Seagate promised a write caching enabling firmware update for the Momentus XT in 2012

[tipoo]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5161/seagates-2nd-gen-momentus-xt-more-nand-larger-capacity

Write caching is still not enabled on the NAND, however Seagate is planning on enabling it via a firmware update sometime in 2012. I've seen results from an early version of the write caching firmware and the improvement is tangible.

2012 is all but over, Seagate support gave me some useless response about where to find the latest firmware when I asked them, and I couldn't join the Seagate forums due to some bugs in their software. So where is the write caching firmware update?

The latest firmware is still the one the 750 originally shipped with.

 

[Elixer]

Most likely, they found issues.

 

[tipoo]

Certainly possible. Some official word of it would have been nice though. At least part of my purchase decision was for the promise of a future update with even better performance through read and write caching. Anandtech itself made the new firmware sound pretty good, as quoted above.

 

[tipoo]

The third gen XT does have some write caching, and it uses the same 8GB NAND. I hope the 750 gets a firmware update with it then, as there seems to be no reason for it not to.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6816/...p-and-desktop-sshds-solid-state-hybrid-drives

 

[Ao1]

What advantage would write caching offer? The amount of NAND available is small and if it was used for writes it would reduce the amount of data held in NAND for read operations, which are typically a lot more prevalent than write operations. Write operations to the physical disk can also be delayed by the file system so they don't impact performance.
I use the Monentus XT with 8GB of SLC in my laptop and I don't really notice the difference if I switch over to a SSD. Sure significant one off write operations, such as an installation, are very slow but they occur only once. Outside of installations or large file xfers I've never found myself waiting on write activity.

 

[tipoo]

What advantage would write caching offer? The amount of NAND available is small and if it was used for writes it would reduce the amount of data held in NAND for read operations, which are typically a lot more prevalent than write operations. Write operations to the physical disk can also be delayed by the file system so they don't impact performance.
I use the Monentus XT with 8GB of SLC in my laptop and I don't really notice the difference if I switch over to a SSD. Sure significant one off write operations, such as an installation, are very slow but they occur only once. Outside of installations or large file xfers I've never found myself waiting on write activity.

Well, reviewers had that write caching firmware available when the 750 came out, and it was promised. They said it was noticeably more peppy. I don't claim to know exactly why, but if they say it performs better, I want it. And why else would it be in the third gen drives if it didn't perform better?

I think the file system write delay is limited to the small DRAM buffer on hard drives?