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Love my new Seagate Momentus XT !!!
- Thread starter rex3
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Thanks for coming back on that- cold boot time isn't an issue but should be somewhere that the speed should manifest (funny too that its 50-100% longer that you're getting).
Given the RAM was upped at the same time I can't say that there has been that much of a noticeable difference from the drive (including battery/heat/vibration on this side- is a wee bit noisier though). That said, you did mention its been in there a week and mine is a bit newer still.
Anybody with ideas on when the firmware starts to optimise and settle down?
Cheers!
I did this, and it seems to have fixed the problems I was having with video playback. I guess this is what happens when you restore via time machine during installation of 10.6
On a related note, does anyone know why these disks perform so badly on random 4k block tests? Does it even matter?
I just ordered Momentus XT 500GB for my i7 15"
Will arrive on Friday. Battery life is one of my concern too.
I know all the issues mac users are reporting but couldnt resist not trying out the new technology. I will report how it goes.
The difference between a 5400 and a 7200 RPM disk the last time I checked was 1W.
So you are looking at about <30 mins less battery life.
Fairly large change but not that significant really.
I've gone through an entire day (9-5) with my i5 MBP at 50% brightness and it still had 30 mins to go.
Been reading all the mixed reviews and reliability issues and I was wondering if I should just go with a 7,200 (or if theres faster) HDD with a bigger cache...like WD scorpio black or something else someone can suggest.
I read reviews about how the 4gb flash memory in the XT drains a bit more than a typical 7200rpm.... but I could be entirely wrong.
there's another devil in the details with this drive re:battery life guys, just be aware. the change they made for 23 is to prevent spin downs, ever... if you are lucky to have the older 22 firmware and not suffer from beach balling I wouldn't suggest updating if you have battery concerns.
I totally agree. I've had my XT500 in for two days and see a considerable difference in the battery life...it sucks it away. I waited for the price to drop over the past few months and did a little homework but I'm disappointed.
oh, the vibration is also an unwelcome change...
I picked up the Momentus XT 500gb on Wednesday, plugged it in into my late-2008 Unibody 2.53ghz MacBook Pro and did a clean install with it.
In most cases I have my MacBook Pro plugged in, so I'm not too concerned with battery life. But I have noticed a slight increase in vibration when I'm resting my palms, but it's not a huge issue.
So far so good. Apps load up fast, boot time is great, overall very happy with it. (Also a nice increase in space!) The fresh install is helping the speed, but in general it's a lot faster because of the SSD and 7200rpm.
Though over the next two months or so my plan will change.
I'm thinking about buying an 80gb SSD and us it as my OS and applications drive. With that I'll be moving the 500gb into an OptiBay case and replacing my optical drive.
That way I have enough space for a lot of apps and OSX, and space for all my other stuff.
In most cases I have my MacBook Pro plugged in, so I'm not too concerned with battery life. But I have noticed a slight increase in vibration when I'm resting my palms, but it's not a huge issue.
So far so good. Apps load up fast, boot time is great, overall very happy with it. (Also a nice increase in space!) The fresh install is helping the speed, but in general it's a lot faster because of the SSD and 7200rpm.
Though over the next two months or so my plan will change.
I'm thinking about buying an 80gb SSD and us it as my OS and applications drive. With that I'll be moving the 500gb into an OptiBay case and replacing my optical drive.
That way I have enough space for a lot of apps and OSX, and space for all my other stuff.
I came within minutes of buying this HDD, but spotted a Seagate 640GB (only 5400RPM) on sale for just under $60 and couldn't pass that up. "Hey sales-dude, is this price correct?"
I'm happy with my decision, as I had 250GB completely used up on the original HDD and got an extra 140GB for half the price of the XT.
I'm happy with my decision, as I had 250GB completely used up on the original HDD and got an extra 140GB for half the price of the XT.
...I think you may find that was a waste of $$ on the XT drive then as 500Gb 7200 RPM drives with out the flash memory are ~1/2 the cost cheaper and by running it with the SSD combo you won't notice much assistance from the flash memory on the XT drive...
Please post your results when you do this, maybe I'm wrong
At 70% battery life remaining, it estimated 6:30... I'm not complaining about battery life. This was roughly after using it for 2:30 before.
I would actually tell you how long my battery lasts, but I've never actually run it out.
Okay, just installed XT 500GB in my i7 15". Now I'm doing some battery test.
This thing is blazing fast...boot is just less than 20 seconds. I usually open Firefox, iTunes, Skype on boot and after 3 times rebooting attempt, it logs in and opening up everything in 27 seconds. I'm impressed.
As others say, I can feel slight vibration compared to my stock 5400rpm Toshiba HD but not a problem at all to me. I think it's pretty normal with 7200rpm HD. I run iStat Pro and looking at HD temperature, it's usually 39-41 degree. I haven't checked HD temperature for the Toshiba HD so can't really compare but just FYI.
Okay I'm now typing this from i7 without power plug and it's still showing 6 hours remaining with 92% battery left so I don't see much battery consumption hit yet.. will test further...
Personally I don't care too much about battery life though. I just occasionally take my laptop to meeting room to do multi-tasking or presentation so if I get 3-4 hours battery life, I am okay.
Oh and no beachballing or whatsoever. I watched HD Video with QT and not freezing or any type of hiccups...yet. I know some of the people are claiming that the device went well a few months and suddenly started showing those issues so I will see...
So far, I am very satisfied.
Cheers,
Yunosuke
...I think you may find that was a waste of $$ on the XT drive then as 500Gb 7200 RPM drives with out the flash memory are ~1/2 the cost cheaper and by running it with the SSD combo you won't notice much assistance from the flash memory on the XT drive...
Please post your results when you do this, maybe I'm wrong
I honestly don't feel like it was a waste of money. The plan I described above will only happen once Intel discusses the next SSD series, which may be end of this year beginning next year.
I probably don't notice a huge difference, but accessing files (music, videos, photographs) from the drive would be better with it being 7200 and have flash. And since applications and the OS won't be on that drive, the SSD on it can store most accessed files.
At least that's my theory.
Whenever this happens, I'll definitely post my results.
Clean install + Time machine vs. Clone (super duper)
I've seen this discussed in other threads but no conclusive reasons as to why this happens: when a new Momentus XT is installed in a MBP and the original drive cloned to it, apparently the drive does not perform as fast as when a clean install of Snow Leopard is done followed by a Time Machine restore. I read one post that found that, after restoring a clone, the poster discovered he had to go and repair permissions on the drive from the Snow Leopard install disk, as the old settings were slowing things down.
I currently have the Momentus XT installed in my 17" Core i5 MPB. I cloned the previous drive. While I have had no problems and the performance is great, I was wondering whether program loading/booting would be noticeably faster if I were to clean install and restore from Time Machine. I have repaired file permissions from the Snow Leopard disk but didn't notice any performance change. BTW, my Momentus XT is a newer one with the SD23 firmware.
Think it is worth checking by doing the clean install or would there be some way of knowing whether I am getting the expected performance from the drive? Thanks!
I've seen this discussed in other threads but no conclusive reasons as to why this happens: when a new Momentus XT is installed in a MBP and the original drive cloned to it, apparently the drive does not perform as fast as when a clean install of Snow Leopard is done followed by a Time Machine restore. I read one post that found that, after restoring a clone, the poster discovered he had to go and repair permissions on the drive from the Snow Leopard install disk, as the old settings were slowing things down.
I currently have the Momentus XT installed in my 17" Core i5 MPB. I cloned the previous drive. While I have had no problems and the performance is great, I was wondering whether program loading/booting would be noticeably faster if I were to clean install and restore from Time Machine. I have repaired file permissions from the Snow Leopard disk but didn't notice any performance change. BTW, my Momentus XT is a newer one with the SD23 firmware.
Think it is worth checking by doing the clean install or would there be some way of knowing whether I am getting the expected performance from the drive? Thanks!
Dollar for dollar, the Momentus XT is the best "value for money" upgrade in any MacBook, MacBook Pro, or Mac Mini.
Is an SSD faster all around? Yes.
But what do most people care about?
In these cases, the Momentus XT will deliver 80-90% of what the SSD will. For things like sustained transfer rate (copying lots of data), lots of random file I/O, the SSD will still handily crush the Momentus XT as it would any other hard disk drive.
Yet SSDs are still in the $2-2.50/GB range, whereas the Momentus XT is only $0.26/GB. Yes, this is more than the $0.13/GB you can get a 5400rpm 500GB hard disk for, but for the three items I've mentioned, you can't beat the "value for money". StorageReview and Anand (Anandtech) will repeat exactly what I've said. This applies not just to OS X, but also Boot Camp (if you dual boot often), and VMWare (if you're spinning up your VM often).
Is an SSD faster all around? Yes.
But what do most people care about?
- Reducing boot time.
- Reducing application launch time for commonly used apps.
- Reducing wake from sleep time.
In these cases, the Momentus XT will deliver 80-90% of what the SSD will. For things like sustained transfer rate (copying lots of data), lots of random file I/O, the SSD will still handily crush the Momentus XT as it would any other hard disk drive.
Yet SSDs are still in the $2-2.50/GB range, whereas the Momentus XT is only $0.26/GB. Yes, this is more than the $0.13/GB you can get a 5400rpm 500GB hard disk for, but for the three items I've mentioned, you can't beat the "value for money". StorageReview and Anand (Anandtech) will repeat exactly what I've said. This applies not just to OS X, but also Boot Camp (if you dual boot often), and VMWare (if you're spinning up your VM often).
It's 4 Gb of cache, not the second coming.
At the end of the day, it's still a hard drive, a hard drive that's running at 7200 RPM, a hard drive that's susceptible to head crashes, a hard drive that's susceptible to motor wear.
That $2-$4/gb doesn't just give you speed, it gives rugged reliability.
At the end of the day, it's still a hard drive, a hard drive that's running at 7200 RPM, a hard drive that's susceptible to head crashes, a hard drive that's susceptible to motor wear.
That $2-$4/gb doesn't just give you speed, it gives rugged reliability.
For what its worth I experienced a part of this issue- cold-boot time going up but no adverse performance otherwise (apps loaded about as fast as they do afterwards; the difference is pretty marginal- running on the crunchy top layer of the OS' fresh snow rather than any fetters removed from the drive).
If it helps any, repairing permissions didn't do anything and we've the same firmware, so doing a fresh install did sort out this specific issue, however, given you say you're happy with the new performance and have no problems otherwise I doubts you'd ever get the time back (it is of course your prerogative to do a fresh install whenever you want -I'm still missing cleaning my registry and defragmenting
)Out of interest, what did you use to clone your drive? The posts I've read seem to stem from CCC- but thats wholly unscientific impression. It'd be interesting to hear if anyone's had these issues and what/how &c. the drive was cloned. Lots of people seem to be getting this drive now, so maybe its only a matter of time before a thread gets started where people can accumulate this data and see whether this is a problem? Cheers
Am I the only one who almost never shuts down a laptop, keeps apps open all the time, and already gets instant wake from sleep with my MBP 15" Early 2008?
For what its worth I experienced a part of this issue- cold-boot time going up but no adverse performance otherwise (apps loaded about as fast as they do afterwards; the difference is pretty marginal- running on the crunchy top layer of the OS' fresh snow rather than any fetters removed from the drive).
If it helps any, repairing permissions didn't do anything and we've the same firmware, so doing a fresh install did sort out this specific issue, however, given you say you're happy with the new performance and have no problems otherwise I doubts you'd ever get the time back (it is of course your prerogative to do a fresh install whenever you want -I'm still missing cleaning my registry and defragmenting
Out of interest, what did you use to clone your drive? The posts I've read seem to stem from CCC- but thats wholly unscientific impression. It'd be interesting to hear if anyone's had these issues and what/how &c. the drive was cloned. Lots of people seem to be getting this drive now, so maybe its only a matter of time before a thread gets started where people can accumulate this data and see whether this is a problem? Cheers
Thanks for the reply - I used Super Duper. So, did you wind up doing a clean install after finding that the boot times weren't changed much? While it is a pain, would you mind timing how long it take for your MBP to cold boot to appearance of the desktop? While not scientific, it will give me an idea of whether my MBP is actually affected by the problem.
I just timed my core i5 MBP (4GB ram) and it took 65 seconds from the press of the power button to appearance of the desktop. That seems substantially longer than what others are getting with the Momentus XT installed. I also have hdapm installed to address the spin down issue. Interested in hearing your experience. Thanks again!
EDIT: I decided to repair disk permissions from the Snow Leopard install DVD's disk utility -then timed it again. This time I timed it from when I first heard the chime to when the desktop appeared and it was 24.8 seconds. Interested to hear how this compares to other Momentus XT users who clean installed on the drive. Thanks!
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