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Best 7200 rpm HDD

M

mac2x

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 19, 2009
1,146
0
Hi all,

I'm thinking about upgrading the HDD in my MBP 5,1 along with the memory. I have the memory squared away, but I'm really not sure about the HDD anymore. I want a 7200 rpm drive because I'm finding the 5400 rpm drive is just too slow for some things I do.

I was thinking about this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

Any suggestions/help/personal experiences are most welcome!! :)

Cheers!
 
mac2x said:
Hi all,

I'm thinking about upgrading the HDD in my MBP 5,1 along with the memory. I have the memory squared away, but I'm really not sure about the HDD anymore. I want a 7200 rpm drive because I'm finding the 5400 rpm drive is just too slow for some things I do.

I was thinking about this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

Any suggestions/help/personal experiences are most welcome!! :)

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I bought the same drive as a backup to my SSD. It's a good drive and def value for money! I have no problems with mine.
 
Tmacfan4321 said:
The Hitachi 7K500 is faster than the Momentus and quieter with less vibration overall. The WD Scorpio Black is faster than both drives though.

It really depends upon whether you want a quiet drive, or a fast one.
Click to expand...

The WD died on me within three days and it never topped 80 MB/s read. The Momentus is around 90-100 Mb/s read.
 
Intell said:
The WD died on me within three days and it never topped 80 MB/s read. The Momentus is around 90-100 Mb/s read.
Click to expand...

Yours likely had a manufacturing default. Those numbers sound reasonable because Momentus is denser (250GB vs 160GB per platter) which means faster sequential read&write speeds. There is 750GB Momentus 7200.5 coming I think, should be even faster if it's double platter
 
I would suggest the Momentus XT but the lack of power management controls and issues people are reporting with too aggressive head parking has kept me from doing so. At least with the Hitachi its possible to tune the power management of the drive's firmware.
 
Thanks for all the ideas guys. :) So what is the fastest 2.5 in 7200 rpm drive I can get?
 
Intell said:
Seagate Momentus 7200.4 for complete hard disk or the Momentus XT for a SSD hybrid.
Click to expand...

I do like 500 GB capacity over 320 GB. But what does this hybrid thing do?

neteng101 said:
I would suggest the Momentus XT but the lack of power management controls and issues people are reporting with too aggressive head parking has kept me from doing so. At least with the Hitachi its possible to tune the power management of the drive's firmware.
Click to expand...

Anyone else have any info about this?

cube said:
Define fastest.

At least by one of the definitions, the Momentus XT is way faster.
Click to expand...

I dunno...I'm not trying to get too technical. I mean fastest for general use. ;)
 
mac2x said:
I do like 500 GB capacity over 320 GB. But what does this hybrid thing do?
Click to expand...

The Momentous XT does come in a 500Gb variety. The hybrid part of it is as follows: there is 4Gb of NAND flash memory (same kind as in iPhone) that provides the quickness of an SSD with the space of a conventional hard drive. The NAND stores files that you access often for faster loading times.

mac2x said:
Anyone else have any info about this?
Click to expand...

There have been reports that the XT drives spin down way too ofter and the spin up time is a bit long, so there is some lagging.
 
seagate momentus XT. the overall snappiness and performance increase you get just makes the drive worth it over the wd black, hitachi, and the seagate 7200.4 drives. even though i ordered my 15" mbp with the 500GB 7200rpm hd upgrade, i still bought the seagate momentus XT to replace it. :) its definitely the best drive on the market today, especially if you want ssd-like performance at laptop hd prices.
 
The XT has a 4GB flash read cache, so it's SSD fast for reading the usually accessed stuff (but if you modify a piece of data, il will have to be read from the platters again).
 
There's a firmware update for non-OEM Momentus XT drives.

OEM is when an integrator installs its own firmware.

The updater is for Intel. If you don't have Windows, you can burn a bootable disc with Disk Utility.

I just ran it.
 
cube said:
There's a firmware update for non-OEM Momentus XT drives.

OEM is when an integrator installs its own firmware.

The updater is for Intel. If you don't have Windows, you can burn a bootable disc with Disk Utility.

I just ran it.
Click to expand...

That's good to know! Thanks.
 
Thanks for all your help guys! After reading a bunch of reviews, I think the 500 GB Momentus XT is exactly what I'm looking for, and will fit my needs perfectly.

cube, could you point me to that firmware update? I couldn't find it. :eek:
 
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