Seagate Momentus XT

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
I think this would be a good performer for my P151HM seeing as I don't have a extra HDD bay. Would it be worth it? Compatible? Any tries?

 

You'll have no problem with that drive, a lot of people order computers with it. It wont get you speeds like a full SSD but will get you a nice performance boost in Windows boot times and commonly used program start up times compared to just a regular HDD.
The drive will learn what you commonly start up every time you start up your computer and will move those program start up files to the SSD portion automatically. You actually have no control over it.
It's a good compromise between SSD and HDD.
If you dont use your optical drive at all a better option would be to put a SSD in the hard drive bay then move the hard drive to the optical drive bay.

 

As Hutsady said, it's a great drive with a compromise between the storage of an HDD and the speed of an SSD. If you want more capacity and slightly faster flash memory, also consider the 750GB model.

Seagate Momentus 750GB Review (ST9750420AS) | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

 

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

will be faster because it has a 8GB of SLC SSD as opposed to the 4GB of SLC SSD in the 500GB version.
Reviews noted that a hybrid drive needs at least 20GB for optimal performance, no such thing yet.
You could also use a HDD caddy (for extra storage) to replace the DVD drive.

 

I think replacing the DVD drive maybe a better option. Is there a part I can buy to cover up what will be missing after I install the drive?

 

The bezel currently on the optical drive can be removed and put on the hard drive caddy. That is a part you will need to get, its commonly called a Optical bay hard drive caddy and are a universal size. Just make sure its SATA and a 12.7mm

 

dude do not get the 500gb! its awesome, I have it! but the 750gb is much faster and its like 40 bucks more!!!!

 

The Seagate hybrid drives are a perfect compromise for those that can't afford an SSD and HDD or just don't have the room in their computer for the 2 drives. I would recommend either of them.

 

I ordered a Mushkin Sata III SSD and a 12.7 MM Optical drive to 2.5 HDD Caddy.

 

Considering using this as a second drive from what i saw it still benefits even though its 2nd. Is this true?

 

If you are installing programs or games on the Hybrid as a second drive then you can still get some benefit from it. Since it will most likely be used for storage (Pics, Movies, Music etc) then you're really spending money on a feature you wont use. It's better to get a standard HDD as you really wont notice a speed difference between the two types and you'll save a few bucks getting a standard HDD

 

I got some advice and it was basically, if you want SSD performance, then get a SSD. =]

 

Do you have an SSD as a primary? I'm just asking as I'm not entirely sure what you are asking.

You can still get the benefits of the hybrid SSD if you are using it as a secondary drive, certainly. The way that works is the SSD portion acts as a caching system that will remember the files you used the most and place those at the top of the priority list, thus improving performance for accessing those frequently used files.

If you are asking about SATA II vs. SATA III the hybrid 500GB is SATA II and if you connect it to the SATA III port, it will still run at the slower speeds. If you are running the 750GB Hybrid, it is SATA III but if connected to the SATA II port it will run at SATA II speeds.

If you are placing your drive into the optical drive bay, the ODD slot will be operating at SATA II speeds.

 

The slot for the ODD is only SATA II?

 

That's correct. Only the primary HDD bay is SATA III. This only matters for a select small number of SSD's though, as a vast majority of SSD's and HDD's are SATA II.

 

The P151HM uses the HM65 chipset, which is capable at most 2 SATA III devices and 6 SATA II ports.

Now, I don't know much about the model, like how many drives can it hold. But if there are already two bays for HDDs, then most likely those are designated SATA III, and this would leave all other ports SATA II. It depends on how Clevo mapped drives to ports on the mobo.

Also, a quick correction above ("as a vast majority of SSD's and HDD's are SATA II.") While true of platter based HDD, almost all SSDs with a release in the last 6-12 months will be SATA III. After the 1st generation of SSDs (SATA II), SSD manufacturers switched to the SATA III interface.

HTH

 

The 2 SATA III ports are mapped to the Primary HDD bay and the eSATA port.

As for the latter point, you are correct- all NEW SSD's are generally going SATA III, however there are quite a large number of SATA II drives still on the market. There are also a lot of newer SATA III drives that will still not saturate a SATA II connection (just like PCI-E 2.0/3.0 GPU's in desktops).

 

I strongly suggest you go for the 750GB Hybrid drive with the 8GB of Nand, it is really good. I just installed one into my old Dual Core Desktop and the speed increase was very noticeable. I notice the price is going down a lot too.

 

Yes. But in regards to SSDs, most SATA III SSDs are capable of using ALL available bandwidth of a SATA II port, and even some come close to saturating SATA III on a few benches.

My advice to any new buyers, if money is no object, and you have available SATA III ports available, buy a SATA III drive, as even if you don't use the max available SATA III throughput, at least you won't be constrained by SATA II speeds.

"Seconded." A great drive. Even if you use it as a data storage drive for libraries and other often used files.

 

I recommend 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 8GB NAND Flash...
It is faster than 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 4GB NAND Flash.

 

Do you perhaps mean the SATA III (6Gbps) version of the 750GB/8GB Momentus XT? AFAIK, Seagate doesn't make a SATA II (3Gbps) version (or 1st generation) that is 750GB/8GB.

 

Having used both ssd and the Seagate XT as OS drives for years, the XT is a nice quiet reliable drive, but that's all it is, it's not and never will comparable to a decent sata2 ssd drive or even a mediocre one and the 750 isn't much better than the 500, I will say they are a decent performing conventional drives and I saw no noticeable advantage in boot up times.

I've run Intel G2's, Intel 510's and M4's in a Asus M70 laptop as OS drives and the Hybrid XT, most of Seagates advertising on comparisons with ssd drives just doesn't bear out, I never got speeds in HD above 111MB/s and that dropped to 102MB/s with 70g remaining on the drive.

All these drives are very good performing and quiet 2 1/2 conventional drives and I never saw any reasonable boosts in regularly used programs that were noticeable, I bought a couple of these drives when they were A$160, would I pay twice that for the 750 now, NO WAY, unless the alternative is similarly priced.

Sorry Guy's I don't see any performance on these drives that's anything like a ssd drive.

 

I'm not certain anyone said so.

Take the quote from the 1st page

My experience is about the same... $$/GB is better than SSD, but not better than platter based HDD, and the Momentus XT has faster speeds than platter based HDD, but not as fast as SSD.

 

Anyone have a momentus XT AND an SSD? I'm curious of the performance gains, since an SSD can't store all of your commonly accessed files I want to know how nice the combination is.

 

I've used both, but not in that combination. If you've got an SSD, a standard HDD is the best to go with it. The hybrid drive is not useful as a secondary drive except in a select handful of cases. The average user won't benefit greatly from it versus a regular drive.

 

Yes. See sig.

How does it work? Swimmingly.

In the end, it will depend on what you put on the XTs and how you use them. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/649060-ssd-vs-hybrid-4.html#post8358305 for some of those cases.

 

Sorry Guys, just thought you'd like to hear from somebody with experience with the Seagate Hybrid, I actually like the drive, if I wasn't using a ssd drive as a boot drive, this is the drive to get, it works well as a secondary drive as I used it alongside a Intel m series drive for close on 12 months.

If the prices were pre-flood, then I wouldn't hesitate in buying the drive for storage, but there not and the momentus 750 is a fair bit cheaper so that's the drives I'll configure in my next Clevo for storage drives.

I personally don't think you'll see true ssd like performance from these drives without 16 or 32gb of nand flash, that will give performance similar to motherboards using small ssd's as cache drives.

The XT's an excellent laptop drive, pity about the price.