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Seagate Momentus XT STAN500200
by clarkjames
Hybrid drives are an interesting proposal, billed as the perfect blend of low cost space (HDD) and high speed cache (SSD), but the reality isn't as interesting.
The drive is 500gb, which is modest by today's standards but plentiful for a laptop drive. You only get 4gb of SSD cache, which is constantly being filled with your ... most used files and programs- in theory this means that your most used files will open quicker, and it would work if you used the same programs again and again, but for my usage pattern where i'm using lots of different programs it never gets to learn what I really need to be committed to SSD- and you have no way of controlling the space manually.
Despite this it's actually a very speedy drive, being 7200rpm rather than 5400rpm and having a hghly dense platter.
I have had zero issues with this drive, and it runs much quieter than my old drive, faster, and has twice the storage. The drive occasionally 'chirps', although this sounds bad it's actually nothing to worry about, and I think it might be isolated to the older macbook pro that I use the drive in.
Don't expect SSD like speed, but worth considering over a standard 500gb drive if you don't want to go for an SSD. Recommended
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Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750 GB
by rockinrach08
** Intro **
A few months ago my hard drive (Western Digital) died on me out of the blue even though I had only had it for 6 months (the previous one broken by me dropping my laptop). I still don't know what happened but I've never been more grateful to have my back-up computer. However, the hard drive failure was a painful reminder ... that I should back my data up more often. I took to researching different drives and prices before choosing this drive. I was on a bit of a tight budget as I was not prepared for such an eventuality. However, this drive offered the best specs for the price and all from a trusted company.
** Specs **
This is an internal 2.5" hard drive. This is the size used in products such as laptops and games consoles. It has a capacity of 750GB. This is more than enough space for most computer users.
It has a data transfer rate of 300MBps and a buffer size of 16MB. The buffer size is the amount of RAM on the drive which translates to larger buffer size equals faster performance. I was wanting a 32MB buffer size but I was not successful in this. However, this was more of a want than a need. It has a spindle speed of 7200rpm. This is the largest factor in the performance of the drive, with larger speeds producing the better performance. However, with higher speeds comes more heat and noise. However, I have not noticed any increase in heat or noise with this hard drive.
It also has 'Seagate G-Force Protection' which is designed to detect when your laptop is falling to protect the hard drive and prevent loss of data. I haven't dropped my laptop yet (touch wood) so I can't comment on this, and I am not going to test this for the sake of a review.
** Installing and Performance **
This hard drive is slightly better than my old drive. I have noticed a slight improvement in speeds without any increase in heat or noise. I can throw a lot at the drive without slowing it down too much. I am definitely pleased with my purchase.
It was easy to replace (though I was glad to not have to unscrew and screw all those little laptop screws for a while). It was a case of removing the old drive and inserting the new one. Once installed, I verified in the BIOS that it recognised the drive and then it was just a case of installing Windows 7. I keep meaning to add a Linux partition to my laptop but other reviews tell me that it dual boots no problem.
** Recommendation **
This hard drive performs well, I have no issue with heat or noise and so far no issues with it just dying on me like my old hard drive. I would recommend this hard drive to anyone looking for a well-priced hard drive. Comparatively, it offers good specs for the price when compared to models in similar price ranges.
** Price and Availability **
This hard drive is currently £62.89 on Amazon and on Ebuyer for £67.26. The drive is available from other online retailers for around the same price. And places such as Ebuyer offer free delivery.
** Overall **
Overall, if you are looking to replace your laptops hard drive for whatever reason than I would recommend this drive. It offers decent specs for the price compared to other drives in a similar price range and it is from a trusted company. I have noticed that I have improved speeds without compromising noise and heat.
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Seagate Momentus ST9500423AS
by TheGoodSurveyer
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=== Purpose of Purchase ===
I previously had my main notebook hard drive from Hitachi, which the Acer Aspire notebook came with. The hard drive worked fine for a number of years, before Windows 7 became available. Installing Windows 7 showed a few problems with the out-dated BIOS firmware, and the hard ... drive. I wasn't aware if the hard drive required resetting it as an MBR volume, and reformatting, or if the hard drive physically was unable to meet the demands of Windows. The Windows Upgrade Advisor was pretty useless as always, and showed no problems. I re-read the technical specifications and found it to have only eight megabytes of buffer, which clearly suggested it was too slow to keep up to the new operating system's demands. This resulted in the system completely freezing.
I was looking for a replacement, which would ideally have a thirty two megabytes buffer size. I wasn't successful in finding one with thirty two megabytes, but I did find a Seagate hard drive with sixteen megabytes buffer size. I was quite certain that if I replaced the hard drive; it would fix the system hanging fault, because I always saw the hard disk working very hard in Windows 7. The hard disk indicator didn't just flash regularly, it would stay on continuously until the system froze. The BIOS firmware wasn't related to that problem.
=== Purchase & Use ===
I compared the prices on many stores and sellers online, before I decided to purchase the Seagate Momentus for close to a hundred pounds, which was the best price at the time. The hard drive now costs half the amount. I installed Windows 7 on the new hard drive, installed all the drivers and used it for a while in trial mode to make sure it works before registering, because I only had a one PC licence and didn't want to waste it on a system that it may not work on.
Using Windows 7 for a few weeks, showed no signs of the previous problem- where the system used to freeze. I knew I made the right choice in purchasing the new hard drive, and with the new higher capacity I multi-booted the system with Linux.
=== Features & Comparison to the Hitachi HDD ===
When compared to the Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00, the Seagate Momentus has about a third the seek time, which gives the computer a much faster access to the hard drive than on the Hitachi. The buffer size is double and the capacity is much higher, which allows more storage, is better for multi-booting, and allows faster interaction between the hard drive and RAM.
The real performance difference for applications is the double data transfer rate, as compared to the Hitachi, which only has a hundred and fifty megabits per second. The Seagate Momentus has a very small difference in noise emissions, which is two decibels lower than the Hitachi. The Seagate Momentus has a twenty five decibel noise output during seek, and twenty three decibels while idle.
=== Current use ===
Although it's been a few years since purchasing the hard drive, it's still the main drive on my Acer notebook, and continues to give very good performance. I only defragment the hard drive monthly using Defraggler, which is sufficient to restore the hard drive's performance to its best. There are however some tasks, which put strain on the hard drive. This makes a temporary, but noticeable reduction in its performance.
I don't have any reason to upgrade the notebook hard drive to SSD right now, but I don't think technology will have much room for the old notebook in a few years' time. When that time comes; the hard drive can be used for backup and storage purposes.
=== Should you buy it? ===
If not for performance, the hard drive is quite cheap and is worth buying for additional storage on a notebook. On many notebooks it's possible to add extra internal storage, which there maybe space for by default, or you may need to take out the optical drive. The option of external storage is better in my opinion, because you can easily unplug the device and reduce power consumption. This is especially useful if you're operating a notebook in battery mode.
=== My Conclusion ===
This two point five inch hard drive is the best hard drive of its size I've purchased so far, and has shown great performance for everyday computing. A monthly defragmentation is good enough to ensure the hard drive is de-cluttered, and the performance is restored. Therefore, if you're looking to save money and invest in a good hard drive for a notebook, or for external storage; I recommend the Seagate Momentus.
I give it an average five star for performance in a de-cluttered Windows 7 environment, and top five stars for its performance in Linux. The Linux operating system start-up is roughly twice the speed of Windows, from cold boot, and very similar performance from a restart.
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