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Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB HD Now Shipping?

Slightly off topic, but in case anyone cares: The 320GB Momentus 7200.3 is only $80. I just formatted and tested it, outside in the open, no enclosure, and it was quiet as as mouse. Quieter than the 120GB stock drive inside my MBP.
 
THX1139 said:
Sounds like getting a vibrating drive is hit or miss. I wouldn't want to take the chance. Vibrations and noise in a laptop is something I wouldn't be able to tolerate. Think I'll pass on this and wait to see what Samsung or Hitatchi releases.
Click to expand...

I just finished the installation, and time machine back up and there is absolutely no vibration or noise of any sort. I guess Im one of the lucky ones that received a quiet drive.
 
alphaod said:
:( for me
Click to expand...

I would suggest for newegg to swap out your drive for another, if its not an inconvenience for you or check the bracket that holds the drive down.

My Xbench results posted below...
 

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Ordered from newegg late thursday night and received the hard drive on monday the 2nd. Cloned original toshiba 250GB hard drive with carbon copy. Here are test results with a unibody 2.4 GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM.

Slight humming and you could feel the slight vibrations if you put your fingers above the area of the hard drive. It doesn't bother me and I already forgot about it since installing the hard drive monday night. Hard drive has 145 GB used and 320GB free.


Results 55.49
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook5,1
Drive Type ST9500420AS
Disk Test 55.49
Sequential 114.93
Uncached Write 146.26 89.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 153.19 86.67 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.02 18.44 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 179.49 90.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 36.58
Uncached Write 11.78 1.25 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 164.77 52.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 85.74 0.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 147.79 27.42 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
Sorry about the wait, here are the results from the Seagate 5400.4 500gb version of the drive:

Results 33.75
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro4,1
Drive Type ST9500325AS
Disk Test 33.75
Sequential 80.50
Uncached Write 129.86 79.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 71.53 40.47 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.07 14.95 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 118.67 59.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 21.35
Uncached Write 6.64 0.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 83.01 26.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 64.48 0.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 107.93 20.03 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
I noticed applications load faster and the startup and shut down times are faster. Startup time is half of what it use to be and shut down is almost instant.

I recommend if it's a restoration from a TM backup that you repair permissions. I also noticed an increase in speed after using OnyX to run scripts and the clean the boot, kernel, and application cache.

I will report on battery life later and will run a 2nd Xbench.

All in all the biggest thing is Safari is snappier.
 
svndmvn said:
if you can use the space, I'd say a 500GB is your best choice.
Click to expand...

I CAN use it, but I definitely don't need to. I'm just waiting for a report on how it has affected battery life, because taking a charger to school is THE most annoying thing :|
 
Patriks7 said:
I CAN use it, but I definitely don't need to. I'm just waiting for a report on how it has affected battery life, because taking a charger to school is THE most annoying thing :|
Click to expand...


The way that I used to use this computer on a school day before the installation of this drive, I would typically get around 4- 4.5 hours on a full charge using the 9400 gpu. After installing the drive, doing the same school work, and school related activities, I'm getting the same battery life as before.

My general profile of this computer on a school day consists of screen brightness dim at half, Safari open with about 2-3 tabs, Pages or Word, and keynote open for taking notes, and Mail running from time to time.

Pure silence, no incessant vibrations, and amazing speed compared to the 5400 RPM drive I had before, but not as fast as my Samsung SSD. I need the space.

New benchmark below ...
 

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No performance hit to battery life from what I'm experiencing so far. The 2nd Xbench run saw a slight improvement to overall score. Nothing to write home about, only slightly over one point higher.
 
isaki87 said:
The way that I used to use this computer on a school day before the installation of this drive, I would typically get around 4- 4.5 hours on a full charge using the 9400 gpu. After installing the drive, doing the same school work, and school related activities, I'm getting the same battery life as before.

My general profile of this computer on a school day consists of screen brightness dim at half, Safari open with about 2-3 tabs, Pages or Word, and keynote open for taking notes, and Mail running from time to time.

Pure silence, no incessant vibrations, and amazing speed compared to the 5400 RPM drive I had before, but not as fast as my Samsung SSD. I need the space.

New benchmark below ...
Click to expand...

Wow I might just buy this then!
BTW, I see in your sig that you have the 256GB Samsung SSD. Wanna share where you got it from? ;)
 
Well, now that the 17"'s have been pushed back I have some more time to decide on one of these.
 
I read somewhere (maybe even this thread) about pushing down on the right side of the unibody next to the touchpad... as an experiment.

So I held my one hand over the left side (to feel the vibration) and pushed down gently on the right side... and sure enough, the vibration was almost gone.

I'm going to dive back into the casing and make sure the hard drive is as snug as can be and all of that... I mean right now the vibrating is just distracting and if I can lessen it in any way I'd be happy.

I saw some Vibration Dampening HDD Screws... I wonder if someone could make a version that works with the mounting screws...

But then I think about what I saw in there... it looked pretty well cushioned... I just need to find out why it's vibrating the laptop. As in, which part of the HDD is touching what.
 
Just got my new 2.4 15" unibody, upgraded it today to 4GB ram and installed the 7200.4 500GB. no vibrations and just as quiet as the stock drive. did miss the 4 mounting screws from the old drive until i screwed down the bracket and wondered why it was so loose lol.
 
Looks pretty good!

Here are my results:

Results 60.39
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro4,1
Drive Type ST9500420AS
Disk Test 60.39
Sequential 119.77
Uncached Write 137.37 84.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 140.78 79.65 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 76.07 22.26 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 170.40 85.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 40.37
Uncached Write 13.35 1.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 169.26 54.19 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 86.38 0.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 149.94 27.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]

I did a clean install with the Leopard DVD and downloaded all of the updates. Then I copied over my itunes and iphoto libraries and my documents folder. Then I reinstalled all of my apps to include Mac Office 2008 and VM Fusion. These results seem a little better than the ones already posted. Think the clean install made a difference?

Comparing my WD320 7200 drive and my new 7200.4 I notice a slight increase in "white noise"...but only if my ear touches the computer just above the drive. I can't hear the head seeking or parking at all. Vibration is not an issue but I'm using a non-unibody 17" and the dampening might be better. Heat is about the same. Can't say anything about battery life though. Speed does seem faster and VM Fusion (with XP) boots pretty quick. I will partition and install Windows 7 Beta later tonight. Overall, this is a good upgrade from the WD320 with a little increase in noise and maybe a little more vibration. I sat in bed in dead silence last night and did not notice any significant increase in noise or vibration. This is a keeper for me.:)
 
I've definitely noticed a difference for the best. Opening up and working with 300MB+ files in photoshop are quicker and everything else feels faster in photoshop. I would also agree with others here that vmware fusion (Windows XP) launches faster and the virtual applications are faster.

I haven't notice a difference in battery life. For the most part it has stayed the same as the stock toshiba 250GB 5400 hard drive.

Granted it's not as fast as SSD, but this will do until prices come down and there are higher capacities than 256GB.

For those of you on the fence about buying this drive, I'd go for it.
 
sesnir said:
I saw some Vibration Dampening HDD Screws... I wonder if someone could make a version that works with the mounting screws...
Click to expand...
those are just screws with some silicon washers on them. Go to a hardware store and get some tiny washers to do the same thing.

Boy, this reminds me of my desktop pc days where I was so obsessed with case noice I must have spent a fortune on little silicon buffers and low DB fans. And by fortune, I mean $50 tops.
 
No diff in vibration if it's unplugged, or if the battery is out and it's plugged in.

But... I re-seated the hard drive and made sure it's snug... and it's not as bad now. I can live with this :) It's not completely vibration-free, but it's fine.
 
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