amazon but i have a little time to change/cancel the order.

 

the WD is on sale a lot for $59.99. I think it's currently 59.99 at newegg right now. Check the deals forum.

Either way I recommend the WD

 

Without knowing you uage and ig the XT would benefit you I'd have to say the WD is a safer bet. If you are just a casual user and not a alot of programs the XT may be worth looking into..........

 

Really depends on your usage patterns. If you do alot of system reboots and are willing to pony up the difference, the Seagate. Otherwise get the WD5000BEKT.

 

That's the thing, i'm a pretty sporadic user.
I use a variety of programs but 95% of the time i open a browser, a game, a word processor, or a media/music player.

How much can fit into the 4GB SLC?
I mean the memory taken up by 1 app must be negligible.
Apart from that, I boot pretty frequently, but if i'm on a computer that boots very slowly then i put it to sleep.
Since this is a laptop I think a drastic improvement in bootup speed would be nice.

How long til the memory is overwritten?
I would be disappointed if opening speed was very unpredictable.
For example if I had to "reteach" the drive.
I don't mind the initial learn period but i wouldn't want a laptop that sometimes opens apps fast and sometimes slow.

OOH big one. How does momentus XT work with linux?

Finally i've heard theres a lot of noise and vibration from the seagates.
That would be quite unfortunate.

 

You don't have control what gets on the 4 GB. The drive learns from your usage patterns.

I never noticed any noise/vibrations from mine.

 

I wonder who voted for m.xt read the news about the increasing fail rate on the older drives ...
Seagate again tries the firmware cheating .. but I already saw that first hand on the 500Gb drives ... 5 in the garbage ...

 

If you're buying the drive to use it for just storage (no OS) then get the WD.

If you're going to use it for OS use/and storage (which you are from the sounds of it) then get the XT. Why buy a reg. HDD when there's a Hybrid XT available? That's how I look at it...if money is a concern then by all means settle for the WD.

WD Scorpio Black 500GB Notebook Hard Drive Review - WD Scorpio Black 500GB Laptop HDD - Legit Reviews

Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive Review - The Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid - Legit Reviews

 

XT gives you a fast boot and general desktop responsiveness of an SSD. Outside of that it doesn't help a whole lot. I used one for quite a while in my last laptop. It was nice, but up to you if it's worth $40.

 

I ended up sticking with the WD.
The only things more important than performance are noise, power draw, and reliability!
These are 3 areas where (from my research) the WD comes out on top.

Even though i'm usually an early adopter and real quick to jump on the latest tech, this will be my ONLY computer for a while.
I'd rather be safe than sorry!

 

I would recomend the hitachi 7k500 for 60

Dollar wise it is just a better deal. I have both the xt is better but they seem to chaarge too much for it to me.

the wd black and the hitachi 7k500 are virtually identical I just think something about it is better, i think its quieter.