Seagate Momentus XT 500GB - Good Deal?

[Paladin5]

Newegg has the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Hybrid Drive for only $90 which looks like a pretty good deal to me. Now, I don't know too much about hard drives but I've ready a fair number of (generally positive) reviews of the product. Is the Momentus XT a better better choice than a cheap ($100) SATA 6.0 GB/s HDD? Or should I wait for a good sale on a 6.0 Gb/s? I've read that 6.0 GB/s doesn't mean much for non-SSD's, is that true?

Here's my build:

CPU: Intel i5 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Z68 ATX
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB
Video Card: Gigiabyte Ultra Durable VGA Series GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD 6850
Case: HAF 912
Power: Corsair Builder Series 600 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU Fan: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO

Sometime in the future, I'd like to get a SSD to run my OS/cache off of but I don't really have the budget to buy both a HDD and SSD at the moment (plus waiting will hopefully improve their price and reliability).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well, the Momentus XT 750GB review on the AT main page a couple days ago had comparisons between it, the 500GB version, and a couple of higher-ish end desktop drives. It should give you the info you want on performance.

Here it is: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5160/seagate-2nd-generation-momentus-xt-750gb-hybrid-hdd-review

You're correct that SATA3 / 6.0 won't matter over 3.0 for non-SSD drives.

But IMHO, if you're looking to buy an HDD now to use as a media drive later, I'm thinking longer term. I'd probably get a 1TB+ non-hybrid drive, deal with the slightly slower performance, and enjoy the larger storage capacity after the SSD upgrade.

 

[Concillian]

At it's current price ($139 with $50 promo code) at newegg, the Momentus XT 500GB is not a bad deal.

Otherwise, I generally consider caching via OCZ synapse or Intel SRT to be superior. With a z68 chipset, SRT is an option for you. A 32GB SSD + regular 3.5" SATA drive using Intel SRT will likely offer better overall performance than Momentus XT.

With SRT, you can get a platter drive now, then add a caching SSD later. for this you can take your time to watch FS / FT for a used 32 or 64GB drive at a good price, then grab it when it comes up and add it ass your caching drive for more performance.

 

[allthatisman]

At it's current price ($139 with $50 promo code) at newegg, the Momentus XT 500GB is not a bad deal.

Otherwise, I generally consider caching via OCZ synapse or Intel SRT to be superior. With a z68 chipset, SRT is an option for you. A 32GB SSD + regular 3.5" SATA drive using Intel SRT will likely offer better overall performance than Momentus XT.

With SRT, you can get a platter drive now, then add a caching SSD later. for this you can take your time to watch FS / FT for a used 32 or 64GB drive at a good price, then grab it when it comes up and add it ass your caching drive for more performance.

+1 to this.

I've had 2 different Momentus XT's and wasn't impressed much by them. I personally felt that a Velociraptor was about equal in performance, but was at least consistant. I can't speak for SRT or the Synapse, but based on several reviews I've read, the "real world" speed tests proved they work fairly consistently, and with SSD-like results.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I like the Momentus XT, and that is a good price, with a good warranty as well. If you ever get an SSD, it will make a good storage drive or laptop drive.

If anything, it's the least amount of physical space+power to get anything higher than spinning disk performance without paying for an SSD.

 

[Paladin5]

At this rate, the hard drive choice is going to be the hardest selection so far...

I like the Momentus XT, and that is a good price, with a good warranty as well. If you ever get an SSD, it will make a good storage drive or laptop drive.

If anything, it's the least amount of physical space+power to get anything higher than spinning disk performance without paying for an SSD.

I do have plenty of hard drive bays on my machine so I can always add another HDD if I need more storage. I've got 1600GB on my old machine and I'm only using 100 GB so I probably don't need too much capacity.

Otherwise, I generally consider caching via OCZ synapse or Intel SRT to be superior. With a z68 chipset, SRT is an option for you. A 32GB SSD + regular 3.5" SATA drive using Intel SRT will likely offer better overall performance than Momentus XT.

With SRT, you can get a platter drive now, then add a caching SSD later. for this you can take your time to watch FS / FT for a used 32 or 64GB drive at a good price, then grab it when it comes up and add it ass your caching drive for more performance.

I would love to SRT but I'm not sure if my budget can cover the cost right now. I've got about $115 budgeted for the hard drive and I really would rather not go over it. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be too much information about SRT setups out there.

Does SRT take advantage of SATA III (6 Gb/s)? Or would I just stick to SATA II (3 Gb/s)? Intel's are just SATA II. How about cache size? I've read that SRT can't take advantage of anything larger than 64 Gb but I haven't found any good performance comparisons besides Anandtech's (and that was pretty a draw.

For the price of a HDD+SSD though, I could afford a 120GB SSD and use my USB external hard drive for extra storage. I'm very confused at the moment...

Edit: Someone on another forum just pointed out that I can get a
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for $110. It's within budget and I could buy a cache later for it. Any thoughts?

 

[LokutusofBorg]

$90 for the Momentus XT is pretty much pre-flood prices. $110 for an F3 is not even close to pre-flood prices. I bought an XT for my wife's laptop about 6 weeks ago for $115, I think. I didn't think prices would come back down for a while so I went ahead with it. The price might be coming back down on the XT so quickly because of the new XT model being released.

The XT is a great drive for a laptop. Not so great for a desktop (for reasons already given in the thread). If you can repurpose it later then that's a good deal on it right now, IMO.

 

[Denithor]

Personally I'd go for the SSD now for the laptop and use an external drive for storage. Especially because flood prices have jacked up the HDD market but not SSDs...

 

[Paladin5]

Thanks for all the advice. I decided to go with the Momentus XT, at least as an interim solution. If I can pick up a decent size SSD later on a nice sale, I can put my OS and most used programs on it. And, if I do end up needing more storage, I can buy a HDD when the prices normalize and use the SSD as a cache. The Momentus XT would probably make a good external HDD.

 

[Todd33]

I ordered one for my PS3, I have been watching them bounce around $120-$150 for a while, so this was a good deal. Thanks OP.

Now to find a cheap SSD for my laptop

 

[fatpolomanjr]

Ah dang, my fiancee needs a new HDD, and I've been thinking about getting her a hybrid drive, so this deal would be perfect. But she mentioned an SSD would be a great Valentine's gift, of which she would not settle for anything less than 160GB due to her refusal to using external storage for anything. X(

I survive happily and fantastically with my 80GB Intel G2 and an external HDD. grrrr

 

[kmmatney]

Thanks for all the advice. I decided to go with the Momentus XT, at least as an interim solution. If I can pick up a decent size SSD later on a nice sale, I can put my OS and most used programs on it. And, if I do end up needing more storage, I can buy a HDD when the prices normalize and use the SSD as a cache. The Momentus XT would probably make a good external HDD.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I think that's a great deal. My 500GB XT has served me well, first as a laptop drive, and then re-purposed in my son's desktop. I had it in my laptop, but it didn't quite give me that "SSD" performance that I wanted. But I am usually running several virtual machines and don't have a common usage pattern. However it has worked great in my son's desktop, and really does give close to SSD performance for his usage pattern. I see no problems at all using this in a desktop, and at this price you can't go wrong, IMO.