My VAIO FW now rocks a Momentus XT (hybrid SSD)

I thought I'd post this for other VAIO folk who might be looking to upgrade their notebooks.

Some background

My Sony VAIO VGN-FW290 CTO started with some modest specs for 2008:

Core2Duo T9600 (2.8Ghz)
4gig DDR2 SODIMM RAM
Hitachi 320gig 7200rpm HDD
ATI Radeon 3650
1080 Full HD Screen
Blu-ray burner
Windows Vista 64-bit

Knowing that unlike desktops, notebooks have limited upgradeability, I went for the fastest CPU available at the time. The RAM and HDD were user-accessible, so I configured the notebook with a passable components there.

Recalling the first few months using this configuration, things were pretty decent. Certainly a huge upgrade from the previous notebook it replaced. My only nit was that from day one the Hitachi drive exhibited a vibration that transferred to the corner foot pad. This made the notebook occasionally buzz when sitting on a flat surface. Boot-up times into the Vista desktop was initially in the 55-ish second range when fresh out of the box. I figure some of that Sony bloatware was the culprit and my own software baggage didn't help.

Fast forward a year later and the notebook gets upgraded to 8gigs of PC2-6400 (800mhz) RAM, clean install of Windows 7 (64-bit Ultimate), and sports a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500gig 7200rpm drive. Everything is in place for a nice workflow for CAD modeling and high-definition HDV video editing. (Previous config made things difficult) The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 was initially one of the only 500gig drives that spun at 7200rpm. I needed both the speed and capacity. It didn't buzz like the Hitachi. By now some of the drivers and utilities residing on the SysTray meant booting into the Windows desktop took around 1 minute and 30 seconds.

 

Momentus XT hybrid

Seagate just recently unveiled the Momentus XT. It's a hybrid 7200rpm hard drive with 4gigs of SSD operating as a single unit. Its internal algorithm moves the most-used stuff into the SSD portion.

I ordered the 500gig version (ST95005620AS) along with a USB-SATA enclosure and downloaded Seagate's free DiscWizard software to clone the Momentus 7200.4 data into the new XT. DiscWizard installed problem-free into Win 7 and it took all morning cloning the 400+ gigs I had.

I was a bit eager to transplant the Momentus XT from the enclosure into the VAIO FW, so no pics. At the first startup, the DiscWizard software interrupted a bit and it probably resulted in a 1 minute 40 second boot into the Win 7 desktop. I uninstalled DiscWizard and proceeded to reboot the system a few more times to teach the hard drive the file priority pattern.

On the 3rd reboot, I clocked it at 1 minute 17 seconds.

On the 4th reboot, this 2 year old computer popped up the Windows desktop in 33 seconds.

Ever since then, the bootup time has been hovering at 33-35 seconds. This is jaw-dropping considering I've not had to uninstall or clean up the stuff in my SysTray.

This is by far the best bang-for-buck performance upgrade I've seen. Possibly ever. For the $140-ish it cost for the drive, it'll provide some much-welcomed performance until those 500gig SSDs tumble down from their $2000 pricepoints.

Here's a video to show where the Momentus XT stands in comparison to both full-blown pricey SSDs and common 7200rpm hard drives:

SGO - 520x417 Wide Single (Flat/Dark)

<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1635268014" bgcolor='#FFFFFF' flashVars="videoId=81336903001&playerId=1635268014&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width='486' height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>

Over the next few days I'll monitor power usage to see if it makes any significant dent in battery-only runtimes.

 

I'm surprised with the buzzing you get with the Hitachi (well, somewhat that is).

Assuming the FW comes with a 2.5 as well, my older Z has the same HDD and it did NOT buzz when I first got it. It only started doing so about a month or so ago.

And whoa. It is the first time I hear of a SSD / HDD hybrid. Certainly sounds alot safer than the SSD (in regards to the fact that the day a single flash dies on the SSD board, the entire thing is gone on the SSD; not too sure about this new Seagate). Can I ask where you found this drive from?

 

Benchmarks?
Crystal Mark and ATTO would be helpful.

 

Just to clarify, the Hitachi didn't buzz. Something about its platter was off-balance and it vibrated. You could feel it in the right palmrest. This in turn transferred to the notebook chassis footpad -- resulting in a buzz.

Even now that the 320gb Hitachi is relegated to a USB enclosure, it operates with noticeably greater vibration than my newly retired Momentus 7200.4 drive. I just attribute this to a lapse in quality-control.

All three of the drives mentioned in this thread (Hitachi Travelstar 7K320, Seagate Momentus 7200.4, Seagate Momentus XT) are 2.5 inch notebook hard drives with a SATA (II) interface. Virtually all full-fledged notebooks made in the past two years use this type of hard drive.

I first caught whiff of this new drive at Engadget:

Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive -- Engadget

 

Have at it:
Seagate's Momentus XT Reviewed, Finally a Good Hybrid HDD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

Do these hybrid drives mean the end of normal HDD's? Will they be history within 12 months?

How soon would it be until the other manufacturers bring out competing products?

 

These hybrid drives are nothing new. The first ones appeared in 2005, Vista had " ReadyDrive" support for HHDs, and the second generation came out in 2007. All it really does is decrease boot times. Normal operations are largely unaffected.

All in all, it's a reoccurring theme; just like touchscreen PCs, they get "reinvented" every couple of years, and people who missed (or forgot) the last iteration go "ooh" and "aah".

 

I had a hybrid HDD in my VAIO. And when I replaced it with SSD I could not believe my eyes...trust me guys, SSD is the only way and nothing less.

 

And..this:

While early coverage of the XT was largely positive, more detailed analysis reveals a number of performance issues, including poor sequential read throughput and an apparent problem with command queuing. In a number of tests, the XT is actually slower than Seagate's year-old Momentus 7200.4, a drive that costs $40 less."