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Love my new Seagate Momentus XT !!!

plethon said:
Does your MacBook Pro feel heavier now?
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That is the funniest thing I have read on this forum and I have read some real sidebusters! LOL


My XT was supposed to be here today but newegg dropped the ball so now I will not get it till Monday :-(
 
amoda said:
Yeah, the battery life hit worries me too. I'll use it for a couple of days and report back.

I have a stock 2.66 C2D Unibody (the generation right before this one).

One more thing, I just ran a smart check and while the HD passed the "temperature changes" row was nearly in the Failed category.

What is that, and is it worth the hassle of removing the HD, returning it and reinstalling it?

Cheers!

Click to expand...


The MBP can get toasty and all that is telling you is so far the temp ranges the disk has seen have been within spec as it's not in a fail state.
 
I forgot to ask -

Is the SMS still functional with this drive? Since replacing my drive, I no longer hear the "click" the stock HD made when I made a sudden movement. It still shows in the settings that SMS is enabled, but is it actually working? Was it tied to the stock HD?
 
Just ordered mine. Also ordered new hard drives for my desktop so I have enough room for backup. I also purchased a 50GB OCZ Vertex LE. I can't decide if I want to put it in my old desktop which I plan on slowly upgrading over the next year, or put it in my MacBook Pro and get an Optibay thingy off of eBay for $20. All depends on the speed of the Momentus XT and switching between OSX and Windows 7.

Can't wait!
 
I might consider this drive as well. I'm not rich enough to afford an SSD with enough storage capacity for my needs (200GB+) and I do need my Super Drive from time to time so I might as well try this one. My stock 320GB 5400RPM drive is barely cutting it for me.

My only question is... how does it affect battery life? I don't need the full 7 hours that my MBP with the stock HD gets but at least ~5 hours would be nice. Anyone that went from a stock 320GB HD to this hybrid HD have battery life results/tests?
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
I might consider this drive as well. I'm not rich enough to afford an SSD with enough storage capacity for my needs (200GB+) and I do need my Super Drive from time to time so I might as well try this one. My stock 320GB 5400RPM drive is barely cutting it for me.

My only question is... how does it affect battery life? I don't need the full 7 hours that my MBP with the stock HD gets but at least ~5 hours would be nice. Anyone that went from a stock 320GB HD to this hybrid HD have battery life results/tests?
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Well, one of the "most annoying features" that I've read up on this drive is its very aggressive APM feature that spins down the hard drive pretty quickly. What I don't know is if the drive does this automatically, or of it is set in the OS. With the complaints, it seems like it's built in. Either way, spinning down the drive quickly would lead to quite a bit of power savings. I know my Hitachi drive NEVER spins down, even with the setting applied in OSX. Maybe it will change with the Seagate, but maybe not.
 
Just comparing the specifications...

Seagate Momentus XT:
Power dissipation | +5V input average (25° C)
Spinup (max) | 1.0A
Seek | 2.2W
Read | 2.4W
Write | 2.3W
Idle, performance* | 1.4W
Idle, active* | 1.1W
Idle, low power mode* | 0.8W
Standby | 0.40W
Sleep | 0.40W

*During periods of drive idle, some offline activity may occur according to the S.M.A.R.T. specification, which may increase acoustic and power to operational levels.

Hitachi drive (but not the 250GB 7200RPM on in my machine):
Start-up (W, peak, max) | 5.5W (1.1A)
Seek (W, Avg) | 2.2W
Read/Write (W, avg) | 1.8W
Performance Idle | 1.7W
Active Idle (W, Avg) | 1.0W
Low power idle (W, avg) | 0.8W
Standby (W, avg) | 0.2W
Sleep (W) | 0.1W

You do the math... it varies a lot between the two drives. Overall, it looks like they should be about the same. The current draw not not that much different between the two. We're talking about hundredths of an amp. Some things the Hitachi is better with, some things the Seagate is better with. It does look like the Hitachi is less power hungry overall though, but like I said, it's very minimal.

Also, keep in mind that not every MacBook Pro has Hitachi drives... it just happens that mine does, so that's what I used for comparison.
 
I just put the 500GB version of the XT in my 2009 13" MBP. My start-up time has dropped to 16 seconds (on button to using firefox in 18 seconds).

I haven't noticed any additional noise or vibration. The previous hard drive was a fujitsu 5400RPM 320GB drive.
 
amoda said:
Yeah, the battery life hit worries me too. I'll use it for a couple of days and report back.

I have a stock 2.66 C2D Unibody (the generation right before this one).

One more thing, I just ran a smart check and while the HD passed the "temperature changes" row was nearly in the Failed category.

What is that, and is it worth the hassle of removing the HD, returning it and reinstalling it?

Cheers!

SNIP
Click to expand...


Would you mind sharing the name of that neat looking app?
 
ryannazaretian said:
Well, one of the "most annoying features" that I've read up on this drive is its very aggressive APM feature that spins down the hard drive pretty quickly. What I don't know is if the drive does this automatically, or of it is set in the OS. With the complaints, it seems like it's built in. Either way, spinning down the drive quickly would lead to quite a bit of power savings. I know my Hitachi drive NEVER spins down, even with the setting applied in OSX. Maybe it will change with the Seagate, but maybe not.
Click to expand...

So any users with the Momentus XT experience this spinning down?
 
takamine said:
So any users with the Momentus XT experience this spinning down?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. Probably not. It's just what I've been reading...

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source...GwNO_s7YsEAAAAqgQFT9ClW8E&fp=2ff39ea496e4b432

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=mome...&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=2ff39ea496e4b432

I'll receive my drive sometime today. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to swap the drives and install OSX on it or not today. I may have to wait until this weekend or sometime next week to install it.

Maybe some current owners can share more of their experiences. So far, most people on this thread seem happy.
 
Backordered at TigerDirect

Looks like I'll have to wait until 8/18 to get mine. :( I placed an order anyways just to get the Bing 12% Cashback.
 
To the people having audio issues. You may want to do a google search on "macosx AAM" and see what comes up.

Pretty much any modern drives comes with AAM capabilities (this is a way to control the audio behavior of the drive). Generally quieter settings make the drive slower, but the slowdown may be so miniscule that you never notice it, while the quietness is something you appreciate.

As far as I know, there is no 3rd party app for allowing you to dick around with AAM on macs, but you can send commands to EFI that do the job --- presumably the various google hits will give details.
 
I have been running a 500gb XT for a few days now. Let me tell you the drive is FAST. I have not noticed any reduction in battery life or any increase in noise and vibration. This drive is a great buy right now with SSD prices still so high. I know I will be using this drive until I can get a 500GB SSD for under 300!!
 
Well I have mine installed. It's working good. It's definitely not slower than the Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM drive I had in before...

I have not noticed a speed boost yet, but I've been installing lots of updates on Windows 7 since my life depends on Windows ATM. As soon as I'm done installing updates, I'll switch back to OSX and install all the updates for it.

I also got an OCZ Vertex LE for my crappy old HP desktop. It's 50GB. It's really fast! I'm definitely a believer in this SSD nonsense now. :D
 
Intell said:
Would you mind sharing the name of that neat looking app?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay! The application I used is Tech Tool Pro 5. It's pretty neat and detailed SMART check is only one of it's many options.



Battery life update: After calibrating my battery I found that I only really lost like 10mins of battery life. This is subjective, and not overly scientific though. I don't feel a difference though and the laptop lasts all day anyways, so I'm happy!

I've upgraded to a different laptop (took my Momentus with me though ;-) so unfortunately I can't do any real comparisons tests.
 
amoda said:
Sorry for the delay! The application I used is Tech Tool Pro 5. It's pretty neat and detailed SMART check is only one of it's many options.
Click to expand...

5? Dang, I haven't used that since version 2 or 3. It sure has changed.
 
I ordered one, installed it, then got rid of it and popped my x25 in because of the better all around performance. I get a better battery life with my full SSD drive. The new drive was way slower and noticeable to me after using a full SSD for a few months. It was fun while it lasted, but the Photoshop and Adobe performance from full SSD drives is amazing.

18 seconds or less to usable Safari from cold boot for me, and with the newer drive I had similar results as the OP. Very noticeable after using SSD.

If you can deal with a bit less space ( do what I do and have itunes on an external) then your fine. And I have not had any speed degredation issues with my full SSD. Filled it a few times even.

Oh well to each his own. I'm glad you guys like it! It was not for me though.
 
Jason Beck said:
I ordered one, installed it, then got rid of it and popped my x25 in because of the better all around performance. I get a better battery life with my full SSD drive. The new drive was way slower and noticeable to me after using a full SSD for a few months. It was fun while it lasted, but the Photoshop and Adobe performance from full SSD drives is amazing.

18 seconds or less to usable Safari from cold boot for me, and with the newer drive I had similar results as the OP. Very noticeable after using SSD.

If you can deal with a bit less space ( do what I do and have itunes on an external) then your fine. And I have not had any speed degredation issues with my full SSD. Filled it a few times even.

Oh well to each his own. I'm glad you guys like it! It was not for me though.
Click to expand...

How long have you used your X-25M. I have one that is currently in a windows laptop and am considering putting it in my MBP 15 that's coming Friday. Will it slow due to lack of trim?
 
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