Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200RPM 2.5" SATA Hybrid Drive (Bare Drive) - $104.99 w/free shipping w/coupon code Newegg

EXPIRED - price has reverted to $129.99 plus 0.99 shipping, although the $10 discount coupon is still valid

Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive (Bare Drive) -- Newegg $104.99 w/free shipping w/use of coupon code (located on listing page)

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

As many of you know, Newegg prices can change quickly, even after as little as one day.

 

Do you think it will get any lower?

 

I think the prices of hybrid and solid-state HDs will fall substantially, as their markedly superior performance will lead to their eventual market dominance over conventional HDs; it's akin to broadband gradually dominating the internet provider market over dial-up. However, I don't know how much and when this will occur, and I suspect no one knows this with certainty. Currently this is the lowest price I have encountered for the Seagate Momentous XT hybrid 500GB HD, although other members may have seen prices lower than this.

For what it's worth, when the HDs in my two notebook PCs failed in the past 5 weeks, I considered the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid, but decided that its superior performance was not worth its premium for me at this time and to purchase two Western Digital HDs instead and wait a few years to determine the make-up of the HD market then. I was also wary of a small but significant number of negative buyer reviews on Amazon and Newegg citing DOA and early failure incidents with the Seagate hybrid HD. I interpreted these reports as a sign that the hybrid HD technology was/is not quite mature, which I think will occur in the near future, especially given that many other users seem to have excellent experiences with the same Seagate hybrid HD.

 

Yes, *eventually* it will of course get lower. As will any other computer part. The question is when.

 

The speed is nice but the noise. Geez. It runs hotter than the 7200.4 and its sounds like the washer is on spin cycle one room over.

One problem that I noticed with this drive however is that once it "memorizes" any game for loading, it will start sleeping often when you stay in on area of the game and when it needs data, it takes and agonizing 3 seconds to start back up and the screen freezes which when playing games like MW2 means you die.

Supposedly there is a firmware update that forces the drive to stay on the whole time but it's hot enough with the sleep built in and the firmware application is really picky when on which systems it wants to flash with.

 

Unfortunately the price has reverted to $129.99 plus $0.99 shipping (see revised 1st post above). For what it's worth, the $10 discount coupon is apparently still valid.

 

I ordered mine last night, in time !

Ill let you know what I think. I definitely dont want it sleeping.

my particular computer doesnt have heat issues at the moment.