MacBook Pro :: 13" Mid 2010 - Seagate 500GB Momentous XT HD Upgrade - Performance
Sep 25, 2010
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
- 4GB RAM
- 320 GB 5.400 RPM
I needed to upgrade this unit in order to increase performance with VMWARE Fusion as I needed to use a few Windows 7 features and Applications... and although Mac OS is OK... I have to recognize that some features of Windows 7 are better and I need some only windows applications.
So I researched online the option of upgrading memory and HD. I read mixed opinions and experiences with non Apple Memory. But took the chance and during a recent trip to the US I purchased the Kingston upgrade kit... installed it... and so far no problems. I got a very noticeable increase in startup and working performance with Windows 7 and Fusion. Unfortunately I lost my notes regarding performance readings... sorry.
I was very intrigued with the Hybrid Seagate 500GB Momentus XT. Also read a lot of mixed experiences. I also picked up a unit during my trip to the US but waited to install it when I got back to Spain. I just installed it and made some simple timings to check the performance......................
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Dec 6, 2010
I am looking at getting the Segate Momentus XT for my MacBook, its the first model to come out with aluminum body. I have seen people online praising it and saying it is broken. So now they have been out for a while and people may have some amount of experience with the drive, what are the facts.
References:
Discussion on [URL]
Discussion on [URL]
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Dec 2, 2010
Just curious as to whether or not there is a consensus on a recommended hard drive other than an SSD or the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid? I received my new 2010 13" MBP yesterday and installed a new 500GB Seagate Momentus XT into the unit. Off of a clean install of OS X, the system worked fine. I did the obligatory software update to 10.6.5 as well as four other updates and it never got past the grey boot up screen. Couldn't get past that no matter what I tried.
So unfortunately, this has soured by tastebuds on the Seagate. There have been numerous posts about issues with this HDD on Newegg.com and I knew that going in, so I'm not looking to particularly rehash it. I tried, it didn't work, time to move on. It will go back. I'm not interested in paying the steep price for performance that an SSD involves. I would prefer to have the additional capacity (320GB+). That said, are there any particular recommendations for a reliable, fast 500GB HDD for my new MBP? Or is it more of a situation where they're all with 1-2% of each other? The unit with most/best reviews seems to be the Seagate Momentus 7200.4. I'm still a little bit bitter about Seagate at the moment, but I'm willing to keep an open mind.
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Oct 24, 2010
Will I notice much difference if I upgrade to the seagate m xt 500 gb with 32cache?
Baring in mind I havnt got my 17" i7 2.8 in the post yet..
I'm thinking I can install the new drive as soon as I get the Mbp and do a fresh install as I'm assuming I'll get the iLife disks with the laptop so I can install it? Aswell as the OS cd's too?
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Aug 7, 2010
I think I have a slight issue with my 7200rpm 500gb seagate drive. Once or twice every hour it seems to stop and start up again. Kinda klicks. It causes my computer to freeze for about 3 seconds. Whats causing it? Is it faulty? I should also mention that it didn't do this when i first got it. This is the model without the SMS.
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Jun 10, 2010
ive read many threads on this but havent received any conclusion to the battery life. and mixed opinions on the noise....anyone have both stock 5400rpm along with this one and done a comparison? is the speed worth it? is it still faster than the average 7200rpm once the 4gb SDD flash has been used up? my biggest concern is noise and battery life.
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Jul 22, 2010
I want to speed up my early 2010 Mini with a faster drive and with a budget under $150. Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB hybrid drive ($130 at Amazon) and Kingston 64GB SSDNow V Series ($98 at [URL] after $35 mail in rebate) are my choices. I am having a hard time deciding which is the best fit for my needs since I have no prior experience with any of these drives. If I get the SSD, I will need to keep all my files in an external drive, possibly the 5400 rpm 2.5" HDD that is currently in the Mini, in a cheap USB enclosure that comes with the SSD bundle. Momentus XT will allow me to have a tidier setup in an already cluttered TV cabinet.
If this specific Kingston SSD is much faster than the Seagate hybrid drive, I will consider getting the SSD. But will it make it slower to open picture and video files stored in the USB drive? Since I primarily use the Mini as an HTPC with Plex, this will defeat the purpose of upgrading. Which one of these two solutions would you choose? My other question is about read/write/transfer speeds. Generally speaking, is a 3.5" 7200 rpm external USB HDD with 32 MB cash, faster than an 2.5" 5400 rpm internal HDD for watching HD videos?
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Aug 15, 2009
I'm trying to find out if this is the same seagate drive. I have searched around but could not find anywhere saying its a 7200.4.
[URL]
vs.
[URL]
It has a different number ST905003N3A1AS-RK I know RK means retail kit, but I just wanted to make sure it is the same drive before I go and buy it.
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Nov 2, 2009
I purchased a Seagate Momentus 2.5" Internal SATA 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. I put it into an external USB enclosure to clone my existing MacbookPro 160GB hard drive and then planned to swap them and install the new 500 GB HD. But when I plug in the external drive case, I do not see the Seagate drive mounted and cannot see it in Disk Utility either.
The external enclosure comes with a USB cable with two USB connectors to provide data transfer and power.
Any suggestions how I can mount this drive so I can clone the internal drive?
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Nov 11, 2008
This guy claims they're available for Apple corporate accounts:[URL]
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Dec 2, 2010
I just purchased a new MBA. I thought that the 256GB SSD would work for me, but, it doesn't. Now I'm attempting to find the least expensive way in which to upgrade the internal drive.
As I was about to purchase a new 512GB SSD, the reseller informed me that I should try the Seagate drive referenced above. He said that it would work in the MBA with no problem. The price difference is huge. Axiom SSD = $1500, Momentus Hybrid SSD = $120. I'm not concerned about speed. I'm just tired of carrying my itunes library on an external USB drive.
I love the new MBA. I just need more disk space in the unit. Here's a link to the drive in question: [URL]
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Jul 22, 2009
Just got a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB to install in a white MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz. The MacBook can read, write, and format the drive (connected as a USB external) with no problem. It can't seem to boot from it or install OS X to the drive.
I've tried:
1) cloning the current drive using disk utility's restore option while booted from a 10.5 install disk--Seagate drive will not boot after clone even though the MacBook sees it as a boot device when looking at the startup disk options while booted from the 10.5 disk.
2) Time Machine restore to the Seagate drive--fails every time with a long error log.
3) Clean install to the Seagate drive with a retail 10.5 install disk--install fails every time.
The drive could just be defective but I've seen a lot of defective drives and it doesn't feel like that's the case. I haven't run any hardware tests on the drive. (Anyone know if an Intel Mac will boot Seatools?)
Anyone else have any experience with the Seagate Momentus in an older Core 2 MacBook? I seem to vaguely recall reading on Apple's store page around the time I bought the MacBook that the max HDD supported was a 320GB (a size that at the time was larger than anything available to consumers). Not sure if that is the case or not.
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May 28, 2010
bought the i5 500gb mbp, but I wonder whether it is any good for gaming since the 330m seems a little weak. Does anybody have any gaming experience (game performance) with it or can point me to a review somewhere?
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Mar 31, 2009
Every place I've checked online seems to not have them in stock, but claims they are available.
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Jun 21, 2012
As above i need to know if this hard drive the seagate momentus xt 750 gb will work with my macbook pro the mac is a 2010 model 2.66 i7,8gb ram,500 gb 7200 drive someone told me that it wont as my mac is sata 2 and the momentus drive is sata 3 just need to find out before i go a buy one of these drives.
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Aug 22, 2009
I just switched out my 160GB hard drive on my 13" MBP for a 500GB. I do notice that things are a little slower now as far as opening up apps and such. Would upgrading to the 4GB of RAM instead of the 2 I have make a difference or is that the trade i get for running a 5200 500GB HD.
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Jun 27, 2009
I just installed a Seagate 500gb, 7200rpm hard drive in my 13" MBP that was updated to EFI Firmware Update 1.7. Clean install of OS X and iLife '09 & iWork '09 went fast. It's quite and fast compared to my old Samsung 500gb, 5400rpm hard drive. It was worth the $120 I spent on it!
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Jun 24, 2009
Has anyone tried the 500GB - 7200 PRM Seagate Drive for the Macbook Pro 15" Unibody ?I am considering getting one, but remembered they have 2 versions Which one should i get ?
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Dec 11, 2010
I have been struggling with my Mac for weeks and weeks and before I finally decide to reinstall everything I wanted to turn to you experts for maybe the one hint that can resolve my problem: I have a 13 inch MBPro, mid 2010, basic version. Later I installed the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB hard drive and copied the time machine backup. Shortly after, I recognized massive lags. I have quiet a few photos (3000 or so), 20gb of music and 40gb of films on this drive but only a few programs. Adium, Steam, Starcraft, MS Office, Skype, Growl and that is it I think. I use mobileme for synching, if that helps in any way.
Some examples: Sometimes youtube videos lag for a few seconds, even with HTML5, it takes 5 seconds to open a new tab in sapharie (again, only sometimes without any obvious rule)..................
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Apr 13, 2010
It looks like it is less expensive to upgrade the memory to 8GB from Apple now. I need to decided whether to go for 4GB or upgrade to 8GB BTO. With the 8GB RAM, will there be noticeable gain in performance? I guess VMWare Fusion may run better. Not sure about other applications including the OS
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Nov 3, 2010
Just bought this recently and installed Windows 7. The following screen shot under WEI Macbook Air 2010 13'' 1.86GHz 4GB RAM 256GB. The performance is quite amazing consider its 1.86GHz CPU, I bet 2.13GHz CPU would score bit higher.
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May 12, 2010
Performance of the new MBP's as they take on the slew of new games being presented (VALVe has said they will release new games each Wednesday, so keep looking for your Css' and L4D's)
[URL]
Counter Strike Source will not be here all that soon so don't get your hopes up, they are redeveloping it, to run on a new engine. No point in porting the old engine when they will just have to do it again. Link:.....
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Oct 13, 2009
I have a 2009 MB Pro CTO 500GB looking to upgrade it to 750GB, I have heard that Western Digital Makes a 750GB drive 5400 that will work, part #WDG WD7500KEVT, has anyone heard about this or had experience or know of another drive that will work.
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Sep 2, 2010
I have looked over the postings closely but may have missed something. What is the current knowledge, now, in early September about Apple-installed SSDs and performance degradation over time? Early concern beginning with the release of MBP 2010 in April was the the lack of TRIM support in OSX. Has anyone at this point noticed or measured significant degradation of factory-installed SSDs? I am ready to purchase a MBP 2010 and I am considering a 256 GB SSD.
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Jul 2, 2009
I am planning to purchase a 13" Macbook Pro base model (first Mac by the way), and I want to upgrade from the stock 160Gb HDD.
I don't really see myself needing 500Gb, but I have read that a higher density drive outperforms a lower density drive. Newegg currently has the 500 WD Scorpio Blue drive listed for $30 over the 320Gb edition. Will I see significant performance increase by going with the 500Gb model instead of the 320Gb one?
What about power consumption? Is one better than the other?
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May 13, 2010
I just upgraded my hdd to a 500gb WD scorpio blue in my 2010 MBP 13". It seems to start and stop a lot more than the apple one (if that makes sense). and every now and then the computer seems to lag for 1-2 seconds when doing things like typing, scrolling, etc. I've tried searching and found other people have had similar problems with older MBPs and they talked about some EFI firmware or something. Does this apply to my MBP too? Or does anyone have any other suggestions of what I can do?
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Aug 1, 2010
I'm saving up to buy a 13" MBP come next refresh and am planning to upgrade the internal HDD to the Hybrid Seagate XT drive.
Is it safe to assume the XT will still work with the newer laptops due to the size/connector being standard?
I'm thinking of getting the HDD ahead of time so when I do get the MBP I have it ready to go.
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Nov 24, 2010
How does StarCraft 2 perform on the current lineup of the iMac? I'm most interested in the 21.5" model, as I cannot afford the 27" version. Specifically, I'd like to know what resolution and settings the 4670 and 5670 models can handle...
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Aug 22, 2010
just got me a brand new 2010 MacPro 2 x 2.4 Quad-Core with 12GB Ram and the ATI 5870. This is the first MacPro to system boot into the 64bit Kernel by default (ie, hold 3+2 on restart to boot into 32bit Kernel). One of the first things I did was run the Photoshop performance test, which FYI on my old G5 2.7 with 4GB Ram returned a time of 114 secs, and on the new Quad-Core in 64bit kernel returned a time of 14 secs, so as you can imagine I was pretty happy with the results.
Then the problems started...... when I was installing software I got the dreaded Kernel Panic, restart your machine screen. So I did, and it happened again on restart, so I did, and it happened again on restart, so I did.... you get the idea. So I put the system disk in and restarted, then reloaded OSX10.6.4 and everything seemed to be going fine, until I installed software again (different app from the first time), and I got the Kernel panic screen, then again on restart etc, so I booted into 32bit kernel and all is good. EXCEPT! - When running the Photoshop test in 32bit Kernel it returned a time of 17secs. Now, I know I am being picky here, but I do a lot of work in PSCS5, and by a lot I mean sometimes all day on large photographic images, so 3 secs is a big deal....
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May 31, 2010
I have a 15" 2010 MBP. I got it well spec'd, with 7200 drive, 8 GB ram, best CPU... First thing I did was bootcamp. Went smoothly - did a 400 gb partition for Windows 7. The drivers all installed fine and Windows 7 does alright.
My Windows Experience scores:
Processor: 6.9
RAM: 6.9
Graphic: 6.4
Gaming graphics: 6.4
Hard drive: 5.9
Things look good... But I am having trouble playing hidef content - VLC is choppy on a bunch of files that play smooth as silk when booted into Mac OS - and actually even play ok on my old Santa Rosa 15" MBP. Quicktime is also slow. I have always found VLC to be very solid. (actually use it on the Mac side for this test as well). I tried playing with the hardware acceleration toggle, and it does seem better with it disabled - anyone else having issues playing hidef media on the windows side of this MBP?
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