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How is your Seagate Momentus XT working so far?

seong

seong

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 11, 2010
1,031
28
To all Seagate Momentus XT users in Macrumors Forums out there: How is your Seagate Momentus XT working so far? I've read from one of the threads that this hybrid HDD/SSD is not good for long term usage. Before I pull my trigger and buy the drive, I want to see if it works fine, slow down, replaced with SSD, etc. I would like some first-hand-opinion about this drive.
 
Works fine, but I disabled power management using hdapm because of firmware problems.
Could be fixed with the current firmware, though.

seong said:
I've read from one of the threads that this hybrid HDD/SSD is not good for long term usage.
Click to expand...
Sources?
 
Thanks for the quick responses! I'll wait for more replies before I order it on Amazon.

talmy said:
I've been using mine since December 2010 and have had no problems.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that seems like a long 8 month usage! Is it as fast as it was five month ago? (assuming that the Momentus XT got it's flash drive filled up and performs at it's best.)

sth said:
Sources?
Click to expand...

I tried finding it, but I just can't find it for some reason. I'm pretty sure it was something to do with SD24 and Beachball under Snow Leopard. I'm just hoping it's been fixed by now with new SD26 and SD27.
 
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While I don't use it, I've heard nothing but good reviews about it. I would have purchased a 3.5" version if there was one.*

*There IS a 3.5" Seagate Momentus, but it's not a Hybrid Drive.
 
And what does that have to do with "long term usage"? ???
Anyway, never had that problem, but as I said: I have power management completely disabled for the drive.

One note, though: This drive will not make your system feel like it has an SSD. Overall, it feels a bit faster than with a normal 7200rpm notebook drive, but it's not a night and day difference like with an SSD.
 
My experience is different. I've had several SSDs in my MBP 2011. For my usage the XT feels the same as an SSD. More specifically: booting and launching applications are as fast as with an SSD. As can be seen in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMldqf5oUZw

Now if I were to use lots (10+) of large applications then I would notice it's not an SSD, but I'm a fairly light user. Web, Office, Skype and watching videos. That sort of usage.
 
seong said:
Hmm, that seems like a long 8 month usage! Is it as fast as it was five month ago? (assuming that the Momentus XT got it's flash drive filled up and performs at it's best.)
Click to expand...

With my usage patterns the speed up is there but not where you would expect. When I got the drive I did the usual bunch of reboots to load the cache with the system files and get fast boot times. But after normal usage patterns the boot time slowed down as I do certain program loading and data access far more frequently than I boot the system! The speed up from the cache is certainly there, and the change to a 7200 rpm drive boosts the speed of everything.

If it had a 16GB or 32GB cache it would be much more effective, but also more costly!

I'm now on firmware SD25. Seagate has been good on updates, but this has been the only one that has been noticeable to me as it caused a major reduction in vibration (my main drive complaint before).
 
Thanks for quick replies once again :) This forum is by far the best Mac user forum I've ever used! Anyways, any recommendation for me to what to do with the current internal HDD? I originally had 160GB HDD, but then I replaced it with 500GB about a year ago. Now that I'm planning to buy the 500GB Hybrid HDD, should I have the 500GB HDD in the casing or go for an optibay? I didn't use the OD for a year now. I would want to find a cheap alternative to it. No ebay please :)

EDIT: Will this optibay work?
http://www.amazon.co.jp/Donyaダイレクト-...NLNU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1310918144&sr=8-5
 
As much as I love the XT... when you're going to go optibay why not buy a 64GB SSD and put your 500GB in the optibay?

Although 1TB of storage would also be nice of course.
 
Philflow said:
My experience is different. I've had several SSDs in my MBP 2011. For my usage the XT feels the same as an SSD. More specifically: booting and launching applications are as fast as with an SSD. As can be seen in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMldqf5oUZw

Now if I were to use lots (10+) of large applications then I would notice it's not an SSD, but I'm a fairly light user. Web, Office, Skype and watching videos. That sort of usage.
Click to expand...
There are indeed a few applications where I notice the difference to a normal 7200rpm-drive. These are applications I launch very often, like Safari, Terminal, Mail, iCal, Reeder or Smultron. However, after working with heavyweight applications, e.g. editing a few gigabytes of photos in Aperture or editing/testing a big project in XCode, the drive's cache is basically reset.

Anyway, I'd still prefer the drive over any conventional 2.5" HDD, because it is at least as fast as a normal 500gb 7200rpm HDD and in some situations noticably faster (but not all the time, like a real SSD).
 
sth said:
There are indeed a few applications where I notice the difference to a normal 7200rpm-drive. These are applications I launch very often, like Safari, Terminal, Mail, iCal, Reeder or Smultron. However, after working with heavyweight applications, e.g. editing a few gigabytes of photos in Aperture or editing/testing a big project in XCode, the drive's cache is basically reset.

Anyway, I'd still prefer the drive over any conventional 2.5" HDD, because it is at least as fast as a normal 500gb 7200rpm HDD and in some situations noticably faster (but not all the time, like a real SSD).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification :) I sometimes work with editing few hundred GB of movie (yes, I make DVDs out of it and get paid for doing that.) Well, looks like I'll have to give it a try.
 
FWIW I have one of these drives in my PC laptop.

My normal programs boot up much quicker then before, but I've noticed a few odd clicks hear and there. I read heaps of reviews before I bought it of people saying the drives have such a high failure rate, so I'm a bit weary.

The drive hasn't really showed any other signs of failure so don't know if the noises are normal but I might also just being paranoid. Other then that, been a great hard drive. Would put it in my MBP but am waiting for the right time to switch to SSD.
 
No problems at all since November. Upgraded the firmware to SD24 when it was released. Very quiet and no vibrations. I don't notice any reduction in battery (I don't run off battey that often, but have done some duration tests).

It definitely feels faster than the WD SB 320GB drive that was previously installed. I seldom restart, so I can't comment on any improvement in boot times.

Overall, I'm very happy with the drive. It's the quietest and fastest HD I've used in my MBP (17" Early 2009 2.66MHz 8GB RAM).
 
seong said:
@sth

Here, I was just digging through Apple Discussions, and found it. Do you have these problems with video playback?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452949?start=30&tstart=0
Click to expand...
I don't have those problems. However, I had problems with the drive spinning down for no apparent reason in some cases, so I installed hdapm ( http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/ ) to disable power management, which eliminated those problems.

That was with the original firmware that came with the drive (I have a very early one).
I have installed the newer firmwares but didn't disable hdapm since then, so I don't know if these issues are fixed now.

Anyway, I still get up to 7 hours of battery life, even with hdd power management and the onboard graphics disabled.
 
sth said:
I don't have those problems. However, I had problems with the drive spinning down for no apparent reason in some cases, so I installed hdapm ( http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/ ) to disable power management, which eliminated those problems.

That was with the original firmware that came with the drive (I have a very early one).
I have installed the newer firmwares but didn't disable hdapm since then, so I don't know if these issues are fixed now.

Anyway, I still get up to 7 hours of battery life, even with hdd power management and the onboard graphics disabled.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for the help! I'm still not convinced enough to buy it though. I mean, it's been more than a year since it was released, so I was expecting Seagate, or at least companies like Samsung and Hitachi, to upgrade the NAND to 8GB or 16GB.
 
seong said:
To all Seagate Momentus XT users in Macrumors Forums out there: How is your Seagate Momentus XT working so far? I've read from one of the threads that this hybrid HDD/SSD is not good for long term usage. Before I pull my trigger and buy the drive, I want to see if it works fine, slow down, replaced with SSD, etc. I would like some first-hand-opinion about this drive.
Click to expand...

Works fine - I've had it about 4 months now. Not sure if I see any real speed difference overall.
 
seong said:
Thanks again for the help! I'm still not convinced enough to buy it though. I mean, it's been more than a year since it was released, so I was expecting Seagate, or at least companies like Samsung and Hitachi, to upgrade the NAND to 8GB or 16GB.
Click to expand...
I'm not a big fan of Seagate drives and they had firware problems with a number of drives in recent years, but I give them credit for trying something new with this drive. Even a year after it's introduction, there's nothing comparable on the market.

And again: What is the alternative? As far as I know, there's no faster internal 2,5" drive available (except for SSDs, which I can't afford in that size).
 
Philflow said:
My experience is different. I've had several SSDs in my MBP 2011. For my usage the XT feels the same as an SSD. More specifically: booting and launching applications are as fast as with an SSD. As can be seen in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMldqf5oUZw

Now if I were to use lots (10+) of large applications then I would notice it's not an SSD, but I'm a fairly light user. Web, Office, Skype and watching videos. That sort of usage.
Click to expand...

Obviously you never had a real good SSD drive to compare too because any SSD will perform way faster than the XT would dream on. As other users here have proven it won't be as fast period. I am actually tired of seeing your posts saying it is just as fast when in reality it isn't. The Read/Write access times are very slow on this drive and that is what counts when you need "speed" on your computer.
 
Philflow said:
For my usage 4GB turns out to be enough... but I don't use that many apps.
Click to expand...

Hey Philflow, if you're not getting cheques from the Seagate Momentus XT marketing department I think you need to evaluate what you're doing with your time.

Straight wearing out every HD and SSD thread every chance you get.

No offence intended but it's way overdone.
 
nizmoz said:
Obviously you never had a real good SSD drive to
Click to expand...

right... Vertex 3 240GB and Crucial M4 256GB don't count as good SSDs I suppose :rolleyes:


jamisonbaines said:
Hey Philflow, if you're not getting cheques from the Seagate Momentus XT marketing department I think you need to evaluate what you're doing with your time.

Straight wearing out every HD and SSD thread every chance you get.

No offence intended but it's way overdone.
Click to expand...

Point taken. And no I'm just a happy user of the XT after switching from SSD. I wish Seagate would send me cheques.

Hope you did notice the topic of this thread though ;)

When I think it's appropriate I will give my opinion though....
 
jamisonbaines said:
Hey Philflow, if you're not getting cheques from the Seagate Momentus XT marketing department I think you need to evaluate what you're doing with your time.

Straight wearing out every HD and SSD thread every chance you get.

No offence intended but it's way overdone.
Click to expand...

X2. I think many are tired of him and his overly bias towards the XT.
 
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