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

500GB Seagate Hybrid Drive

ranviper

ranviper

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 10, 2010
676
84
Adirondacks, NY
As I continue in my quest for a new hard drive for my 2010 MBP, I have come across this sweet little thing. a 500 GB 7200rpm Seagate hybrid HDD/SSD.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500562AS/

It's a very cool idea, but I am not really a hardware techy person, so I just have a couple questions about it. With the inclusion of a hybrid make much of a difference. I know it probably will in boot up speeds, but anything else?

Also, any other advantages to having a hybrid rather than a typical HDD. Thanks in advance!
 
You may want to research that drive a bit more. There are huge numbers of problems reported on various forums including Seagates, although *supposedly* many have been fixed by the latest firmware. I'm a bit remiss to even buy into the "fix" since many of the reported problems were after the drive had been used a while and the firmware is relatively new.

I have the non-hybrid Momentus drive in an older MBP machine and it's been flawless, and I agree with another poster, the WD Scorpio Black drives have shown to be generally problem free.
 
Ccrew said:
You may want to research that drive a bit more. There are huge numbers of problems reported on various forums including Seagates, although *supposedly* many have been fixed by the latest firmware. I'm a bit remiss to even buy into the "fix" since many of the reported problems were after the drive had been used a while and the firmware is relatively new.

I have the non-hybrid Momentus drive in an older MBP machine and it's been flawless, and I agree with another poster, the WD Scorpio Black drives have shown to be generally problem free.
Click to expand...

How about installing the Scorpio Black in Optibay? Any issues?
 
Alright, I've found a 750GB scorpio black 7200 rpm HDD that I like, but does WD make any hybrid drives? And if they do, any suggestions.

And Ill also re-ask my above question - do hybrid drives have any advantages over a regular HDD??
 
Yeah I have heard people mention that the momentus xt has some issues with mbp's. Not to mention that it is ridiculously overpriced from owc. It has been 99 for quite some time from amazon and newegg lately.
 
Currently Running the Seagate Momentus XT with no problems

I'm running this drive in my 2011 MacBook Pro and experiencing no problems. That being said, a lot of people are having issues and if you are worried about it, get the scorpio which seems to have less complaints.

Just like the freakout with the MacBook temperatures, the new graphics cards, etc - you have to be patient and realize that not everyones experience is the same and that with any new hardware there will be issues to work out. I have had no problems with my new 15inch before or after installing the Seagate Hybrid drive and I'm even running the original (23) firmware.
 
Affirmed said:
I'm running this drive in my 2011 MacBook Pro and experiencing no problems. That being said, a lot of people are having issues and if you are worried about it, get the scorpio which seems to have less complaints.

Just like the freakout with the MacBook temperatures, the new graphics cards, etc - you have to be patient and realize that not everyones experience is the same and that with any new hardware there will be issues to work out. I have had no problems with my new 15inch before or after installing the Seagate Hybrid drive and I'm even running the original (23) firmware.
Click to expand...

Does it make a big difference in performance? Mostly in regards to some moderate video editing (final cut pro) and some moderate gaming (black ops, assassins creed, SC2 and WoW)
 
ranviper said:
Does it make a big difference in performance? Mostly in regards to some moderate video editing (final cut pro) and some moderate gaming (black ops, assassins creed, SC2 and WoW)
Click to expand...

None whatsoever. The gain is usually in boot/application launch time. Mostly boot time. I used one of these in my Windows 7 PC and after you reboot a few times it is able to cache the most frequently accessed/first accessed files to the NAND portion of the hard drive which in turn cut my boot time by ~20 seconds. General and application *performance* will be largely identical to a standard HDD.
 
Yeah exactly what the previous poster said. I don't think you will notice much difference in gaming or general applications. It's more for boot time and frequently used programs (booting, safari, mail, office)
 
You might want to search in this forum, many threads on the Seagate Momentus XT already. Im happy with mine, except for about a 10% hit on battery life.
 
xxjudgmentxx said:
None whatsoever. The gain is usually in boot/application launch time. Mostly boot time.
Click to expand...

Considering my own experiences with the hard drive, I have to concur. Boot times and launching frequently used apps are great, but other than that, it performs similarly to most other mechanical hard drives.
 
There's numerous posts on this. Try looking at those posts to find more people's opinion. I've had two of them and returned both. Its a waste of money.
 
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
Back