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Seagate Momentus XT vs. WD Scorpio Black

I vote for the Scorpio Black. It's reliability is IMO far superior to the XT.
 
ViviUO said:
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.
Click to expand...

I've noticed this holds true if you only use OSX as your only OS. If you dual boot, it tends to "re-learn" the boot process over again, therefore, you have to constantly re-learn over and over again, depending on which OS you boot into.

I had a XT 500GB in my 17" before I got rid of it. Its great on times when I'm only using OSX but once I go to Windows for games, rebooting into OSX took longer and Windows become shorter on boot times.

I'm not sure if this holds true, but its just something I've observed.
 
just got the scorpio black. installed np. great drive. so much faster than stock. not noisy at all. but i would get it from newegg because i bought mine (320 gb) from BB and it cost 70 while its the same on newegg and you get the 500 gb. if you do get the scorpio black get the one without fall sensor thing because the macs already have one built in and i heard it causes problems. heres the link

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...92&cm_re=scorpio_black-_-22-136-692-_-Product

EDIT: just did a restart and it was 44 sec from the white screen to fully booted up
 
I am trying to decide between the two for my 13" MacBook Pro as well. Having a hard time. From reading, it appears the Momentus has had some recent problems but then again, people also praise it. Thought about tossing a few bucks out for the Crucial M4 256GB SSD but I really don't want to and need more storage space. Going to a 512 SSD is bank breaking.
 
Ok, I think I may go with the XT and chance it.
 
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Sgt93 said:
Ok, I think I may go with the XT and chance it.
Click to expand...
I'm tempted by the Momentus XT too. At some point I expect they'll get it fixed through firmware--and how will we know when that has happened?

FWIW I have a 500 GB Scorpio Black. No problems, although I'm thinking of reinstalling the stock 320 GB drive to see if it is quieter/has less vibration/improves battery life. None of these are really bad with the Scorpio on my system, but I installed it so soon after I bought the MBP that I never got much experience with the stock drive.
 
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Aah, thank you. After going to the Seagate site and reading on their forum for the Momentus XT, it freaks me out a bit. Looks like lots of issues right now from posters. Maybe the black 750 is the way to go.
 
XT

I have them in my 2009 uMB and Mini, also my sons 2010 MBP 13" and they are great drives and I have had no issues with the 4 I own.

Good Luck
 
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I really like my XT

I have a 500GB XT in my 2010 Mini and it has worked great. The only things I did not care for was the spin-down issue, which has been addressed with firmware, and a period when my boot/reboots went up to 45 sec. That lasted about two months before it returned to normal 20-22 seconds and I have no idea what caused or remedied it.

During every day use I login and all my apps start up quickly, as if I re-opened them in the same login session. I think most of my apps may still reside in ram, from session to session, but the real test is how fast things start up after rebooting and the ram is cleared from previously using apps. I really like how my Mini runs with lots of ram and the XT. It feels much faster than the cpu actually is.

I suppose in the near future there will be no difference between ram and storage, and it will be even better than what we think is already great.
:)
 
FWW, I'd advise against the Momentus XT. They do use a bit more power, they run fairly hot and loud, and, now after 7 months on a replacement shipped from Seagate, mine is failing again. :-(. Look at their forums. ... and yes, seagate seem to be synonymous with failure these days...
 
Just to chip in.
I have 2 momentus XT's one in my 2009 MBP, runs perfect, no complaints. One in my wife's 2011 MBP, causes constant beachballs, keyboard and trackpad hang, Pulled it today and switched back to the stock 320gb drive. All the issues vanished.
When they work, they're great, but there do appear to be lots of issues.
(both came with SD23, the problems were present there and remained through SD24 and SD25)
 
I grappled with this same question. I usually buy WD drives for my laptops, but I wanted to try out an SSD because I heard they were faster and more reliable. Like many posters, however, I cannot afford to downgrade in storage, and the 500GB SSDs are simply too expensive to justify purchasing. I looked at the Momentus XT and almost pulled the trigger, but I kept reading about iffy performance and reliability, something I never have to worry about with WD drives. Ultimately, I decided on the WD 750GB Black and it has been plenty fast for me. One of these days, I'd love to upgrade to an SSD, but that will not happen until 500GB drives costs drop below $400.
 
The platter drive alone of the XT (with the new firmware SD28) is faster than Scorpio Black. When files are cached it's way faster. Besides that it's also quieter and less power hungry.

Here's how the XT performs in my MBP 13" 2011: http://youtu.be/WMldqf5oUZw

Seagate will release a new XT before the end of the year: 750GB 7200rpm with 8GB cache.
 
AHDuke99 said:
I grappled with this same question. I usually buy WD drives for my laptops, but I wanted to try out an SSD because I heard they were faster and more reliable. Like many posters, however, I cannot afford to downgrade in storage, and the 500GB SSDs are simply too expensive to justify purchasing. I looked at the Momentus XT and almost pulled the trigger, but I kept reading about iffy performance and reliability, something I never have to worry about with WD drives. Ultimately, I decided on the WD 750GB Black and it has been plenty fast for me. One of these days, I'd love to upgrade to an SSD, but that will not happen until 500GB drives costs drop below $400.
Click to expand...

I have 2 of the 750GB WD Black HDDs, and they're both great. After upgrading my 2.0 i7 15" MBP, the only main difference is the amount of heat the WD generates in comparison to the stock HD.

The other one is in my Alienware M17x, and it runs alongside a 500GB Black Scorpio that came stock with it.

I haven't ever tried the Seagate drives, but I'm sure they're great. I can't use SSDs because I record music.
 
What do you use your Macbook for?

If you use it for gaming, and Web related tasks, Ok the XT will have few speed advantage to choose.

But if your mac usage is for Heavy Work, or something you depend on, then go for Scorpio ( I've a Black 750, but the newer 1TB Blue, is better, saves power and also have same effective speed).

MOMENTUS XT= Faster at boot (and few app launch), but not as reliable as a STD Spinner, too many complaints about long term wear, data integrity and system stability, 4GB cache is not enough for advanced applications (photoshop, Autodesk, etc), but fair for Web usage.

Scorpio Black 750GB@7200rpm = faster after booting than XT (YES IT'S TRUE...) but Drains more power and Heat as Hell on heavy usage (don't worry your mac will not melt).

WD Scorpio Blue 1TB (5400rpm) at the moment is the best Replacement for original MBP HDD, despite it's lower RPM, coz has the double density, each Spin equals to 2 spins of the Original 500GB, so its like having a 10k RPM HDD on your mac, and drain less power than original HDD, but the Scorpio Black 750@7200rpm still the fastest 2.5"HDD (combine density and spin, plus twice cache).

Momentus XT performance gain dies after booting, it's great for some circumstances but depends on the kind of software you use ( I use Autodesk Autocad, Xcode and Photoshop very often, the momentus XT 4GB cache just cant handle this, I would need a 16GB cache at least).

Anyway, the best performance and battery saving improvement you can do is to replace the RAM with 2x4GB modules (8GB), this is the real Speeddy Gonzalez inside your mac.

----------

Ahh, also consider that MORE space availability is another long-term time saving.

When your HDD is getting full, data fragmentation becomes the main speed trap, so having more free space will delay the need for defragmentation process (saving you hours).

Also you'll not need to replace the HDD as soon coz you need more space.
 
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Mago said:
What do you use your Macbook for?

If you use it for gaming, and Web related tasks, Ok the XT will have few speed advantage to choose.

But if your mac usage is for Heavy Work, or something you depend on, then go for Scorpio ( I've a Black 750, but the newer 1TB Blue, is better, saves power and also have same effective speed).

MOMENTUS XT= Faster at boot (and few app launch), but not as reliable as a STD Spinner, too many complaints about long term wear, data integrity and system stability, 4GB cache is not enough for advanced applications (photoshop, Autodesk, etc), but fair for Web usage.

Scorpio Black 750GB@7200rpm = faster after booting than XT (YES IT'S TRUE...) but Drains more power and Heat as Hell on heavy usage (don't worry your mac will not melt).

WD Scorpio Blue 1TB (5400rpm) at the moment is the best Replacement for original MBP HDD, despite it's lower RPM, coz has the double density, each Spin equals to 2 spins of the Original 500GB, so its like having a 10k RPM HDD on your mac, and drain less power than original HDD, but the Scorpio Black 750@7200rpm still the fastest 2.5"HDD (combine density and spin, plus twice cache).

Momentus XT performance gain dies after booting, it's great for some circumstances but depends on the kind of software you use ( I use Autodesk Autocad, Xcode and Photoshop very often, the momentus XT 4GB cache just cant handle this, I would need a 16GB cache at least).

Anyway, the best performance and battery saving improvement you can do is to replace the RAM with 2x4GB modules (8GB), this is the real Speeddy Gonzalez inside your mac.

----------

Ahh, also consider that MORE space availability is another long-term time saving.

When your HDD is getting full, data fragmentation becomes the main speed trap, so having more free space will delay the need for defragmentation process (saving you hours).

Also you'll not need to replace the HDD as soon coz you need more space.
Click to expand...

very interesting..that is tough decision!!
 
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