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Seagate Momentus XT vs. WD Scorpio Black

iMatic

iMatic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
1
0
Slovenia
So i am going to buy a new harddrive for my 13' macbook pro (2009 model).
But wich one should i buy?
WD Scorpio Black 750GB SATAII 16MB 7200rpm or
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB SATAII 7200rpm 32MB+4GB

I read some reviews and this seagate momentus with 4gb of ssd on it got some really nice reviews. seems to be a lot faster.

Also. I think macbook pro 13 (late 2009, unibody alu) has sata1? Is that correct and if it is... does it make sense to buy this sata2 drives? or will they perform good under sata1?

thank you for your help ;)
 
I have an XT installed in my Early 2009 17" 2.66GHz MBP, and it seems to run fine. It's a bit faster than the WD 320 Black on xfers to/from FW800 drives, and everything seems more responsive than the WD. Hard to quantify, though, like boot times - I hardly ever restart.

Maybe it's the particular drive I received, but it's the quietest 7200 I'vs had in a MBP. No vibration, either. Running SD24 firmware. SD25 is out, but waiting for more feedback before upgrading.
 
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Ill be honest I had the XT for a few months and loved it. I updated to SD 25 (the newest firmware) and it completely crippled my drive. I had the hard drive make this annoying beeping noise and the drive would not spin down so it sucked my battery life. The customer service said its a mac thing since macs have different power management. I switched to the regular moments drive from seagate and I am much happier with it.
 
There's also people with PCs still complaining about the XT.

I say the way to go is the XT, but buy it from a place with a good return policy.
 
bozz2006 said:
Wow,.that's even faster than any of SSDs I've seen.
Click to expand...

It feels like under 15 seconds. :) I always wait for the little anti-clockwise circle to show up before counting, so I might be fudging details just a tad... either way, it's fast.

I do need to test sleep mode; other people who installed SD25 still have the same problems. I might be switching to a standard Momentus, without the SSD component. :( Still, a $50 savings isn't bad, and if a 40GB SSD costs $100, there should be more than just 4GB in a $150 hybrid drive... but that's just me: greedy. :D
 
Anyone have any idea how the XT--or hybrid drives in general--will work under the "likely/expected" features of Lion OS? Also, it's confusing to read about the hit/miss nature of using the XT with the MBP: Is the problem with XT, MBP or, as some posts imply, some weird voodoo happening between the two?:confused:
 
cube said:
There's also people with PCs still complaining about the XT.

I say the way to go is the XT, but buy it from a place with a good return policy.
Click to expand...

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=215451
Not anymore with that.

XT is on the level of the Western Digital Velociraptors. To put that in perspective, the Velociraptors are 10K drives. They're also power hogs, when compared to 5400 and 7200 RPM drives.
Also, XT comes in a pretty nice 500GB package, with 4GB cache. The Scorpio Black you mentioned has a puny (when compared) 32MB cache. This means if boot files are stored entirely in the cache, which is possible, you get the boot time of an SSD!
Also, the difference between SATA-II and SATA-III are miniscule on 7200RPM drives. It's only noticeable on SSD's and 10K RPM drives.
Even Microsoft confirms. The Windows Experience Index for me is 6.5 with this drive.
All signs point to the XT. Go get it :)
 
i wouldnt put one of the XT drives in my puter if you paid for it. Ive read way to many people have it less then a year and be getting beach balls and lost data. no thanks.i will be switching to a 750 gb 7200 drive soon. i was really happy with the last 7200 rpm drive ive had.

no XT for me. i hate beach balls.
 
Acorn said:
i wouldnt put one of the XT drives in my puter if you paid for it. Ive read way to many people have it less then a year and be getting beach balls and lost data. no thanks.i will be switching to a 750 gb 7200 drive soon. i was really happy with the last 7200 rpm drive ive had.

no XT for me. i hate beach balls.
Click to expand...

You must not look at what the people said during the whole year. Only at the last few weeks (after SD25). I see some people still complaining, but they don't seem so many.
 
I run the Seagate 750GB 7200RPM drive. For me, it feels just as fast as the XT except when it comes to booting and startup applications because of the XT's SSD cache. It's not HORRIBLE, just takes a little bit longer.

Still, the extra hard drive space makes up for it though.
 
I have had both in my 2010 Core i7 15" MBP. I replaced the Momentus XT with the 750GB Scorpio Black, and found it to be just as fast while having less vibration. In the end I added a SSD in a Data Doubler and kept the Scorpio Black. YMMV
 
I've had an XT in my 13" 2009 MBP for over a year now and there's been no problems. But you may be shocked to hear that it takes 36 seconds for my MBP to start up :eek:
 
The XT is great, and only gets better over time once it knows which apps you use most often. Thanks to it's built in 4GB of NAND, they load instantly.
 
After poor experience with seagate drives and there longevity I will now only use wd in my machines I have not had a single problem yet with my Scorpio black nearly 4 years old and my Silicondrive N1x has been running faultlessly now for near on a year and is RAPID!
 
iMatic said:
So i am going to buy a new harddrive for my 13' macbook pro (2009 model).
But wich one should i buy?
WD Scorpio Black 750GB SATAII 16MB 7200rpm or
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB SATAII 7200rpm 32MB+4GB

I read some reviews and this seagate momentus with 4gb of ssd on it got some really nice reviews. seems to be a lot faster.

Also. I think macbook pro 13 (late 2009, unibody alu) has sata1? Is that correct and if it is... does it make sense to buy this sata2 drives? or will they perform good under sata1?

thank you for your help ;)
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd go WD, but that's just my preference. Your computer does have SATA 2, as I believe all Mac portables have since 2008.
 
cube said:
You don't count threads. You count posts.
Click to expand...

Ah, you're right. Not even a thread, just one post.

alust2013 said:
Personally, I'd go WD, but that's just my preference. Your computer does have SATA 2, as I believe all Mac portables have since 2008.
Click to expand...

All MBP's have SATA-III 6Gbps, which is backwards-compatible with SATA-II 3Gbps. Hard drives don't even get close to 6Gbps, so it's not a big issue.
Look at it this way: Seagate makes great laptop drives, WD makes great desktop and external drives.
 
Prodo123 said:
All MBP's have SATA-III 6Gbps, which is backwards-compatible with SATA-II 3Gbps. Hard drives don't even get close to 6Gbps, so it's not a big issue.
Look at it this way: Seagate makes great laptop drives, WD makes great desktop and external drives.
Click to expand...

Only the newest 2011 models have the 6Gbps SATAIII, and the OP has a 2009 model.
 
Seagate

I have the XT in my MBP (Mid 2009 model) with the SD25 firmware running just fine. The SD23 firmware was crap and caused problems; SD24 was fine., SD25 is better.

I personally hate Western Digital with a passion. Everyone I have personally had have failed. Ironically enough, when I repair someone else's computer, I generally replace their failed Seagate. So....


In any case. I am a fan of Seagate all the way. And recommend the XT and have installed it in 3 laptops (1 Mac - Snow Leopard; 2 PCs - Windows 7).
 
iMatic said:
So i am going to buy a new harddrive for my 13' macbook pro (2009 model).
But wich one should i buy?
WD Scorpio Black 750GB SATAII 16MB 7200rpm or
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB SATAII 7200rpm 32MB+4GB

I read some reviews and this seagate momentus with 4gb of ssd on it got some really nice reviews. seems to be a lot faster.

Also. I think macbook pro 13 (late 2009, unibody alu) has sata1? Is that correct and if it is... does it make sense to buy this sata2 drives? or will they perform good under sata1?

thank you for your help ;)
Click to expand...

You are in a win-win situation, I have a WD Scorpio Black and the other HDD that I did not buy was the Seagate Momentus XT. Maybe you should flip a coin? :D The next HDD I buy will be a Seagate. I will only comment after I have owned both drives.
 
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