New HD... but which one ? (update: Got the XT - Hear's what I think)

[danbee80]

Hey guys...

I'm looking at updating my mcbook pro's hard drive which is currently a stock toshiba 5400.

Now I can't really decide wether to go for one of those seagate Momentum XT's... which i hear are pretty fast with the hybrid SSD, the only downside to that is the largest model is only 500GB.

It's either that or probably go for the other seagate momentus 750gb and lose the SSD... then gain extra disk space but lose a little speed...

I am wondering how much faster the XT will be compared to the regular Momentus 750GB 7200.... ?

If anybody has any advice or suggestions I am keen to hear..

Thanks!

Dan

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hey guys...


I am wondering how much faster the XT will be compared to the regular Momentus 750GB 7200.... ?

The boot up speed and boot speed of applications and files used often will be dramatically faster with the XT Hybrid. This information will be stored in the 4GB of SSD storage, other data will not be so the performance would be very similar to any other 7200RPM drive.

 

[danbee80]

Right ok... I am having a hard time trying to decide on which to go for...

More storage or snappier app start ups and boot times...

 

[pricej636]

Honestly, I saw more cons than pros with the XT. I had a bad vibration and noticeably shorter battery life. I put my old 5400rpm drive back in, and sure it takes a little while longer to boot (ten seconds longer) and some apps take a few more seconds to open but my overall experience is better.

My advice is to go with the amount of storage you need or want, and unless you are going full SSD dont worry about speed.

 

[fobis]

Being an owner of a Momentus XT, I simply cannot recommend it at this time to anyone. This drive has been plagued by massive problems (refer to the Seagate forums) and the early adopters have basically been beta testers for the drive. Recently, a newer firmware revision (SD24) has been released, allegedly addressing some issues that the drivers were experiencing, but no one knows for sure since Seagate has yet to release a changelog associated with this new firmware. It's utterly ridiculous to think that owners of this drive had to pay a premium to beta test for Seagate for months when this was supposed to be a production-level drive.

 

[pricej636]

Being an owner of a Momentus XT, I simply cannot recommend it at this time to anyone. This drive has been plagued by massive problems (refer to the Seagate forums) and the early adopters have basically been beta testers for the drive. Recently, a newer firmware revision (SD24) has been released, allegedly addressing some issues that the drivers were experiencing, but no one knows for sure since Seagate has yet to release a changelog associated with this new firmware. It's utterly ridiculous to think that owners of this drive had to pay a premium to beta test for Seagate for months when this was supposed to be a production-level drive.

Well damn... I guess I'm gonna have to give the drive another shot since they released this. Most people are reporting an improvement in the exact things I was complaining about...

 

[kimbo1986]

I installed new momentusXT a couple days ago. First impressions were damns this things fast, and a whole lot louder than my previous stock hitachi drive that was completley silent. I was upset at the vibration and noise, and it initially had a horrible slow reboot time (which was fixed by clearing PRAM). since then it has learnt everything it needed to learn, now my drive starts super quick, its very quiet with very little vibration. It is very fast and commingle from stock 5400 drive, this is amazing. Well worth my $99.99 (no tax, free ship)!

I couldn't want any more from this drive. Mind you as soon as I bought this drive I downloaded new firmware bootable disc and updated the firmware so I havnt had any issues yet.

Sent from my SGS-T959 running on Obsidian v5 / DoW 1.3ghz / OCLF

 

[blownsphinctr]

Mind you as soon as I bought this drive I downloaded new firmware bootable disc and updated the firmware so I havnt had any issues yet.

How did you update the firmware using your Mac? Care to give a quick explanation? I want to update my XT's firmware, but I'm afraid I might brick it.

 

[pricej636]

How did you update the firmware using your Mac? Care to give a quick explanation? I want to update my XT's firmware, but I'm afraid I might brick it.

Check out the seagate xt forums... there is an .iso image that you can download and then burn to disk, boot off the disk and follow the steps. Only takes a few minutes.

I actually did my firmware update tonight and have been fairly pleased with the results. I am definitely noticing less noise and vibration.

 

[rkaufmann87]

I actually did my firmware update tonight and have been fairly pleased with the results. I am definitely noticing less noise and vibration.

You can add me as a +1, I also updated the firmware tonight and mine seems a little zippier. When you install one of these it takes a few days for it to learn, during that time the vibration and temps that some report will settle right down. After the update I have to say I don't feel any vibration and the temp is currently at 108F. In addition the startup times will fall after it learns what you use. First startup was about 50 seconds, it's down to about 20 now.

 

[NickZac]

Would you consider a (non-hybrid) SSD?

 

[gr8tfly]

I installed a Seagate XT (500GB) in my UB 17" MBP last week, and so far I'm very happy with it. It has no vibration and is barely audible. The performance improvement over my WD Scorpio Black is noticeable.

I'm still running firmware SD23, but about to upgrade to SD24. I've just been waiting for a bit more feedback before doing so. So far, I've read only positive reports.

 

[shikari89]

I installed this HD in my late 2008 MBP yesterday and am not sure if im going to stick with it. Its fast, especially at startup and opening applications like iTunes. The one thing that I am concerned about is how it plays videos. My stock 5400 RPM drive could play a 1080p mkv file with minimal stuttering. I tried watching a 1080p on the XT last night and had more stuttering and freezes than I've ever seen on my old HD.

I bought it at amazon so I will take advantage of their return policy and keep the drive for 25 days or so. Hopefully it will stay trouble free.

I was trying to decide like you, between the xt and a western digital 1TB drive. My vote would be to go ahead and try out the XT.

 

[rkaufmann87]

I installed this HD in my late 2008 MBP yesterday and am not sure if im going to stick with it. Its fast, especially at startup and opening applications like iTunes. The one thing that I am concerned about is how it plays videos. My stock 5400 RPM drive could play a 1080p mkv file with minimal stuttering. I tried watching a 1080p on the XT last night and had more stuttering and freezes than I've ever seen on my old HD.

I bought it at amazon so I will take advantage of their return policy and keep the drive for 25 days or so. Hopefully it will stay trouble free.

I was trying to decide like you, between the xt and a western digital 1TB drive. My vote would be to go ahead and try out the XT.

It should settle down in about 3-4 days, it takes about that long for it to learn. Another think you might consider is upgrading the firmware to SD24, I did so last night and noticed it has a bit less vibration, and from a seat of the pants viewpoint a little faster.

 

[danbee80]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the feedback!

Ok... so I went ahead and got the XT the other day and it came packed with the SD23 Firmware installed but soon upgraded too the SD24.

My impression is that it is indeed very fast. And took my boot time from around 1:20 to 30 secs average, and programs load faster too.

It is also a little louder as expected from reading the reviews, and it makes a constant whir noise. I am not too fussed about the noise, It's not really all that bad.

My main problem is the hit on battery life, a full charge with full brightness on shows around 3.5 hours... this seems odd to me? Is that normal?

 

[gr8tfly]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the feedback!

Ok... so I went ahead and got the XT the other day and it came packed with the SD23 Firmware installed.

My impression is that it is indeed very fast. And took my boot time from around 1:20 to 30 secs average, and programs load faster too.

It is also a little louder as expected from reading the reviews, and it makes a constant whir noise. I am not too fussed about the noise, It's not really all that bad.

My main problem is the hit on battery life, a full charge with full brightness on shows around 3.5 hours... this seems odd to me? Is that normal?

I only did a battey test after updating the firmware, and it seemed normal. Based on what I've read, and my own experience, I'd recommend upgrading the firmware to SD24.

Once you find the Seagate download page for the drive's firmware, choose the ISO CD "for other OSs". Use Disk Utility to burn the bootable disc. Boot up on that, and it's straight forward from there. Once complete, power down, then startup normally. (Sorry I don't have the link, but there's another thread here at MR that does.)

 

[danbee80]

Yeah I've already upgraded to the sd24 firmware... this is what i get using it... ?

What is your battery like on full charge and full brightness?

Hmmm something I noticed when booting into safe mode. THe drive seems quiter in safe boot mode? That's strange?

The constant whir noise stops, and instead only does it every so often.

 

[gr8tfly]

Yeah I've already upgraded to the sd24 firmware... this is what i get using it... ?

What is your battery like on full charge and full brightness?

What does Apple say you're supposed to get? If you want to compare with Apple's spec, go to their page on batteries and it has the setup they used for their their tests. To start with, they use 50% brightness (iirc). The backlight setting can make a big difference.

I have an early 2009 17". I don't remember what the number was when I started, but timed it was about 6.5 hrs. Brightness was about 50-60%, BT and wifi on. There were some periods of inactivity, but no display sleep. Mostly light surfing, some reading, and about an hour of music.

It's hard to gauge real time remaining at a glance. The CPU goes into power saving modes very quickly after any activity, so you have to let the machine settle before looking at time remaining. Then, the calculation is made based on the charge remaining (in mah) divided by the current power usage (in ma). Those values can be seen using System Profiler, and going to the Power section. The best method is to set the machine up the way you usually use it, and time it. You said 3.5hrs seemed odd, but it sounds like you don't have a good baseline.

Edit: just read your comment about safe mode. The makes me think you have some app, or background process running that's shutdown in safe mode. Could it have been indexing a drive or doing a TIme Machine backup?

 

[DeusInvictus7]

Yeah going to the XT made my battery take a huge hit. Went from 7 hours average to around 4ish. I got my 7 hours both from using the stock 5400rpm drive and an Intel X25-M.

I do regret switching from the SSD to this drive, but it was a learning experience I suppose. Once the next generation of SSDs come out, I'm going back, and moving all my media to an external to share over my network.