Installed Momentus XT in my 13"

Arrived from Newegg this afternoon.

Removing the screws on the bottom plate of the 13" was really hard imo. I had to use plyers to have enough grip on the screwdriver to remove them, and it slipped twice (with hairline scratches) -- probably better anyways. I wear belts and worry about the buckle scratching up the bottom, but this just eliminates my OCD -- and it doesn't look horrendous but my heart stopped when I slipped, hoping I didn't too badly scar the machine .

The drive is noticeably faster than my stock Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm drive (which is now in an external enclosure: Newegg.com - Nippon Labs 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure for SATA I and SATA II Hard Drive Model EN-25SATA). I also notice an increase in the system vibration, but this probably a standard thing anyone would feel going from 5400 rpm to 7200rpm. I have yet to see how it holds up after remembering my favorite apps and battery life but will report once I have a better grasp.

If you have any questions, ask away!

Someone asked for xbench here it is:


Keep in mind it's probably not representative of real world tests because the drive is supposed to remember the most used apps, and since this is the first time I've fired up xbench, I doubt it's one of those "remembered apps."

But this drive is quite zippy, and for the twenty minutes I've used it, I'm pleased.

Also a boot up video:

YouTube - Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Hybrid Hard Drive 13" MBP Boot up

Check it out. I am impressed! 18 seconds

Someone requested this so here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sqWginp1qo

Safari, iTunes, and Word running at the same time (not too exciting)

 

Benchmarks look very good. Thanks for sharing

Btw, how's the temperature on the XT drive?

 

iStats says 36 degrees. Haven't felt or noticed anything out of the ordinary.

 

Thanks for the info

 

One question, dude. Who's that babe on your screen ;-)

And how did you move the data from one HDD to the other?

Thx

 

Girl on screen is Emmanuelle Chriqui....or a girl that looks remarkably like her (side note: watch Entourage if you haven't already )

There's several cloning softwares available for mac that allows you to make a replicate of your old drive on to the new. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are a couple that does the job.

Of course, there's also the external drive route if you only need to copy files and not installed program files to your new drive. Just pop your old HDD into an external enclosure and connect it to your laptop via USB.

 

It is indeed Emmanuelle Chriqui from Entourage. Also, in addition to SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner, you could just install using the OS X disc and then restore from a Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant that comes out when done installing the OS, that's what I did at least.

 

The boot time is quick ! Thanks for sharing that with us.

I am waiting for this drive to get available @ Amazon so I can grab one or two . If the drive can give ~ SSD like speeds with 500GB storage, then why not

 

Any further notes on temperatures and battery life?

Also, how bad is the vibration? Is it really noticable?

Im still deciding between one of these or a full on SSD!

 

If you have the money and don't need the capacity, SSDs will always be a better option. However, if either of these criteria are not met, then this is a great option.

 

Vibration is noticeable but not intolerable. The drive spins faster than 5400 stock drives so it's something I'm sure you would experience on any 7200 drive. Pretty quiet. Temperature is now 33 degrees. Seems to fluctuate from mid 20's to 39 degrees depending on usage, no worries though.

Battery life still seems really good on my 13" MBP. Not sure how it compares vs my stock 5400, almost negligible though it's not like I have to run to an outlet any quicker. Running battery life tests would be silly because my usage varies every session.

I had an X25-M on the way, but the day these were announced and went on sale, I bought a Momentus XT to avoid Optibay-ing and voiding warranty (going abroad in the Fall and I don't want to have to restore SuperDrive to stock and all that in case something craps out). For the money and capacity and speed boost, I'm not dissapointed. I'm sure X25-M is faster, but without TRIM and lower capacity and 3rd gen rolling out, this is a good drive to be satisfied with until SSD's are ubiquitous. To each his own though.

 

It won't, and it doesn't. Reviews popping up at Tom's and MaximumPC recently place the XT's performance variously above the 7200.4 for repeated workflow patterns, but this decreases when the workflow changed.

The theory is that the drive will eventually cache - via proprietary algorithm - commonly used files into the 4GB SSD cache should, overall, improve the performance. The reality is that every *single* common file that might be needed for a piece of software isn't going to end up in the flash memory, so the drive is very likely going to have to go seeking on the platters for some of them -- and thus you will see a noticeable improvement over the stock 7200.4, but not near to the 175-200+ MB/s performance of current mainstream SSD's. Tom's eventually got theirs to near-Velociraptor numbers.

Tom's measured power use higher the 7200.4, with 15% battery hit with MobileMark 07. Temperature and vibrations should be near stock 7200.4, since the ssd cache isn't going to generate much heat. The drive is, more or less, a 7200.4 with 4GB ssd grafted onto the pcb.

 

I am planning to get a 15" MBP to replace my desktop very soon. I am pretty much set on having a Intel 25M as boot and a 640 WD 5400rpm drive as storage. With the addition of Optibay, the total is around 375. I would use it for everyday work as well as gaming and photoshop.

Would you recommend having one of these hybrid or SSD, HDD duo?

 

SSD + HDD will always be better than a single drive hybrid (at the expense of the ODD and higher cost).

 

Agreed. Though an SSD + Hybrid HDD = even better.

evnhvn, I hope that you can report back after a whiel to see how things improved.

 

hot dayamnnnnn can't wait to get my hot hands on one of these for my ul30vt!

Btw, on a side note, Emmanuelle Chriqui is an absolute goddesssss! I'm missing Entourage New season out soon w00t!

 

Pardon my ignorance, but when you say SSD + HDD where do you put the HDD? In one of these:
MCE OptiBay Hard Drive for Unibody MacBook Pro 13", 15" and 17" and Unibody MacBook 13": MCE Technologies Online Store ?

If that is the case, I find that it is a bit of rip-off to charge based on the hdd size. Does the HDD size matter at all, or the speed? I had a similar enclosure for my Toshiba satellite and it was around 50$ or 60$. And the size of the HDD didn't matter.

Update:

I found this one that is cheaper:
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=220

 

Don't really see the point in wasting extra money on the hybrid since it will be for storage. Besides you can get a higher capacity drive for far cheaper, speed doesn't matter for storage - you could go for the 750GB 5400RPM 9.5mm drive or if your ODD is large enough the 1TB 5200RPM 12.5mm one.

 

So an SSD would still emit less heat, and would use less battery power?

 

Depends on one's config. Smaller SSD with OS and most used programs. Then Hybrid with other moderately used programs in addition to storage. The moderately used programs would be cached on the hybrid to give you near SSD speeds.

Then you could get away with a 30 - 40GB SSD + 320-500GB Hybrid. You save a bit of coin in the process considering the price/GB of SSDs.

 

Yes it would.

 

Or you could just save money and sell old stuff (amazing how much of those are around) and get the SSD.

 

There is that, if that's a practical option for some. Or some may rather have altogether more capacity for the money.

 

Personally, 40GB is more than enough for Windows (streamlined) and all my programs (I'm only using 20GB on my laptop now). Then 750GB for storage at 50% more capacity than the hybrid. I wouldn't put any programs on the HDD.

 

Yeah I am returning the Momentus XT and getting X25-M with Optibay.

vibration was the main reason. Feels like a cd is in the superdrive at a slow speed with 7200rpm momentus, not sure if it's like that with all drives but my stock 250gb hitachi 5400rpm feels and sounds like there's no hard drive in there.

I'd rather pay the extra money for guaranteed performance (consistent) and a quiet, vibrate free machine. Can't wait. I guess you learn. . .

To each his own though. It was a good performer, especially coming from stock.

 

Any reason why you chose the X25-M over the OCZ Vertex?

Im curious as Im planning to get one of these two, but just cant decide which to go for! Reviews state the Vertex has the edge and doesnt suffer as much from slowing down over time - not as much as the Intel.....

 

I dunno I feel like Intel is a much more trusted brand and has tons of excellent reviews.

 

True but Mobilemark is a synthetic benchmark. Since idle power of the XT is very low the loss in battery life may not be that significant.

 

Vertex 2 is good but too expensive in comparison with the 80GB Intel imo.

Nova V128 and Kingston v+ 128 have the upper hand over the Intel in most real life benchmarks though. And they use less power.

I've mainly read the opposite.

Intel G2 is a good choice but it's nearing end of it's product cycle. Anandtech said G3 will arrive mid year, although most other sources say Q4.

If you're looking for very good battery life don't get the intel. I lost 10-20 minutes compared to a Seagate 5400.6 spinner.

 

I only have the 1 drive in my MBP.
Although I have external storage for my multimedia files etc, I like to know I have e decent amount of spare space for any movie editing etc I may wish to do.
Personally, Im thinking of going for the Vertex as I want at least a 250GB drive.