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Momentus XT: Should i upgrade?

mcapanelli

mcapanelli

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 2, 2008
235
85
Ellijay, GA
Hello all,

I have an early 2011 15" macbook pro with a 750 Gb HD and I'm thinking about upgrading to a 750 GB Momentus XT hybrid drive. Has anyone here upgraded to one of these yet? What are the performance gains and is it even really worth it? Thanks in advance for your input.
 
I upgraded to an SSD Samsung 830 and also put the Momentus XT hybrid in my optibay drive. I have not noticed a huge difference, but suspect that is because the drive can not figure out which data to be stored on the SSD portion. Many people I have seen post info on the Hybrid do suggest there is a good speed bump, so it seems it is worth it and it is not that expensive now, but then nor is an SSD, at least at 250Gb drive, anything more and the price does jump somewhat....

Sorry if not answered your question really, but essentially, the research I did before buying the drives did say that this current iteration of hybrids was both stable and a good performance jump.
 
mcapanelli said:
Hello all,

I have an early 2011 15" macbook pro with a 750 Gb HD and I'm thinking about upgrading to a 750 GB Momentus XT hybrid drive. Has anyone here upgraded to one of these yet? What are the performance gains and is it even really worth it? Thanks in advance for your input.
Click to expand...

Basically the Momentus XT is a "Fusion" (to use the Apple term) of an 4/8 GB SSD and a regular HD (of variable size).
The question might be, whether Seagate's Fusion is as smart as Apple's and whether the 8 GB SSD is enough. Apple seems to think not (as Momentus XT has not featured in Apple's BTO options, and as they have launched Fusion themselves). Go figure.

I've been on the SSD bandwagon for so long, that I've had no interest in Hybrid drives, so I do not have any personal experience, but a friend of mine was satisfied with his (he also upgraded a 250 GB Toshiba for the same drive you're thinking of, so I can't guarantee the speed bump he felt he'd gotten was based on the hybrid capabilities or on the fact that his new HD was newer and bigger).

One sentence of caution though: Be prepared, that the Momentus XT will make more noise (and vibration), produce more heat and consume more power than your existing HD (which I am assuming, is the stock 5400 rpm drive your machine came with).

RGDS,
 
mcapanelli said:
Hello all,

I have an early 2011 15" macbook pro with a 750 Gb HD and I'm thinking about upgrading to a 750 GB Momentus XT hybrid drive. Has anyone here upgraded to one of these yet? What are the performance gains and is it even really worth it? Thanks in advance for your input.
Click to expand...

i personally upgraded my HD from the stock 250gb HD to the Momentus XT 750gb Hybrid HD and love it! im not too computer literate but it seems 5x faster if not more. the startup and shutdown times are ridiculously faster. i bought mine at bestbuy and got a pretty good deal i think for $140. my computer before was always full which made me make the switch and now its faster and have ample of room now. i couldnt be more happy. when i compared the SSD to the Momentus XT i couldnt justify the extra several $100's when all i do is surf the net,download movies&music, etc.

buy the Momentus XT, you wont regret it!
 
I bought the Hybrid Drive and gave it a try for about a year. It was great at the start but nothing worth getting. I bought it because I needed a larger capacity from 250 and the fusion was the same price at that moment as others for 500GB.

IMO It is not worth switching to it just for the 4/8GB SSD. You wont notice much of a difference, at most your startup time will become better and an app or 2 will launch faster.

You are much better off getting an SSD and optibay if you really want to see significant improvement. I put an SSD into my Core 2 Duo white macbook and it made a HUGE difference to the point I prefer using my macbook rather than my sisters i5
 
Last edited:
Crzyrio said:
I bought the Fusion Drive and gave it a try for about a year. It was great at the start but nothing worth getting. I bought it because I needed a larger capacity from 250 and the fusion was the same price at that moment as others for 500GB.
Click to expand...

Please do not confuse Seagates Hybrid SSD/HD with the Apple 'Fusion' drives
 
I would rather buy an SSD and put the Momentus XT in the optibay.
That way you would have faster boot and application opening and plus, a fast hybrid drive for your data.
 
I've been using one of Segate's XT drives for a few years now, first the 500gb in a Dell and have been using the 750gb in my MBP since day one (almost a year now). I think it's faster than a standard 7200rpm drive - you do notice the speed improve as you do things - run programs, reboot after OS upgrades, etc.

I'm saving to get an SSD and then move my XT to the optibay however.
 
I had a Momentus XT (750GB w/8GB SSD component) but returned it in favor of an Intel 180GB SSD. (X25?) I recall that the integrated data handling rendered the need for an Apple-branded SSD moot, since OS X only enables OS-based TRIM for Apple-branded drives. With the hardware doing the OS' work for it, enabling TRIM via hacks no longer becomes an issue and any Mac owner can enjoy a SSD without it wearing out as quickly. Thank SandForce...

All that was something like 9 months ago, but I recall reading others having compatibility issues or performance problems...


http://blog.macsales.com/11051-to-trim-or-not-to-trim-owc-has-the-answer
 
I have your same computer and I upgraded to the MoXT. If you don't really need more than 256GB you're better off with an SSD in the main bay at today's prices. If, however, you do need more than 256GB, I think the MoXT make a lot of sense...

1. A 500GB+ SSD is till pretty expensive at $325+, and more than its worth to me to invest in a 2011 computer. This matters less if your next computer is likely to be another uMBP (since you can just port the drive over), but if your next computer is likely to be the rMBP, that's wasted money IMO. If 500+GB drives drop to the $200 or less area, then they become a compelling upgrade for this machine relative to the MoXT.

2. I also considered the DIY Fusion drive option, but the 2011 uMBP-15 isn't really well suited for that because SATA-III drives don't work reliably in the optibay. Thus you must choose between putting a slower (and yet still pricey) SATA II SSD in that slot or putting your HDD in that slot and losing reliability (no SMS) but adding noise and vibration.

Given those two options, I went with the MoXT. It's cheap at about $120 for 750GB and its pretty quick. My boot times are between 14 and 18 seconds (even faster on the uMBP-13 we have) and the programs you use every day load instantaneously and feel very snappy. Even when you do have to access the slow HDD platter, it's still a marked improvement over the stock HDD. Our MoXTs Blackmagic at 95-105 MB/s.


___
 
I have a filemate ssd for my mountain lion partition, and I use the 750gb momentus xt as my windows 7 partition, it feels faster than the stock hdd, boot times take 10-15 seconds. I bought it on amazon last october and the price really hasn't changed much since than... I love the hard drive, but the price is a bit high:)
 
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