I only said this because the Intel SSD did not work on 2010 Macbook Pro 13" installing windows 7 through bootcamp. hopefully there won't be a problem though..
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Installed Momentus XT in my 13"
- Thread starter thadoggfather
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I only said this because the Intel SSD did not work on 2010 Macbook Pro 13" installing windows 7 through bootcamp. hopefully there won't be a problem though..
Did you install the latest firmwares for the Intel SSD? The Intel SSDs had that issue a long time ago but it was fixed.
yea I did, theres a whole topic on it, there was only 1 person that was able to do it successfully, everyone else has been having problems,
I have a question. So I am planning on purchasing a 13" macbook pro soon. I'd like to upgrade to the 7200rpm hdd as a cheaper alternative to an ssd. However, I am unfamiliar with how I would buy the mbp and then mirror the stock hdd onto the new 7200rpm hdd so it was the exact same thing (brand new os out of the box nothing changed and just like if I had bought it from apple). Can someone explain to me how I would do that? Thanks.
Arrived from Newegg this afternoon.
Removing the screws on the bottom plate of the 13" was really hard imo. I had to use plyers to have enough grip on the screwdriver to remove them, and it slipped twice (with hairline scratches) -- probably better anyways. I wear belts and worry about the buckle scratching up the bottom, but this just eliminates my OCD -- and it doesn't look horrendous but my heart stopped when I slipped, hoping I didn't too badly scar the machine.
The drive is noticeably faster than my stock Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm drive (which is now in an external enclosure: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816001). I also notice an increase in the system vibration, but this probably a standard thing anyone would feel going from 5400 rpm to 7200rpm. I have yet to see how it holds up after remembering my favorite apps and battery life but will report once I have a better grasp.
If you have any questions, ask away!
This drive looks great! I need to re-build my home server / NAS, and I'm going to use the Momentus XT in it! For my laptop, there's no replacement for my 512GB SSD .
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It's tempting as a stopgap for SSD prices to go down. The drive alone would be a step up from my 5400 RPM one.
I'd be able to free up my old WD 320GB for external eSATA usage too.
I'd be able to free up my old WD 320GB for external eSATA usage too.
I ordered one from ncix.com as soon as it was made available yesterday at about 2:30 PM. I chose the 10$ shipping option instead of the normal (I think the normal is 6$), so it was delivered this morning and I'm using it right now! Total cost: about 170$ canadian... Yeah, I know.
It's amazingly fast in general, and really not noisy at all. I've only been using it for a few hours and haven't installed my apps yet, but it's a start.
It's amazingly fast in general, and really not noisy at all. I've only been using it for a few hours and haven't installed my apps yet, but it's a start.
This isn't a substitute for SSD. The technological limitations make it a completely separate demographic. If you're looking to improve access performance all around this won't do it, SSD will. This is for someone who frequently accesses the same small percentage of their hard drive. I believe it to be a good alternative for many, but most people don't understand how this works and thinks it's going to make their computer faster. Keep in mind this only has a SMALL amount of SSD built in. It's an upgrade from a 5400 RPM stock drive that's for sure, but don't expect lobster for chicken price.
There are many people showing videos of a freshly installed drive opening itunes\word\other app real quick. Ask them to do a video of them opening EVERYTHING on their dock while simultaneously copying a file to an external drive. The drive will open iTunes and word super quick (cause it's the last thing the drive has in memory), but everything else will LAG...
It's a good upgrade for the price, but not revolutionary or anything more than a minor speed bump for the very few people who only access the same 1% of their drive most of the time.
There are many people showing videos of a freshly installed drive opening itunes\word\other app real quick. Ask them to do a video of them opening EVERYTHING on their dock while simultaneously copying a file to an external drive. The drive will open iTunes and word super quick (cause it's the last thing the drive has in memory), but everything else will LAG...
It's a good upgrade for the price, but not revolutionary or anything more than a minor speed bump for the very few people who only access the same 1% of their drive most of the time.
+1 , I hope everyone understands this too. But let me explain how I made my decision...
I don't think most of us will ever open everything in the dock at the same time and transfer huge files (and capture video and listen to music and watch a movie and do a Time Machine backup) all at the same time... Well, I may be wrong. I think most people open the same few apps very often and use some other apps less frequently.
I consider myself a power-user. Most of time time, I'm either working on my Mac (web design stuff) or playing with it, I consider this computer to be my life. If I don't have it, I'm not making money (and I'm not having fun). But I also know that most people who are like me will find this drive to be good enough for their needs.
I had a 60 GB SSD drive in my computer for a few months and yes, it was really fast. It was also tiny, I always felt cramped and I had to plug my stock 160 GB hard drive via USB anytime I wanted to open iTunes or work in Photoshop. This drive is 500 GB and makes opening the apps I use really really fast. If I can open and close Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iTunes and Firefox quickly, I'm happy. The rest of the system becomes really fast as well, but of course that's because it's a 7200 RPM drive, compared to a 5400 RPM. I don't work with big files so file transfer speeds don't matter too much to me.
It was either this for about 170$ (canadian total with taxes and shipping) or buying an Optibay for 199$ (for 500 GB 7200 RPM, because my stock drive is 5400 and that's slow) or 99$ (with my slow stock drive) and having to install it myself, risk screwing something up, voiding the warranty, making the computer hotter and noisier AND losing the SuperDrive (which I use quite often) etc. This was just cheaper and easier... and it seems to work really well according to the reviews I read.
I agree it could have been cheaper for what it is, though. As soon as I can get a good 320+ GB SSD drive for under 200$, I'll consider one for sure.
I don't know, maybe I'm completely wrong about this, but I wouldn't pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a good tiny SSD and start replacing stuff in the computer or use an external drive all day long (making the computer slower). I want my portable computer to be portable. I'm already annoyed when I have to plug it into a wall, honestly. I'm just trying to make it even faster than it normally is. And I think that's what most of us want.
The best an easiest way in my opinion:
1. Get a USB/Firewire enclosure for your old drive
2. Install the new drive
3. Connect the old drive and boot up from your OSX install DVD
4. Use disk utility to format the new drive
5. Enter a terminal and use the following command:
asr restore --source /Volumes/OLDLABEL --target /Volumes/NEWLABEL --erase --noverify
The process is very quick and 100% accurate. If you already have an external drive and don't want to buy an enclosure, there are ways of creating an image with hdiutil and restore it with asr as well.
This drive looks great! I need to re-build my home server / NAS, and I'm going to use the Momentus XT in it! For my laptop, there's no replacement for my 512GB SSD
Why would you use this drive in your NAS?
It's sold out on NewEgg but Systemax appears to have a few left and with Bing cashback.
Or if you're uncomfortable with following forum terminal commands, just connect your time machine drive during the OS install, and choose to restore from a TM backup. This also works perfectly.
I was unable to order from newegg (still showing auto-notify) so I went with tigerdirect..which is now backordered.
Yeah, I don't think it's going to help with large files, which are normally on a NAS.
But as a storage drive, it makes no sense to get it. You'll be better off getting cheaper 1TB drives low power drives instead. XT only makes sense as a system drive.
XT only has 4GB cache for reading only. Once you get past that, it'll just slow down to 16ms typical 7200rpm drive. You have to use the same files constantly to get it cached. It doesn't work if you switch to different files. Not to mention it doesn't work for writing either, so you don't get any benefits.
@bella92108
You overlook the fact that the most important feature of a boot drive is it's ability to boot quickly, as its name suggests. This, too, is the most aspect in choosing a new one. Between the Momentus XT and a SSD, there is very little of a difference in boot speeds, whereas there's a HUGE difference between these two and a typical 5400/7200rpm HDD. Yes, this won't run ALL of your programs super quickly, but it will boot your system super quickly. It'll get FASTER with time (whereas an SSD will get slower with time, despite TRIM and GC), and this solution will not cause you to abandon your optical drive in favor of a hugh capacity HDD with which to store your files. Yes, this drive does not have all the features of an SSD... But it shouldn't be expected to. It's hundreds of dollars less. And, yes, it is "revolutionary."
You overlook the fact that the most important feature of a boot drive is it's ability to boot quickly, as its name suggests. This, too, is the most aspect in choosing a new one. Between the Momentus XT and a SSD, there is very little of a difference in boot speeds, whereas there's a HUGE difference between these two and a typical 5400/7200rpm HDD. Yes, this won't run ALL of your programs super quickly, but it will boot your system super quickly. It'll get FASTER with time (whereas an SSD will get slower with time, despite TRIM and GC), and this solution will not cause you to abandon your optical drive in favor of a hugh capacity HDD with which to store your files. Yes, this drive does not have all the features of an SSD... But it shouldn't be expected to. It's hundreds of dollars less. And, yes, it is "revolutionary."
Who cares about booting? Seriously? It's not really important. How often do people boot/reboot laptops? How many people sleep/hibernate instead of shutting down?
Secondly, XT does not get FASTER over time, it's a misleading statement. It adjusts itself to your condition. If you're using the same applications for a week, a month, a year. It does not get faster after a day, period. It get faster after you suddenly change, it'll slow down to spinning drive until it readjust to your new pattern and restore to normal speed. Also SSD already have all the speed constantly, it does not need to 'condition' itself to get faster like an XT does.
Thirdly, SSDs do not get slower over time dramatically, yes, you'll lose about 10% of the performance speed but that's about it. The read latency is constant with SSD, you still get all the snappiness regardless of how much the drive is filled. So, you'll lose even more with XT/HDD because they still have spinning drive that slows down the more you fill the data in. XT does not help with fragment issues, if the files are not stored on XT, you'll face a huge drop in performance when you're reading files that has been fragmented all over the drive.
Fourth, SSD is revolutionary, not XT. XT is a mere evolution of the HD including SSD technology.
Fifth, this is an alternative to the HDD for boot drive, not SSD.