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Seagate Momentus XT verse a true SSD Drive
- Thread starter spmiz12
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I have one and I feel its about the same as the Apple 7200 because I switch apps alot but im upgrading to an ssd soon. I plan on using the XT in optibay and ssd in hdd slot so I dont need to buy a huge ssd. Not really a great speed increase in my case but noise, vibration, battery, and heat all seem to be the same.
+1 on this, I mean the XT is better than the 5400 stock drive but if SSD's get significantly cheaper I plan to get back some battery life and just mount the Momentus when I need to access storage.
Out of interest, why are people planning on putting the SSD in the Hdd slot and the platter in the optibay? Shouldn't you be able to boot from either and isn't there some sort of anti-jarring protection built into the Hdd's bay?
Yeah, I went from a Intel X25-M to an XT solely based on capacity, thinking it wouldn't be THAT big of a difference, but it really is.
First of all, the heat that 7200RPM drives put out, while not hot per se, is definitely more warm than an SSD. Also, the vibration/noise compared to well...nothing, is to be expected, but I'd rather not have it.
Second, the speed, even though it is only a couple to a few seconds difference, makes a huge deal of difference. An SSD just makes everything so much more fluid, loading apps is like loading them on an iPhone or iPad, just a click and bam it's there.
So for me, once the next generation of Sandforce based drives are out Q1 of next year, I'm moving back to an SSD.
First of all, the heat that 7200RPM drives put out, while not hot per se, is definitely more warm than an SSD. Also, the vibration/noise compared to well...nothing, is to be expected, but I'd rather not have it.
Second, the speed, even though it is only a couple to a few seconds difference, makes a huge deal of difference. An SSD just makes everything so much more fluid, loading apps is like loading them on an iPhone or iPad, just a click and bam it's there.
So for me, once the next generation of Sandforce based drives are out Q1 of next year, I'm moving back to an SSD.
Depends on your machine. Mine is a Santa Rosa MGP with a PATA Superdrive. Makes no sense putting the faster disk there in the Optibay if you are crippling it through the PATA interface. Other reason is that if you don't put the SSD where the SATA HD used to reside, then you will probably have problems with sleep.
lol how could you think it'd be anything like an ssd.
The xt is just a mechanical hard drive....with alot of speedy, tasty cache. 4 GB SLC to be exact. Items must be loaded into the cache after first being read by the HDD at traditional speeds, then after subsequent reads they are read out of the cache @ lightning speed.
I knew that. I just thought I could sacrifice the speed for the capacity, but I was definitely wrong.
I swapped out the 250 5400 drive in my 2.5Ghz Macbook pro and it made a huge difference for me.
Also took the opportunity to update to Snow Leopard so I'm sure it's a combination of 5400 < 7200, the SSD cache, and the OS optimization but it did the trick until I can get a new machine.
Bought the drive from newegg the other day for $129 with a $10 rebate so it only cost me $120. Came installed with the latest firmware SD23 so didn't have to flash it either. So far so good. Happy with purchase.
Totally worth it if you're trying to make it stretch IMO. I can't compare to other 7200 drives but I'm posting because I've read a lot of horror stories about this drive...
Also took the opportunity to update to Snow Leopard so I'm sure it's a combination of 5400 < 7200, the SSD cache, and the OS optimization but it did the trick until I can get a new machine.
Bought the drive from newegg the other day for $129 with a $10 rebate so it only cost me $120. Came installed with the latest firmware SD23 so didn't have to flash it either. So far so good. Happy with purchase.
Totally worth it if you're trying to make it stretch IMO. I can't compare to other 7200 drives but I'm posting because I've read a lot of horror stories about this drive...
Ive read the problems too but how many people go post if they have no problems? Like this forum, not many people come here to say how great a mac is but come here for solutions to problems, ways to upgrade, etc... The amount of good over bad is very large as with any other electronic, some will have problems.
The Momentus XT is really fast, especially if you don't run a lot of different programs so that the SSD can store those there. But and SSD will still run circles around it.
Like mentioned before, until SSD's get much cheaper I won't be purchasing one. To me the lower price and higher capacity is more important. But then again this is my only computer and I have it boot-camped with Windows 7 so I need the space.
Like mentioned before, until SSD's get much cheaper I won't be purchasing one. To me the lower price and higher capacity is more important. But then again this is my only computer and I have it boot-camped with Windows 7 so I need the space.
I dropped one in my late 2009 13" MBP a couple of weeks ago, while I like the start up speed I have noticed it's much tougher on the battery. I have noticed a bit more vibration however it's really very minor. My temps haven't changed a bit. No way is it a SSD competitor however for the money I think it's a good buy. As SSDs become more mainstream (in other words more affordable) HD's will be a thing of the past.
I got the momentus xt 320Gb recently, and I am very happy with it. For the price, you can't beat it. SSD are still faster obviously, but crazy expensive for less storage room. Meeting in the middle with the momentus Xt is great.
1) Boot up times: SSD > XT Hybrid (after a few tries) >> other 7200rpm hdd
2) App launch times: SSD > XT Hybrid (after a few tries) >> 7200
3) File transfer: SSD >>>> XT Hybrid = 7200
4) Value for money: XT > 7200 > SSD (this one is debatable)
2) App launch times: SSD > XT Hybrid (after a few tries) >> 7200
3) File transfer: SSD >>>> XT Hybrid = 7200
4) Value for money: XT > 7200 > SSD (this one is debatable)