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Has anyone ever used a Seagate Hybrid SSD?

C

cookieronster

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 2, 2010
41
0
Los Angeles
Hey guys, first of all I would like to say that I am new to macrumors but not new to macs. I'm currently using a 15" MacBook Pro i7 with HR-AG. I have owned a 15" uMBP 2.8ghz (mid-2009), a 13" uMB 2.0ghz (late-2008) and a 13" Blackbook (late 2006).

i know it's alot of macs in a small timeframe but i love macs and always want to upgrade...which brings me to my next question..

Has anyone tried the Seagate Hybrid XT SSD, 7200RPM?

I want the performance of an ssd but not the high price tag. If someone is running this drive, I would like to hear about your experience with it.

I don't use my computer for editing, just browsing, notes and e-mail. However i am very curious about boot times. I love how fast an ssd boots up, and since i don't run any data intensive apps at all, i think a hybrid drive may be all that I need.
 
I haven't used one, but am also interested in it, for reasons similar to yours.

It wont have the boot time of a SSD, because it caches the data from the disk to the SSD, it still has to read it first, so a cold boot will be from the regular disk.

However, once an app is open, it should respond faster as it should be cached on the SSD, basically as I understand it, you'll get the app "snappiness" of an SSD once it is loaded, but not the load time. But you DO get the drive capacity of a regular disk.
 
yetanotherdave said:
I haven't used one, but am also interested in it, for reasons similar to yours.

It wont have the boot time of a SSD, because it caches the data from the disk to the SSD, it still has to read it first, so a cold boot will be from the regular disk.

However, once an app is open, it should respond faster as it should be cached on the SSD, basically as I understand it, you'll get the app "snappiness" of an SSD once it is loaded, but not the load time. But you DO get the drive capacity of a regular disk.
Click to expand...

oh my mistake, i didn't know that's how they functioned...well It may still be worth it. I still have the stock 5400 rpm drive so i'm sure that i'll feel the effect from the 7200 as well. The thing is that the only third party apps i have on here are office 2008 and vlc player lol.
 
Why not take out the ODD and swap in an SSD and use that as boot drive (also swap the HDD with a WD 1TB
 
CaoCao said:
Why not take out the ODD and swap in an SSD and use that as boot drive (also swap the HDD with a WD 1TB
Click to expand...

if you're talking about the superdrive, INTERESTING idea...however i don't want to get too intense with it. Again i'm a light to moderate user.
 
cookieronster said:
if you're talking about the superdrive, INTERESTING idea...however i don't want to get too intense with it. Again i'm a light to moderate user.
Click to expand...

the cost is ~$255 before tax ($116 for WD 1TB, $118 for OWC 40GB SSD, $20 Caddy)
 
yetanotherdave said:
It wont have the boot time of a SSD, because it caches the data from the disk to the SSD, it still has to read it first, so a cold boot will be from the regular disk.

However, once an app is open, it should respond faster as it should be cached on the SSD, basically as I understand it, you'll get the app "snappiness" of an SSD once it is loaded, but not the load time. But you DO get the drive capacity of a regular disk.
Click to expand...

This is baloney. Totally. And it isn't how it works at all.

There are many threads about this already and numerous reviews. I have one and I LOVE it.

Here are three good, separate articles/reviews/benchmarks of the new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/s...ood-hybrid-hdd
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...ext_drive.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-har...-34109211.html

Here is a vid of a MacBook Pro booting with one installed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQOkVzn0O8

It also has won CNet's editors choice award:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX_WyOhTQEw

The XT uses technology that monitors the most used files on the disk. It then moves those files to the SSD portion so it can access them quickly. The result is SSD performance 75% or more of the time.
 
CaoCao said:
the cost is ~$255 before tax ($116 for WD 1TB, $118 for OWC 100GB SSD, $20 Caddy)
Click to expand...

I'm sorry... where do you see a 100GB SSD for $118 on OWC?

I just checked.... $117 for a 40GB SSD, not a 100GB SSD.... Your information seems to be a little off. If you still believe it was a 100GB SSD please link me lol I would buy it in a heartbeat!

EDIT:http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMXRE100/
That's their 100GB.

If the OP wants to go for a SSD I would say get a OCZ Vertex. I have read great things about them and their speed.
 
cookieronster said:
warranty still valid after a mod like this? if not then forget about it...i just spent 239 on applecare like 3 days ago :mad:
Click to expand...

Yes it will still be valid. The HDD is a user replaceable part on the laptop as well as the RAM. I believe in your manual it even shows you how to do a HDD replacement.
 
I think it probably is worth it, if I were to get an SSD, I would need to mount the SSD in the optical drive bay, and take the optical drive out into an external enclosure, because I could not fit everything onto an SSD that I can afford.

If I get a hybrid drive now, I get a decent (not amazing, but enough) performance increase, and in a year when SSD's are afforddable, I can use the SSD as a boot drive and the hybrid as a data drive. best of all worlds then :D


There's a good review here, http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-review-finally-a-good-hybrid-hdd

seems to show that in most cases, it's significatntly better than the stock drive, and comparable to a 10krpm drive.
 
CW Jones said:
I'm sorry... where do you see a 100GB SSD for $118 on OWC?

I just checked.... $117 for a 40GB SSD, not a 100GB SSD.... Your information seems to be a little off. If you still believe it was a 100GB SSD please link me lol I would buy it in a heartbeat!

EDIT:http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMXRE100/
That's their 100GB.

If the OP wants to go for a SSD I would say get a OCZ Vertex. I have read great things about them and their speed.
Click to expand...

I corrected my post, thank you

Doesn't void warranty, if you are going OCZ get the Vertex 2 not the Vertex, the OWC one is designed specifically to be Mac compatible so IMO it's safer
 
green86 said:
This is baloney. Totally. And it isn't how it works at all.

There are many threads about this already and numerous reviews. I have one and I LOVE it.

Here are three good, separate articles/reviews/benchmarks of the new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/s...ood-hybrid-hdd
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...ext_drive.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-har...-34109211.html

Here is a vid of a MacBook Pro booting with one installed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQOkVzn0O8

It also has won CNet's editors choice award:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX_WyOhTQEw

The XT uses technology that monitors the most used files on the disk. It then moves those files to the SSD portion so it can access them quickly. The result is SSD performance 75% or more of the time.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to say thank you. I've been looking for a hard drive to replace the stock 250GB in my June '09 13" Pro. I think this is definetly more than what I could have asked for.
Before I purchase, is $148 a good price?
That's what they are selling for on ebay.
 
cookieronster said:
i was talking about swapping out the superdrive for a hdd.
Click to expand...

1) Don't break anything while doing it!
2) Put everything back as it was before taking it into apple

The HDD is user servicable, as is the RAM, the rest I'm afraid, isn't. If they can't see a difference, no foul, if your issue is unrelated to you taking it apart, no foul. If you break it while taking it apart, then no, apple wont cover that.
 
OWC has great products, don't get me wrong. I almost bought RAM from them just because it said it would work.... But for about $80 more than Newegg. My G-Skill RAM works fine with no problems what so ever.

Same thing with HDD or SSD, if you do a little research before buying, you will have no problems with compatibility what so ever. Lots more people on here run the OCZ SSD than the Mercury from OWC.
 
hi

i have been using one since its release

so far, i had stock HD in my late 2010 13" MBP and was waiting for a good bargain to get a SSD

but finally, i realized that the capacity would be to low compared to my needs, after reading some reviews of the hybrid HDD, i decided to get one

FYI, i have been using Intel Postville SSD for a while too, i had 3 of them in my previous mac before i got this MBP (previous model of 13" MBP and 2010 Mac Mini)

I was really happy with the SSD but my budget allowed me to get only the 80 Gb, which was quickly full each time

it's been a few months already with the seagate

at first, i only noticed a little difference, but after a few reboots, startup was much faster, almost as fast as the Intel SSD

launching programs too

it's very quiet, does not make any heat

well, very happy with it

no vibration, no cons so far


i would definitely recommend it :)
 
I bought a Momentus XT, used it for a week and then sold it because it did not make the system noticeably faster, it was louder, hotter and caused more vibration.
 
CW Jones said:
OWC has great products, don't get me wrong. I almost bought RAM from them just because it said it would work.... But for about $80 more than Newegg. My G-Skill RAM works fine with no problems what so ever.
.
Click to expand...

OWC charges a premium for a lot of their products... just plain ripping Mac users off just because we use macs.
 
Yes, but Apple rips us off worse than OWC lol.

OWC puts a "compatible with Mac.... " sticker on it and then charge you too much. IF you don't want to do your research or get info on a HDD/SDD then buy from OWC because they tell you what will work. IF your not lazy, do your research and save yourself $80++
 
I will probably end up getting the next version (if there ever is one) around this time next year with a RAM upgrade! If I had known about this before I ordered my Mac, I would have held off paying for the extra speed on the stock HDD
 
AlphaDogg said:
Isn't that basically what Apple does? Ripping us off just because we like Macs.....
Click to expand...

Yup lol... but I already was ripped off hundreds of $$$ getting into my computer, why continue the trend after the fact? Who in their right mind wants to be continually ripped off? I'm not that masochistic :rolleyes:.
 
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