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    Seagate Momentus XT in a 13" MacBook Pro

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by cosrocket, Mar 8, 2011.

  1. cosrocket

    cosrocket Notebook Evangelist

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    I was wondering if replacing the 320GB 5400rpm HD with the 500GB Seagate Momentus XT would effect heat, noise level and battery life of the new 13" MacBook Pro.

    Is anyone using this drive in their 13" and how do you like it?
     
    cosrocket, Mar 8, 2011
    #1
  2. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Heat should be the same.

    Noise level will be greater, there will be more vibrations in the palm rest.
     
    Nick, Mar 8, 2011
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  3. FrozenWaltDisney

    FrozenWaltDisney Notebook Consultant

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    I've installed about 20 of them into the laptops... There isn't a big enough change to complain about imo
     
    FrozenWaltDisney, Mar 8, 2011
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  4. scarletvw

    scarletvw Notebook Consultant

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    I just installed a 500gb XT into my computer today, when transferring everything from the old drive to the new one the drive got a little warm but so far under casual use updating everything and surfing the interwebs it seems the same.

    I can feel a slight vibration over the 250gb Toshiba that it replaced but nothing major and you can hear it spinning whereas the Toshiba I couldn't hear a thing.
     
    scarletvw, Mar 9, 2011
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  5. dkwhite

    dkwhite Notebook Deity

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    Don't do it, get the Western Digital Scorpio Black in either 500 gig or 750 gig.

    Speed wise the 750 gig WD drive is just as fast (except at boot up) and runs cooler.
     
    dkwhite, Mar 9, 2011
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  6. Asherek

    Asherek Notebook Consultant

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    It depends on personal preference. I couldn't stand the vibration amount from a Momentus XT. I ended up going with an SSD just because it was just that much nicer to have literally zero vibration at all.
     
    Asherek, Mar 9, 2011
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  7. sgshultz

    sgshultz Newbie

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    I just upgraded to the Momentus XT 500GB and am VERY happy…it “feels” like I have solid state, and my previous mac did (Late 2009 Macbook Air with 128GB SSD). I have not noticed any heat issues, a slight increase of noise given it is a 7200 RPM drive, a slight but barely noticeable increase in vibration and battery life around the same maybe knocking a half hour off (about 7 hrs web browsing).

    I did some tests before upgrading and after. The Momentus XT tests are after about 5 sequences of tests…the numbers gradually got better then leveled out and continue to perform according to these numbers. Every test run was performed after a fresh reboot so system cache was flushed!
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Here is my data:

    2011 MacBook Pro 2.3Ghz i5

    Data given in this format:
    Event\OEM 5400RPM(Seconds)\Momentus XT(Seconds)\% Increase

    DATA (The following really tests the flash part of the drive):
    Boot time\50\31\61%
    Boot + Aperture, Word, Excel, Outlook & Safari\115\42\174%
    Launch Aperture (to project previews loaded)\22\5.6\293%
    Launch Word\9.0\2.0\350%
    Launch Excel\3.0\1.1\173%
    Launch Outlook\11\5.0\120%
    Launch Safari\4.0\2.0\100%

    DATA (The following really tests the 7200RPM vs 5400RPM):
    Aperture Export 106 hi res images to desktop\60\47\28%
    Copy folder of photos (3.33GB)\114\88\30%
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    So you can see it is dramatic and is not hard to “feel” the difference.

    The CONS:
    - Slight increase in HD noise from the 5400rpm
    - Ever so slight…barely perceptible increase in vibration
    - Possible but not noticed yet decrease in Battery life

    Hope this helps make your decision!!!
     
    sgshultz, Mar 11, 2011
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  8. bayernjuven

    bayernjuven Notebook Consultant

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    Any possible issues if using the hybrid drive with bootcamp and VM?

     
    bayernjuven, Mar 11, 2011
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  9. sgshultz

    sgshultz Newbie

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    All i can speak for is VMware Fusion running Windows 7 Ultimate which has been working 100% fine so far!
     
    sgshultz, Mar 11, 2011
    #9