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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
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.
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.
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.
Comments
you can remove the 2.5" drive from the heatsink homie
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.
And then you'll end up melting your laptop or crashing the drive
You're never going to run the 15K version in a laptop, too much power and too much heat.
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.
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.
I believe the SSD side of the 500gb drive is 4gb instead of 8gb and I believe it's MLC rather than SLC.
You can use this link and enter promo code EMCJHHA27 (from today's Year-end Clearance email) at checkout for the $40 discount.
John.
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.
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.
This review has been translated into Russian:
Обзор гибридного диска Seagate Momentus XT translated by Softdroid Recovery