MacBook Pro :: HDD Suggestions Other Than SSD Or Seagate Momentous XT Hybrid
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.
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]
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.
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......................
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?
first of all I would like to say that I am new to macrumors but not new to macs. I'm currently using a 15" MacBook Pro i7 with HR-AG. I have owned a 15" uMBP 2.8ghz (mid-2009), a 13" uMB 2.0ghz (late-2008) and a 13" Blackbook (late 2006).
i know it's alot of macs in a small timeframe but i love macs and always want to upgrade...which brings me to my next question..
Has anyone tried the Seagate Hybrid XT SSD, 7200RPM?
I want the performance of an ssd but not the high price tag. If someone is running this drive, I would like to hear about your experience with it.
I don't use my computer for editing, just browsing, notes and e-mail. However i am very curious about boot times. I love how fast an ssd boots up, and since i don't run any data intensive apps at all, i think a hybrid drive may be all that I need.
Any advice on the below ExpressCard 34 SSD card for an OSX boot drive on a unibody 2010 MBP? [URL]
I'll be running Snow Leopard and would plan to create a partition on my internal to clone the OS and apps on the card just in case something goes wrong.
I've heard (and seen) really good things when people have successfully used these FileMates for boot drives. On the other hand, I've also read about people having issues with sleep/wake functions when booting from ExpressCard SSDs. If it's likely to perfect aside from sleep / wake, considering the speedy load times, I may be willing to take the leap and give the sleep function a miss.
Too good to be true?
If so, my plan b is the SeaGate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive, 320-500gb with a 4gb flash:[URL]
Both options look good, just not sure if one would turn out better in reality than the other.
I have a 2010 unibody 15" 2.4ghz core i5 with 4gb ram and a 320gb hdd at present. I use it predominantly for video editing, using FCP, Motion, Nuke and Shake mainly.
As such, I'm interested to improve the setup of my machine by adding an SSD (in express 34 form) or increasing the rpm of the internal to a 7200 (as per the SeaGate). Any ideas which would benefit more?
In my head it makes more sense to go for the SSD as it will relieve the internal hdd from having to deal with running the OS and apps, it can just be used for footage, audio and other media. Not sure if that'll work out in reality though
Quite confused, sorry for the ramblings, if you're still reading - "well done, and thank you!".
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]
I received my 500GB Seagate Momentus XT yesterday and ran some quick and crude benchmarks that I thought I'd share with you guys in case anyone else was thinking of upgrading. Here are my observations.
With Factory Seagate 7200rpm 500GB Drive: ------------------------------------------- Time to boot measured from hitting the power button to when the finder toolbar appeared at the top averaged approximately 40s to 45s.
Running Photoshop CS5 immedately after reboot took approximately 10s.
The above two tests were repeated about 4 or 5 times and were fairly consistent.
With new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive: -------------------------------------------- Time to boot measured from hitting the power button to when the finder toolbar appeared at the top averaged approximately 30s.
Running Photoshop CS5 immedately after reboot took approximately 3s to 5s.
The above two tests were repeated 4 times (sorry I ran out of time to run more) and as expected the first attempt was a little slower than subsequent tests. The times listed above represent the times I was getting after the first reboot.
All in all i'm happy with the improvement, especially when i consider the fact that I still get my 500GB capacity. I wanted an SSD but couldn't bring myself to fork out the money to get a drive with enough capacity to meet my needs.
If you have any questions or want me to run specific tests let me know. Not sure about running battery life tests since my battery-o-meter is all over the place telling me i have anywhere between 2 hours and 8 hours of battery life depending on what i'm doing at any given moment
Does anyone use one of these? I thinking of replacing my Bootcamp HD with a 500gb one of these. An SSD is too pricey for me in larger sizes, so I'm thinking this would be a nice stop-gap until prices are sub �1=1gb. What's it like for noise/speed?
Just bought an eyetv hybrid. I ran it through my dual G5 and sent it back to my tv and wasn't impressed with the video quality. It ran a little better on my new mac mini (I love the mini!!!) but was wondering what kind of performance I would get from the 250 when viewing HD Channels. Can I expect better performance from the 250 on HD channels or are the two models comparable? I noticed that the Hybrid seemed to lag somewhat when there was movement onscreen. Also, will I be able to get Comcast HD channels? I plan on upgrading to HD service soon.[My apologies if this has been addressed: I've searched through some of the threads and I didn't see anything make mention of the HD capability that is now available to 250.]
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.
I just upgraded my 13" Macbook Pro 2.53GHz Mid 2009 to the Momentus XT 500Gb and its pretty quiet, but not practically silent like the original Hitachi 250Gb drive. It sounds like a little fan is going pretty much all the time. I also tried the Western Digital Scorpio Black and it wasn't much quieter. Are there any almost silent (fast would be nice) drives other with 320Gb+ other than SSD? Might there be a hard drive controller or something Apple loads onto their factory drives that makes them quieter?
I am a newbie to Macs. Wanted to know whether or not do we need to install a separate security software for this system (Antivirus, Internet Security, etc)
Some good image editors (free)
And an alternative to Corel Draw Suite on Mac.
A free or paid download manager like IDM for windows.
Any must haves for macs (as are for windows)
Now my transition from the PC to the Mac has made my life really peaceful which was not the case when I used Windows with all the updates, pop ups, antivirus and security management, updation, and system maintenance.
Therefore to make it a bit messy i started googling around for applications and stuff which I would never actually require but would install and tinker around with. I was really confused with the various sources available. Kindly mention a few reliable and updated sources and forums where I could post my Mac specific queries and issues (if there are any) like installing Windows in conjunction with OS X etc.
I have a 2010 MBP with all the trimmings except for a SSD drive. I've been looking at some options but can't seem to figure out what a good brand is since I've never owned/used a SSD before and, therefore, don't know what a good vs crappy brand is. Can anyone recommend a good SSD brand? Also, are there any limitations/restrictions within Mac OS X as far as as size in concerned? So, for example, if I were to get a 1TB SSD drive (I wish) would OS X not recognize it due to its size or is this a non issue?
I am looking for some suggestions for a projector that will run, and hook up smoothly on the Air. I don't need top of the line, but maybe around $700.00 is in the budget so far. I want to be able to show keynote presentations, website demos, and maybe some shorter video clips as well.
PS: I did some digging and wondered if the Optoma EP7150 was a good bet. The street price is around 800.00 (but I found a few that were around 500), and there is a newer model out now so the price should be dipping). 2.8 lbs, 2500:1 contrast ratio, 2,000 lumens... and XGA output. Anyone have any experience with this one?
I recently bought a 15.4� MacBook Pro and am looking for a smart briefcase for my machine. I travel on work frequently and most of my trips are overnight. I would ideally like something that can be expanded, if necessary, to accommodate a pair of clothes. Also, I want to spend minimum time at airport security and want my briefcase to be TSA checkpoint friendly guidelines compliant. Needless to say, it should have lots of pockets to organize my files, power cord, USB drive, business cards, headphones, etc. Does anyone know of a good quality luggage manufacturer that makes such expandable briefs? I don�t mind spending money for a high quality product and a customer service to match.
Like the title says, what are your guy's suggestions for 500GB Internal HDD? I don't mind having 5,400 or 7,200rpm and the cache size (16MB would be enough for me). I read from other people's posts that some HDDs have slower boot time, more power consumption, drive failure, not booting, etc etc.
What is the perfect internal HDD 500GB for Mac? The only one I know is WD Blue Scorpio [URL] but I don't know if it's available around where I live.I am planning to partition 400GB for Mac & 100GB for Windows XP.
I got my MacBook 3 years ago this past december. I had the 3 year protection plan, and of course it expired about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday, my earbuds werent working. They were ancient ipod ones so i figured they were done. I tried my new skullcandy ones, same problem. It sounded crackly, and the audio would cut in and out. It reminded me of an old CD player i had where the jack went bad on it. I tried pulling the plug in and out, a few times i saw the red LED inside of it flash twice as i pulled it out. I tried putting the end of a match inside and slowly turning it, but no luck. In system preferences it shows it switching to headphones, but no sound is coming out of them-not even the normal low hiss you hear from them being on. External speakers work as soon as they're removed.
I called Apple, of course they can't do much if you aren't under warranty- I reset my PRAM and everything, still nothing. I called a mac repair person, he said on my model macbook (Late 2006), the entire logic board would need to be replaced in order for the headset jack to be fixed. I got this answer from another person as well, this would probably run about $500. So as you can guess, I'm pretty frustrated. This was an expensive machine, and as a college student i need headphones to work on my computer. My question now is two fold:.............
I have the Moshi Palmguard/Trackpad cover on my Black MacBook and would like to now protect the keyboard as well. I don't want those shiny marks to start showing up on my space bar. I searched the forums but didn't find any solid suggestions. Can my fellow Blackbook users point me to something I won't regret purchasing?
Does anyone know what the deal is this this drive? Amazon shows "not yet released"; Newegg keeps pushing their ETA date out day by day, and others don't even list it. Newegg has 5 reviews for the drive, though.Has anyone got the inside scoop on when these things will truly become available? I'm trying to hold off bootcamping my new MBP until I can upgrade the HD; the process of cloning a drive with OS X and Win 7 on it looks to be a 2 step process I was hoping to avoid.
Some of you may remember my original post about the Seagate momentus XT and how it was a Hybrid SSHDD (hybrid solid state/hard disk drive) - it had 4GB of onboard flash memory and a 500GB hard drive platter - this allowed you to combine the advantages of both (while loosing a bit of the reliability and resistance to vibration) and have a fast drive with lots of storage. What was stored on the flash memory would be managed by the drive controller to give you best possible performance.
At the time several people (myself included) wondered how much of a performance gain there was.
This video proves a lot: [URL]
So, is anyone reconsidering getting one of these. I tried to with the first batch but they were gone within about 4 hours. (edit: on newegg)
As things are going, I'm definetly planning to put this baby in my macbook pro once i order one (later this year or sometime next year)
Can someone recommend a screen cleaner that I can buy? The one I am currently using leaves marks from the microfiber/lint free towel I use once the solution dries.
For those unaware of what Hybrid SLI is, it allows you to use the integrated and discrete video cards that the higher-end MacBook Pro's come with together simultaneously to get you better performance in graphic-intensive programs and games. I saw an option under the "High Performance" power plan settings that enables Hybrid SLI, but that disappeared after installing the Boot Camp drivers. I found out through a quick Google search that it would be easy to bring the option back, but does the MacBook Pro really support Hybrid SLI now and do you think it would be safe to use it on the MacBook Pro? Hybrid SLI could definitely add a few frames per second when playing games, so it would be a nice addition considering how every MacBook Pro has a mid-range video card.
Newegg has a deal for the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 Hybrid SSD drive for $99.00 The reviews on their site are kind of mix on this drive, but all other sources I have found are positive I did order it, and wanted to pass it along to the group
I have installed a Seagate 1 TB hybrid drive (8gb flash, 2.5", 5400 rpm) in my Mac 8.1 (early 2011 MBP, 16 gb memory), which runs the Yosemite OS. After reading about SSD's and Trim, and the negative effect of Trim disabling upon SSDs after several months, I am wondering if there is a need to enable/disable Trim upon a THD (traditional hd drv) which has 8gb flash for quick booting.?
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Trim and Hybrid HD
I recently bought a new SSHD/Hybrid Drive for my mid-2012 MBP and I plan on installing it. The drive matches all physical requirements to fit inside my laptop, however the issue is on getting OS X to boot on the drive. I was looking into booting from a USB drive as it was the most convenient option for me that I saw while surfing Apple's website. However, in the system's requirement anecdote, it stated that it [the recovery disk file] was incompatible with all Fusion drives, which worried me. I've seen some people state that the Fusion and Hybrid are the same thing, and some say it's not, but in the case they are the same, how will I be able to boot the OS onto it? I am trying to avoid bringing it to the Genius Bar to have it installed, but if I have to, I guess.
