Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive review

2

Comments

  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited December 2011

    you can remove the 2.5" drive from the heatsink homie

    wd_velociraptor_apart_450.jpg
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Gargoyle wrote:
    If prices were lower right now, I'd consider getting one for my laptop. My 320GB Scorpio Black (atto attached) gets about 80 MB/s. It was a huge, noticeable difference when I upgraded to the Scorpio Black from the 5400 rpm drive that came with it (40-45 MB/s).

    While the speeds of the XT would fall under the cap of the SATA 150 controller on my laptop, I still wonder if I'd see the ~110 MB/s that Prime got in his newer laptop. There's a bit on Wikipedia about access to cache benefiting from the faster interface.



    I wonder if the caching algorithm would work just as well in RAID usage?

    Here's the thing, though: Those ATTO benches are purely mechanical. We're getting 110 MB/s off the platters.

    Remember, the back-end of this drive is an 8gb SLC NAND SSD. When you're loading windows and doing the other stuff that FAST decides should be on the SSD, we may be seeing something closer to those burst transfer rates. No matter what, that's gonna blow away any HDD, Velociraptor or otherwise.

    I'm curious to see if it gets faster over time. As I use it more, I wonder if it will intelligently cache information on the SSD to really optimize the experience.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    fatcat wrote:
    you can remove the 2.5" drive from the heatsink homie

    wd_velociraptor_apart_450.jpg

    And then you'll end up melting your laptop or crashing the drive :D
  • RyanMMRyanMM Ferndale, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Greg, you're forgetting that the 600GB Velociraptor you have that benchmark for is the 15K RPM 3.5" shell desktop version, not the 10K RPM 2.5" laptop version.

    You're never going to run the 15K version in a laptop, too much power and too much heat.
  • RyanMMRyanMM Ferndale, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    I'm curious to see if it gets faster over time. As I use it more, I wonder if it will intelligently cache information on the SSD to really optimize the experience.

    It's a shame you don't have it in a desktop system, because after a month of use you could write an awesome follow-up article about cloning the data to a 15k RPM hard drive and comparing performance during general usage.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Don't forget: The 500gb XT is older; SATA 3gb interface instead of 6gb
    I'm very interested in seeing what the extra $120 nets you versus the older drive. Any apples to apples reviews around?
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    RyanMM wrote:
    Greg, you're forgetting that the 600GB Velociraptor you have that benchmark for is the 15K RPM 3.5" shell desktop version, not the 10K RPM 2.5" laptop version.

    You're never going to run the 15K version in a laptop, too much power and too much heat.

    they don't make 15k Velociraptors dude, only 10k

    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20
  • RyanMMRyanMM Ferndale, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    fatcat wrote:
    they don't make 15k Velociraptors dude, only 10k

    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20

    Fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. I just misremembered 3 years of stuff.

    I thought the move to 2.5" format in 2008 brought with it an RPM bump in addition to the greater platter density.

    Power won't be your biggest problem, but I still don't know too many laptops you can stick a 10k RPM drive in and achieve adequate ventilation.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    drasnor wrote:
    I'm very interested in seeing what the extra $120 nets you versus the older drive. Any apples to apples reviews around?

    I believe the SSD side of the 500gb drive is 4gb instead of 8gb and I believe it's MLC rather than SLC.
  • edited December 2011
    "wow is so long" i would reply to a comment that commented on my comment but its already been commented on.
  • The 750GB Momentus XT is currently on sale over at Newegg for $199.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Link? It shows $239 everywhere I look
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    The 750GB Momentus XT is currently on sale over at Newegg for $199.

    You can use this link and enter promo code EMCJHHA27 (from today's Year-end Clearance email) at checkout for the $40 discount.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    The prices on the 500 GB Momentus XT Hybrid are nice, though, $149.99 or $159.99. Wish I had some spare bucks....
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Just remember that the 500gb is the last-gen drive and is only SATA 3gb, 4gb, and MLC.
  • quake101quake101 Ohio Icrontian
    I put one of the older 500 GB Momentus XT Hybrid in a friend's laptop, it was a major upgrade. If I ever find $200+ laying around, I might buy one of these new 750GB drives. :D
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Just remember that the 500gb is the last-gen drive and is only SATA 3gb, 4gb, and MLC.
    Ok, thanks for the advice, will have to hold off for an SSD\HDD hybrid for the laptop then.

    John.

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    This drive is on sale for the really good price of $145 on Newegg right now.
  • First of all, excellent review. My question: I am not in the market for a hard drive but at $145, it's an excellent investment. I know the drive is intended to hasten the start-up time when installed in a laptop, but I was wondering if anyone has just purchased it to be used in an enclosure? I trust Seagate; I've bought a couple of their drives in the past. I don't trust buying a device such as My Passport because I used one once and it fried my motorboard. I prefer to buy a HD and install it in an enclosure. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    I suppose it would work just fine in a 2.5" enclosure; it is a totally normal SATA HD in most respects. I feel like maybe you'll be losing the benefit of the SSD front-end if you're using it for external data storage, but regardless it will be slightly faster to access common things than any normal HDD.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    A use case I could see would be a small internal HDD and using this for storing game files like Steam/Origin default install folders.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Ok, here are some more uses for a USB HD:

    Large collection (legal) of music files-- Windows Media Player can be pointed at a USB HD folder.

    Huge collection of .raw image photos, or even huger one of large .jpeg's. A pro photographer or prolific amateur photobug would love this kind of thing. I keep my archived photos on a USB HD myself. The programs for editing photos are on the 500 GB HD in my laptop.

    Very huge collection of drawings.

    Some each of all of the above. I keep website backups on one also.
  • RyanMMRyanMM Ferndale, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2012
    Wow. I just bought one of these a week ago for $162, after seeing the price the week before at $175. That's a nice drop in 2 weeks.
  • Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. When I first heard about this HD, I thought it would be good for archival storage as well as a faster startup. I've been a photographer for 25 years and I'm in the process of converting my work to digital format. I want a brand I trust for long term storage. I trust Seagate. The 500 gb hybrid drive had a lot of problems but the 750 gb drive seems to be OK. The kinks seem to have been worked out. As I mentioned, I once plugged in a "my passport" and it used so much power that it fried my motherboard-at least that's what a technician told me. So no more plug and play external enclosures for me. I have an enclosure with which I can use a power adaptor so I intend to put this hybrid drive in that. The Seagate 640 gb hard drive has 5400 rpm. I thought this hybrid at 750 gb and 7200 rpm would be a better investment especially at this price ($145); it's not much more expensive than a regular HD. Of course, I can always install it in a laptop in the future but for now the plans are to use it for archival storage. Thanks again.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    These drives are down to $155 now. Seriously a no-brainer major upgrade for laptop users.
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    No kidding. I finally got around to replacing the second hard drive in my laptop with this. It made quite a difference.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    I have been running one in my lappy for about 18 months now.
    No, it isn't nearly as fast as SSD, but it sure kicks the $hit out of standard 5,400 notebook drives.

    It is fun to start rebooting the machine when you haven't done it for a few weeks. You can time how much faster each reboot gets. The app that I always run is Outlook and it sure loads fast.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    Hrng... want one for my new laptop so bad... but I really need to upgrade the storage in my desktop first.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    These are now down to $129.99.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2016

    This review has been translated into Russian:

    Обзор гибридного диска Seagate Momentus XT translated by Softdroid Recovery

    Garg
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