2.5" 750 gb, 7200 RPM drives?

[slugg]

When are these coming out? Seagate lists the Momentus ST9750420AS on their site, but it's completely unavailable anywhere on the internet.

I really need to upgrade this tiny 250gb drive that I have in my laptop. I'd really like to max it out, but I really don't want to buy a 5400 RPM drive while the 7200 is just around the corner...

 

[sub.mesa]

750GB is an odd size; it would need three 250GB platters.

Right now we're at 334GB platters, and it might very well be that a 334GB-platter 5400rpm drive is faster or about the same speed as 250GB platter 7200rpm; though the 7200rpm will still have an edge with seek times and IOps.

So perhaps you should look at 666GB or 1000GB 2,5" disks from the newest generation?

 

[slugg]

Do you have any recommendations? I'd really like to maintain the 7200 RPM speed, but 5400 rpm would get me some nice density.

 

[Blain]

* Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB (3 year warranty).

 

[Soulkeeper]

The scorpio blue 750 is 375GB per platter areal density and Advanced Format technology, but only spins at 5400rpm. Kinda like the desktop green drives. Scorpio blue review seems to be top of the pack against the other 5400rpm drives

 

[FishAk]

Seagate's hybrid drive comes in a 500Gb flavor. It's only twice the size you have now, but if you can make due with only 500Gb, the hybrid's speed is by far faster than any other spinning 2.5" drive, and it's around $120.

 

[sjamie]

Seagate's hybrid drive comes in a 500Gb flavor. It's only twice the size you have now, but if you can make due with only 500Gb, the hybrid's speed is by far faster than any other spinning 2.5" drive, and it's around $120.

I just upgraded my laptop from a stock Toshiba 500GB 5400 RPM drive (MK5055GSX) to the Hitachi 7K500 and have not seen any noticeable performance increase. Therefore, I'm a hesitant to get Seagate's Hybrid 500XT drive. Anyone experience great performance gains with this drive?
http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...om/details.asp?invtid=MK5055GSX-NDW-R&cat=HDD

 

[lsv]

What about a Momentus XT? You lose 250gigs but you gain a lot of speed.

 

[FishAk]

I just upgraded my laptop from a stock Toshiba 500GB 5400 RPM drive (MK5055GSX) to the Hitachi 7K500 and have not seen any noticeable performance increase. Therefore, I'm a hesitant to get Seagate's Hybrid 500XT drive. Anyone experience great performance gains with this drive?

Yes. Look at corkyg's input here on this forum over the past month or two for details.

 

[jjmIII]

* Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB (3 year warranty).

If Blain can't make these stupid links work, is there hope for any of us??

 

[Blain]

Newegg is sold out, like almost everyone else.
If you can buy a Seagate ST9750420AS for less than $120, jump on it.

 

[anishannayya]

I own the WD 750 GB 5400 RPM drive. If formatted correctly with the 4K sector format, and if used with a modern operating system, then it is actually as fast as most 7,200 RPM HDDs.

I haven't benchmarked anything, but in daily use I haven't noticed it to be any slower than the previous 7,200 RPM 250 GB Hitachi drive. Can't wait for huge SSDs at a cheap price though.

One thing that I have noticed is that it is a loud drive. I can hear it whirr down and park the head sometimes. I don't mind, but it may drive some people nuts.

If you want it, go for it. It's marked down on Newegg till tomorrow.

 

[sjamie]

Many of the reviews on Newegg and Amazon mention that the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB is quite "noisy" and vibrates a lot. Have any of you noticed this? If so, does the increased performance make up for the increased noise?

 

[anishannayya]

Wow! As luck would have it, I have one of those as well. No, I don't notice anything. It is essentially a regular Momentus with 4 GB of SLC flash memory. It should cost $100 MAX, but because it has been such a hit, it has been overpriced.

 

[sjamie]

Wow! As luck would have it, I have one of those as well. No, I don't notice anything. It is essentially a regular Momentus with 4 GB of SLC flash memory. It should cost $100 MAX, but because it has been such a hit, it has been overpriced.

Do you feel it is better than the other laptop drives you own?

 

[anishannayya]

Yes, not nearly as fast as an SSD, but still worth the inflated price.

However, if you have the option of 2 drive bays or don't need the data storage, you can have an SSD for the same price.

Here is my recommendation:

1. Max Storage Space: WD 750 GB (9 mm) or WD 1 TB (12.5 mm)
2. Max Speed: 64 GB Crucial C300 SSD or 40 GB Intel SSD
3. Storage + Speed: 500 GB Momentus XT

I own all of these except the 1 TB drive, and they are all great for the purpose.

EDIT: The SSD that I have is the 128 GB version, but there isn't that great of a difference (64 GB is slower, but it will saturate the SATA II in a laptop, so you have nothing to worry about).

 

[sjamie]

anishannayya, thank you for your recommendations! My confidence is building in the XT 500GB since I do not have the option of 2 drive bays in my 13.3" laptop. How does the XT compare to the "loud" WD 750 in the noise and vibration departments?

 

[anishannayya]

I don't notice any difference compared to a traditional 7,200 RPM HDD. Definitely not as loud as the 750 GB one. I think that those complaining of the noise earlier on got bad HDDs. The XT had a bad batch at its launch.

Personally, I prefer the 750 GB drive simply because I'm a media whore, and like carry around my music. Speed isn't a major concern for me because I have a lot of RAM, and all my applications are cached in that since I don't reboot unless necessary. I would upgrade to an SSD in a heartbeat if the price was right. I would even pay more for a hybrid edition of the 750 GB drive. But, I cannot imagine downgrading. It is amazing to not have to carry around an external drive anymore and always plug it in. I've only had it for a couple of days, but it is worth it.

However, for most; the XT is the best choice.

 

[sjamie]

Thank you, anishannayya. You're awesome! Placing my order for the XT...

 

[sjamie]

It's time to play... my XT is here!!!

 

[anishannayya]

How do you like it?

 

[FishAk]

You probably already know this, but don't expect great speed right off the bat. The XT will monitor your usage, and load more used files in it's flash cache, so the speed get's better with usage.

 

[anishannayya]

@ FiskAk:

The Momentus drives learn fast. 3-4 reboots and launches of your favorite applications, and the drive is pretty much as fast as it is going to get.

 

[FishAk]

I don't have one myself, so I'm just going off the reviews I've seen. After a week or so, corkyg reported his seams to get faster with every boot.

So yes, we agree; it's not real fast right off the bat, but after some learning.

 

[slugg]

I'm really not interested in the hybrid drive. The Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS (750gb 7200 rpm) seems to be carried by many places, but none of them have it in stock. Honestly, I'd rather go for the big storage space and get 8 gb of memory down the road...

I could care less about boot times. I hardly EVER reboot. I only reboot when I'm forced to by a software update. Other than that, I just put the machine to sleep. The 7200 rpm speed will help me with large transfers and audio I/O, neither of which would be aided by the hybrid drive. So yea, I'm obviously a minority here, but the hybrid drive wouldn't do too much for me. I'd rather take the density.

So does anyone know anything about the availability of this drive?