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Is Solid State Hybrid Drives worth it?

C

Chiuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 24, 2011
305
0
NorCal, Bay Area
I'm debating whether to get the Solid State Hybrid Drives from Seagate.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/internal-storage/momentus-xt-kit/

Or the Western Digital 750GB/7200RPM.

I hear seagate is less reliable and glitchy?
Western Digital is more reliable and more secure?

But those are just rumors, anyone actually try both or whatever?
Like... is the battery life still about the same?
How fast does it run/boot time/etc?
Does it make a lot of noise?

Thanks.
 
There are some reports of issues with the Seagate XT, but many others with no problems - remember, the majority of any posts for anything are negative.

My own experience is positive. I've had it installed since November, and it's fast, very quiet, and vibration free. I don't operate off battery all that often, but from what I've observed, it seems to be the same running time as my WD 320GB 7200RPM. I updated the firmware from SD23 to SD24, and will most likely update to the latest, SD25.

(btw: MBP 17" Early 2009 Unibody, 8GB RAM)
 
Hard as a rock!

Hybrid drives are fine but they in no way will give you a chubby like a real solid state drive will give you...

Man up and get a real solid state drive.
 
The hybrid drives are a decent middle ground. They offer the best of both worlds. They do not compare to a full SSD but then, they don't cost anywhere near as much.

Personally, I've got a large SSD and I love it. I recommend you save up and do the same.
 
Could someone please explain how these work? I want to optibay my yet to arrive high end 2011 15" MBP but I don't want to have and warranty issues. It looks like the first one the OP posted has 4gb of NAND memory. Is that even enough for the OS?
 
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bozz2006 said:
It monitors your most used stuff and caches it to the flash memory.
Click to expand...

I see. So this includes applications and files? Just files? Sounds interesting but I can immediately see why a real SSD will be better. Hmm... What to do what to do...

Thanks
 
A hybrid drive provides most of the SSD experience a common user is looking for.
 
If hybrid drives actually were everything that they're cracked up to be, they'd be flying off the shelves and every manufacturer would have one. Go for the real McCoy.
 
The "real McCoy" is overkill for most people. Go for SSD if you use virtualization.
 
hybrid requires z68 chip to work well
this chip is not in the macbook pro only iMac

if you have a 17" mbp forget it now on my 4th mbp none work well with 6g SSD

no wonder they drop the Mac from OSX now just a phone company
well disapointed it will be going back for money back
 
gsxrq said:
hybrid requires z68 chip to work well
this chip is not in the macbook pro only iMac

if you have a 17" mbp forget it now on my 4th mbp none work well with 6g SSD

no wonder they drop the Mac from OSX now just a phone company
well disapointed it will be going back for money back
Click to expand...
Not true. The Momentous XT has everything built into the drive and requires no motherboard support.

You are referring to SSD caching which is a feature on the motherboard of the new iMacs but isn't supported yet. Its PC only at this time, as far as I know.
 
oh missed that something else they put in that doesn't work yet!

sorry for being anti mbp but my 2006 Mac pro works faultless just seems apple now being used as intel test partner before releasing to pc market
unlike pc market where at least most good manufactures will publicise updates
apple not even acknolage Sata problem.

http://blog.macsales.com/10433-macbook-pro-2011-models-and-sata-3-0-6-0gbs-update-5272011

so many problems with latest apple kit (bleeding screens,Sata,heat,wifi
 
if not an ssd then i would just get a scorpio black or other hdd, i wouldn't get involved with hybrid drives just yet. just my personal opinion although many have had success with the momentus xt.
 
My experience with Momentus XT:

Very fast drive, boot up times were incredible and shutdown about 3 secs on a 1 week old fresh install of OS X. Most applications start in one bounce.

Bad part was battery life. My 2010 MBP 13" used to last 9-11 hours on a full battery, medium brightness and surfing the net. With the momentus, it last between 3-6 hours at best. This was even on a fresh install of OS X. I did numerous drive swaps and upgraded the firmware too. I realised the drive never spins down in OS X under the latest firmware, it does in Windows. Even though it only uses 2 W, it seems to have a drastic effect on my battery life.

Proof of it was when I finally bit the bullet and bought a WD Scorpio Blue 5400rpm. Not quite as fast but my battery life went back to 9-11 hours. Apps take a few more seconds to load, boot time is maybe 30secs instead of 20, but my computer last twice as long. I would've kept the XT if I only used my MBP at the desk but I bought this computer for battery life and portability.
 
crispy12 said:
My experience with Momentus XT:

Very fast drive, boot up times were incredible and shutdown about 3 secs on a 1 week old fresh install of OS X. Most applications start in one bounce.

Bad part was battery life. My 2010 MBP 13" used to last 9-11 hours on a full battery, medium brightness and surfing the net. With the momentus, it last between 3-6 hours at best. This was even on a fresh install of OS X. I did numerous drive swaps and upgraded the firmware too. I realised the drive never spins down in OS X under the latest firmware, it does in Windows. Even though it only uses 2 W, it seems to have a drastic effect on my battery life.

Proof of it was when I finally bit the bullet and bought a WD Scorpio Blue 5400rpm. Not quite as fast but my battery life went back to 9-11 hours. Apps take a few more seconds to load, boot time is maybe 30secs instead of 20, but my computer last twice as long. I would've kept the XT if I only used my MBP at the desk but I bought this computer for battery life and portability.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I'll look into that.
 
mrwonkers said:
Hybrid drives are fine but they in no way will give you a chubby like a real solid state drive will give you...

Man up and get a real solid state drive.
Click to expand...

If I had a job... and wasn't a broke college student... then yeah, I wouldn't mind paying $1000 for a SSD, but since I'm in that case... I got a budget.
 
Yeah, battery life plays an issue, so I might have to compare them both myself to test whether or not if it drastically degrade the battery or whatever. I need battery to keep working, especially in the library where I do my schoolwork.

But does anyone recommend this?
 
Last edited:
bozz2006 said:
If hybrid drives actually were everything that they're cracked up to be, they'd be flying off the shelves and every manufacturer would have one. Go for the real McCoy.
Click to expand...

:D

OCZ is coming with a hybrid drive that has 60 gb to 120 gb SSD and 500 gb to 1 Tb hard drive. You don't think these hybrid drives can replace a SSD if it has that much SSD on board?

( as a comparison, Seagate only has 4 gb of SSD )
 
Chiuy said:
Yeah, battery life plays an issue, so I might have to compare them both myself to test whether or not if it drastically degrade the battery or whatever. I need battery to keep working, especially in the library where I do my schoolwork.

But does anyone recommend this?
Click to expand...
There are a few users who have had problems. Generally these drives work just fine. I suggest you try it yourself and see how it does. It can always be returned.
 
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