Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Love my new Seagate Momentus XT !!!

R

rex3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 20, 2009
52
5
I just replaced a 5400 rpm 320 Gb Western Digital (not the stock drive) with a Momentus XT in my late 2007 MBP, and I couldn't be more impressed. The eternal beach balls are gone. Granted, I've never had an SSD, but the speed boost from this thing is unbelievable. I didn't even do a clean install, just a restore from Time Machine.

I didn't do formal benchmarks, but I did time my boot sequence before and after:

Old Drive
Chime to Login Screen: 46 seconds
Chime to launch Safari and open web page: 2:58

Momentus XT
Chime to Login Screen: 22 seconds
Chime to launch Safari and open web page: 38 seconds

So, the new drive can boot and open a web page faster than the old drive could get to the login screen. Altogether 2 minutes and 20 seconds faster. Not that I reboot very often, but it gives you some idea of how much faster everything is.

I was so fed up with how slow my MBP was that I almost bought a new MBP for $2000, then I almost bought a 200 Gb SSD that wouldn't have had enough space for $340 (would have had to also buy an optibay and worry about losing hibernation or shock protection). So glad I just spent $130 and got a huge performance boost for very little money or hassle.
 
R

Ralzy

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2009
36
0
Mind testing the affect on battery life? I've read its noisier and drains more battery life which is why I haven't gotten one yet.
 
R

rex3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 20, 2009
52
5
I don't have any way to test the battery life, but my battery life was already pretty bad. I still have the original battery and have used it constantly for over 2 1/2 years. Can't say I can actually notice any difference, although I wouldn't be surprised if it were slightly worse. But what's a few minutes compared with all this speed?

As far as noise, though, it's not any louder than my old 5400 rpm drive, meaning it's really quiet and I don't notice it. Also, no vibration or other problems. My old Thinkpad had a 7200 rpm drive that vibrated, but no vibrations at all here.

If those are your only concerns, I'd say get the drive. I can't imagine the battery life difference would amount to more than 5 minutes, and you could always buy extra batteries with all the money you save relative to an SSD.
 
B

btownguy

macrumors 6502a
Jun 18, 2009
545
19
That's great news. I've been toying around with the idea (I have the 5400rpm 500Gb drive) and I think I'm about to take the plunge. Was the install fairly easy?

Another good thing about replacing the HD at a time when the original HD is working fine - you always have a spare. I've always wondered what I would do if I have to send my MBP in to Apple for repair. I don't want to send it in with my HD with all my personal data on it. I can hold on to the original HD and put a clean SL install on it (with none of my data) and then put that back in if I ever have to send the MBP in to Apple for repair.

Did you buy from Newegg for $130?
 
I

IndianaiPhone

macrumors regular
Jun 16, 2008
125
0
North Texas
And it was only ~ $130?? Is that really cheap for a new internal HD or is that normal? After reading this post I'm thinking about updating my stock 160 GB drive in my uMBP to that.
 
D

Don Nguyen

macrumors member
Apr 18, 2010
71
0
Any advantage to using this Momentus XT over a regular HD like the Hitachi 7200rpm 500gb HDD as a 2ndary HDD in the optibay to compliment the primary SSD drive?
 
S

spazma7ik

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2009
926
359
Don Nguyen said:
Any advantage to using this Momentus XT over a regular HD like the Hitachi 7200rpm 500gb HDD as a 2ndary HDD in the optibay to compliment the primary SSD drive?
Click to expand...

Not worth it, if you already have an SSD that you are booting from and installing frequently used programs to, then your secondary drive is completely fine being a 5400 or 7200 rpm drive. It's just there for storage, so it will have no effect on the speedy boost you've already seen.
 
R

rex3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 20, 2009
52
5
The install was very easy. Just be sure you have a Philips 00 and a Torx 6, and keep track of which screws go where. I followed instructions on ifixit and they were easy. Didn't have a spudger, whatever that is, but i gently removed the IR cable adhesive with a credit card.

The drive was $130 at Newegg, which is actually expensive for a 500 Gb notebook drive these days. Dirt cheap compared to SSDs, however, and by far the best bang for the buck.

I don't think it would be worth bothering with the Momentus XT as a storage drive to complement an SSD, assuming you have at least 50 Gb on the SSD and aren't using it all that much.
 
ryannazaretian

ryannazaretian

macrumors 6502a
Sep 21, 2008
649
5
Mississippi
Have you tried running Windows with Bootcamp on it? I wasn't sure how the drive would perform switching OSes all the time. I'm mainly look at it because it's one of the only 7200RPM 500GB hard drives available at this time from a brand I trust. (I trust WD, Seagate, Toshiba, and Samsung.)
 
R

rex3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 20, 2009
52
5
I don't run bootcamp, or even parallels or fusion anymore, so I can't help there. I understand the concern that 4 GB might not be enough for someone switching between OSs. I'm sure that must inflict a bit of a hit, the only question is how much?

All I can say is that given the huge increase in everyday speed I've seen, you're certainly still going to get a very noticeable boost compared to a regular drive. Given the really small premium you're paying, what do you have to lose? It will certainly be faster than anything else short of a true SSD.
 
N

NetBaffle

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2009
17
0
I installed the 500GB Momentus XT in my 2009 15" MacBook Pro last night and so far I'm quite impressed. My MBP is noticeably snappier than before and my most-used applications open in under one icon bounce. Boot times are under 15 seconds. It's no SSD but it blows my stock 320GB Hitachi out of the water. My $130 was well spent.

I was hesistant to install this drive because many people complained in other forums that this drive was loud and caused their MBs to vibrate. Your experience may be different, but this drive is whisper quiet for me. It makes (slightly) more noise than my stock 320GB drive (which was virtually silent), but I have to strain to hear it. Also, vibration is minimal for me. In most situations (resting on a table, in the air, in my lap, etc.), I cannot feel the drive spinning. The only time I can sense a slight vibration is when I'm using my MBP in closed-lid mode while resting my hand on the lower left corner of the lid. If anyone's on the fence about picking up this drive, I say do it. You'll be glad you did.
 
H

HaroldC

macrumors regular
Jun 1, 2006
123
0
NetBaffle said:
I installed the 500GB Momentus XT in my 2009 15" MacBook Pro last night and so far I'm quite impressed. My MBP is noticeably snappier than before and my most-used applications open in under one icon bounce. Boot times are under 15 seconds. It's no SSD but it blows my stock 320GB Hitachi out of the water. My $130 was well spent.

I was hesistant to install this drive because many people complained in other forums that this drive was loud and caused their MBs to vibrate. Your experience may be different, but this drive is whisper quiet for me. It makes (slightly) more noise than my stock 320GB drive (which was virtually silent), but I have to strain to hear it. Also, vibration is minimal for me. In most situations (resting on a table, in the air, in my lap, etc.), I cannot feel the drive spinning. The only time I can sense a slight vibration is when I'm using my MBP in closed-lid mode while resting my hand on the lower left corner of the lid. If anyone's on the fence about picking up this drive, I say do it. You'll be glad you did.
Click to expand...

Which model is your MBP?I only ask because I have a 5,5 13" and tried the WD Scorpio Blue 500 5400 and had problems with beach balling and lag when booti and loading. I then replaced it with the stock 250 and all the problems went away.

Couldn't figure out why it was running so slow on my MBP but I read that the additional motion sensor creates havoc with the motion sensor in the laptop.

I am running out of room and very seriously considering this drive.
 
N

NetBaffle

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2009
17
0
I have a 5,3 15". When I was removing the stock hard drive i noticed that it had 4 metal nubs or pegs screwed into its side. It appears that the hard drive is held in place using these things to absorb some of the vibration. You have to remove each one from the old HD and screw them into the new one. My guess is that maybe people who had problems with movement forgot about these things? I almost did.
 
K

kwazyjoe

macrumors newbie
Jul 8, 2010
10
0
I am thinking about getting the Momentus for my upcoming Macbook Pro i5 15". Did anyone have successfully install Window 7 (or XP) through Bootcamp? Thanks!
 
blueroom

blueroom

macrumors 603
Feb 15, 2009
6,381
26
Toronto, Canada
I've installed the Momentus XT 320G in a 2010 MacBook Pro 13" and it is certainly faster that the stock Hitachi 250G. It doesn't make that clack like the Hitachi does when you move the notebook. It does boot noticeably faster and programs load pretty quickly. It has only a slightly noticeable vibration and the noise is only noticeable if I have it 8" from my ear. I tried a WD black 320 and it was much nosier and would vibrate a table.
 
noodle654

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
I was just reading the article on Newegg about these. I am very interested in one of these. My stock 120GB on my MBP is full (well, 2GB free right now) and my AppleCare expires in November. I plan on using this for a while in college (I see no need to upgrade, this thing does everything), but the extra speed and space at a price I can afford looks awesome.
 
C

chiefroastbeef

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2008
909
0
Dallas, Texas/ Hong Kong
Would this hybrid HD make Aperture 3 work any quicker? Right now with my 7,200rpm 500gb WD hd on my MBP, it takes 2-3 seconds to load each photo for viewing, and this is with a separate scratchdisk Aperture library located in the DVD bay. I've only read "fast boot times, programs load faster," but in terms of actual app performance I haven't read much insight. Do you guys notice faster processing times with CPU intensive programs?

Thanks
 
A

amoda

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2006
660
8
So your thread, among many other great reviews, made me decide to upgrade my old HD (stock 320GB 5400rpm) to the momentus xt rather than to the new MBP.

I love it! It saved my some cash ($150 vs $700) and the computer is much faster than before!

The noise is minimal (but it IS louder) , and I feel absolutely no vibration.

My main complaint is battery life. I went from ~6hs of battery life to ~3.5. I tested this by having nothing open but Safari and being on battery saving mode both prior and after the upgrade.

I'll calibrate the battery and see if that will change things because otherwise I may switch back. The performance boost is great, but not 2.5hs of battery life great.
 
iamrawr

iamrawr

macrumors 6502
Apr 16, 2010
263
0
New Jersey
amoda said:
So your thread, among many other great reviews, made me decide to upgrade my old HD (stock 320GB 5400rpm) to the momentus xt rather than to the new MBP.

I love it! It saved my some cash ($150 vs $700) and the computer is much faster than before!

The noise is minimal (but it IS louder) , and I feel absolutely no vibration.

My main complaint is battery life. I went from ~6hs of battery life to ~3.5. I tested this by having nothing open but Safari and being on battery saving mode both prior and after the upgrade.

I'll calibrate the battery and see if that will change things because otherwise I may switch back. The performance boost is great, but not 2.5hs of battery life great.
Click to expand...

that hit on battery life worries me :( i'm getting my mbp delivered today and i have an XT waiting for it at home. hope that calibration will work. which model is it?

i also have a question as this is my first ssd-related thing i've ever owned. i heard that ssd require maintenance so even though it's got about 4GB of ssd memory do i still need to maintain it?

on another note, i will be installing win7 bootcamp on it later so i'll get back to you guys regarding the performance/battery life if any are still interested. i heard bootcamp uses the nVidia card so battery life should be lower... wish me luck :D
 
A

amoda

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2006
660
8
Yeah, the battery life hit worries me too. I'll use it for a couple of days and report back.

I have a stock 2.66 C2D Unibody (the generation right before this one).

One more thing, I just ran a smart check and while the HD passed the "temperature changes" row was nearly in the Failed category.

What is that, and is it worth the hassle of removing the HD, returning it and reinstalling it?

Cheers!

EDIT: It seems like every other week I keep getting PMs about the software I used to run this test. I used a program called TechTool Pro 5, it's pretty nifty (albeit pricy).

 
Last edited:
thatoneguy82

thatoneguy82

macrumors 68000
Jul 23, 2008
1,895
2
Beach Cities, CA
I finally got mine that I ordered on Amazon about 2 months ago (500GB Momentus XT). Install was a breeze. This thing is noticeably faster than my stock 5400RPM HD on my i5 17" MBP. I can boot up in <15 secs. And Aperture, PhotoShop CS5, iTunes, Final Cut Pro all load in less than 3 bounces. Amazing!
 
C

csunflip

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2010
116
0
seems like the drive may have some issues...might have to exchange it for an Intel X25-M. Bye bye 500gb!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom