Momentus XT + M11x R1 Question

Hey guys! I just wanted to ask people with the Momentus XT and the m11x R1.. how fast is the boot up? How many seconds? Is the combo a big difference between a normal 7200RPM? Is it noticeable in gaming or just normal apps?

Thanks!

 

If you booted up in 45 seconds before with a 7200rpm hard drive, you can expect to boot in about 30 seconds with the Momentus XT. Your application load times will also improve slightly for your most commonly used applications.

Note that you will need to reboot your machine a few times (about 3) and load your applications a few times before you start seeing improvements. It takes a few runs for the Momentus XT's caching algorithm to recognize what is a commonly used file, and cache it to the NAND flash memory.

You'll notice improvements in OS boot times and single application load times. But you will still be hobbled when it comes to multitasking. I would argue that boot times and load times of a single applications isn't very useful, since OS boot times are irrelevant once the OS does boot, and 7200rpm drives don't really have much of an issue loading single applications as it is.

Multitasking is where it matters. When you throw multiple small-file read/write operations (a typical multitasking pattern) at a 7200rpm mechanical HDD, it will start thrashing away and choking, leading to significant slowdown. The Seagate Momentus XT also falls victim to this. Because of this, you will often see mechanical hard drives with NCQ depths of only 1-2, because the system is waiting for the mechanical HDD to catch up to the data requests (an SSD can often reach NCQ depths of 8 and higher... they are so fast, that the drive is waiting for the rest of the system to catch up).

Since everything in your post refers to performance, I would recommend you take a look at a nice SSD, which isn't too far away from what a SMXT costs. An SSD is literally 100x faster than a mechanical hard drive. It is like going from a 56K dial-up modem to a 5.6Mbps broadband connection.





If you absolutely cannot spend more than the $130 that a SMXT costs, then a $100 60GB SSD is within your budget. But if you can spend more than that, then a $200 120GB SSD is the sweet spot (OCZ Vertex 2 120GB or Intel X25-M 120GB for about $200).

Check out this video that I've pimped for a while on why I love SSD's. I boot Windows 7 + launch 27 applications in about 1 minute. You will never be able to do this with a mechanical hard drive or a SMXT.
YouTube - Why I love my SSD - Windows 7 boot + loading 27 applications in about 1 minute.

 

oOo thank you! EXTREMELY helpful =]

 

You're welcome.

Any time that I can evangelize SSD's over HDD's and hybrid drives is a win for both of us.

 

OCZ vertex 2 for sale on newegg for $170: 120gb
Newegg.com - Shell Shocker Deal. Exclusive Jaw Dropping Savings on PC Components and Electronics.

grab it while it lasts. Just bought one

 

I'm going to disagree completely with the second poster, and this is from personal experience.

A 60gb SSD is not nearly enough space if you're going to install more than one large game at a time; I went this route with my R1, and regretted it within a couple weeks. I grabbed a 500gb Momentus XT for exactly the same price (a hundred bucks), and boot up time is not appreciably worse than the SSD. Apps and games load somewhat slower, but at least I have things to load up. The discussion about random access reads is a complete non-sequitur; this isn't the access pattern that most games have.

A 120gb SSD MIGHT work, but, again, you're going to pay a lot more than for the Momentus XT and get a lot less capacity.

 

Yes, 60GB is too small for all but the most conservative usage patterns. You really need 120GB for breathing room.

I have 120GB SSD's in every one of my systems. The key to managing space is to put only files on your SSD that actually benefit from the fast read speeds. The files which do not benefit (music, videos, photos, , etc) should go on a separate external USB drive. On my main gaming desktop, I keep Windows 7 + Micrsoft Office + ~20 miscellaneous desktop apps (WinRar, antivirus, etc) + 8 games, and I have about 50GB remaining. On my gaming laptop, I have about 4 games + 40GB in video, and still have 25GB remaining. As long as you manage your space in a smart way, 120GB of space is not an issue for gaming setups.

And I disagree... the discussion about random read times is very relevant when the OP asked about OS boot times, normal apps, *and* gaming. When it comes to the specific situation of game load times, you are semi-correct that some games (not all) use large-file sequential read times (where an SSD is "only" 2x-3x as fast as a hybrid or mechanical HDD). But every other thing you do with your computer uses random reads much more heavily than sequential.

An SSD is absolutely a trade-off... you sacrifice capacity and affordability. And in return, you get untouchable performance. Some people are willign to make that trade-off for the performance. Other people (like yourself) find that trade-off to be unsuitable for them. And since the OP made a post that focuses entirely on performance, it seems absolutely reasonable that s/he should get information on why SSD's (and not hybrid or mechanical HDD's) deliver that performance.

 

Let me quote a conclusion from your post again: "If you absolutely cannot spend more than the $130 that a SMXT costs, then a $100 60GB SSD is within your budget."

That reads to me like recommending a 60gb SSD over a 500gb MXT (which, incidentally, is only a hundred bucks), and that's bad advice. That's what I was writing about in particular. The price differential for going to a 120gb SSD puts it another budget range entirely (double the cost).

I use SSDs personally and professionally; I actually have a 256gb Vertex 2 right next to me as I type. But space is a real issue on gaming laptops, and even 120gb may be cutting it close depending on what you play (MMOs, in particular, suck down a lot of space). "Use an external drive for everything else" is somewhat peculiar advice for a laptop that may be on the go quite a lot. At the hundred dollar price point, which is what the OP was basically asking about, the MXT is the way to go.

As for your commentary about random access reads, mechanical hard drives suffer less of a hit when data is close together on the disc (spatial locality)... reads for a particular application are generally not REALLY random. But this is a different topic entirely.

 

I have to agree here on the SSD vs. hybrid currently.

My M11x-R1 has a 120GB SSD, boots in around 24 seconds; the Momentus XT hybrid on my R2 boots in about 36 seconds, compared to a minute-plus on my R1 out of the box.

I just bought and installed a 500GB Momentus XT Hybrid for my R2 and feel that it's a good compromise. The only other thing I can think of is that the SSD helps a small amount with hitching in some games, beyond that its all load times. The other issue with SSD is there are about 10 things you need to do to use it correctly, ranging from not defragging it, turning off prefetch/superfetch, refractory times after benchmarking, etc, etc that you don't have to fool with on the hybrid.

Oh, and the 500GB hybrid was half the cost of the SSD.

 

Well I bought the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB for $99 on Amazon.com =] I'll update on how I feel about it hehe

 

I'm quite pleased with the boot up speed! Although, it seems like the bootup speed changes from time to time (perhaps when I boot with nvidia then boot with intel after(?)). Boot up on average is about 35-40 secs. Other than that.. I don't really notice a different in speed, program-wise.. Everything seems to boot up normal speed..

 

iv got an XT in mine and i notice it of loading screens on games and helps with the initial lag i get on BC2 and map loading but problem is with it the XT is that its slower to read and write than a standard HD

so faster in some cases and slower in others depends how it uses what its got

 

I have a 256GB samsund SSD and have had to once or twice delete files because after games and music and pics and other misc programs Office and what not.. that 256 disappears fast.. so I have been contemplating a XT for a while now.. But I will keep reading and see how it goes for you all..

 

I just got my vertex 2 installed and I can say its a night and day difference between the hdd that comes with the laptop. From POST to desktop it takes about 15 seconds for a fresh install and after i install all drivers and a couple programs, 20ish seconds. Everything is super responsive, i dont ever have to wait for stuff to load, and when i need to search for something in windows, the search is pretty much instantaneous.

 

How big of a difference is the battery usage between a 500GB Momentus XT vs. Vertex 2?