Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[duffer6]

I have the 750GB XT2 and it is rock solid.  No issues at all.  The additional 4GB of Nand for a total of 8GB makes this thing rock.  I am using it with my late 2011 MacBook Pro and I can safely say it is the perfect drive for me.  

1)Temps are lower overall with this drive, system and HD temps

2) Boot time is under 19 seconds and applications are sometimes so quick I can't even measure them

3) No sleep issues, no beeps, no elevated noise

4) Read write speeds are faster ( I believe due to the SATA III connection)

5) No data lags, system has not experienced any slow downs, lags, stutters, etc.

Overall I am a very happy camper.  Please feel free to post if you have a question.  I will do my best to answer.  Please keep in mind I am not overly technical and I don't work for Seagate so please receive my responses accordingly. 

[WiseDrive]

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duffer6 wrote:

  I am using it with my late 2011 MacBook Pro and I can safely say it is the perfect drive for me.  

2) Boot time is under 19 seconds and applications are sometimes so quick I can't even measure them

4) Read write speeds are faster ( I believe due to the SATA III connection)

5) No data lags, system has not experienced any slow downs, lags, stutters, etc.

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The key to compatibility is late generation (recent) hardware and software.

Can you post the version (including most recent updates) of your OS?

Also... what applications... and what sort of speed improvements are there in actual use vs. a conventional drive?

How long have you given the "adaptive learning" to learn?

Please also tell us how you did the physical installation.. how long it took.. any tricks.. etc.

[duffer6]

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WiseDrive wrote:

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duffer6 wrote:

  I am using it with my late 2011 MacBook Pro and I can safely say it is the perfect drive for me.  

2) Boot time is under 19 seconds and applications are sometimes so quick I can't even measure them

4) Read write speeds are faster ( I believe due to the SATA III connection)

5) No data lags, system has not experienced any slow downs, lags, stutters, etc.

---

The key to compatibility is late generation (recent) hardware and software.

Can you post the version (including most recent updates) of your OS?

Also... what applications... and what sort of speed improvements are there in actual use vs. a conventional drive?

How long have you given the "adaptive learning" to learn?

Please also tell us how you did the physical installation.. how long it took.. any tricks.. etc.

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1. Version of my OS is Mac OS 10.7.2

2. Apps are MS office (word, excel, powerpoint) with standard HDD launch times averaged 11-17 seconds with the XT2 they are all under 4 seconds. Photoshop was the biggest change with a standard HDD I averaged 27 seconds now with the XT2 I am always under 8 seconds or less.  Iphoto, mail and Ical are so fast that I can't even measure them, they all launch within one bounce of the icon in the dock.

3. I would say the adaptive learning is optimized in 5 to 7 days depending on your use.  I recommend that for the first 24 hours reboot your system 4-5 times to get the cache written to the NAND.

4. I did a clean install and used the Apple Migration Tool to import all of my data from my former drive which was a XT1.  I highlly recommend you use the migration tool versus cloning one drive to the other.  I find that

my drive is much faster and prone to less issues when I use the migration tool from Apple.

The physical installation was easy for me on the MacBook Pro.  I had the old one removed and the new one installed in under 10  minutes.  The current Macbooks are designed to have the end user upgrade the HD so for me it was as easy as Apple made it.

[KrypteX]

Can you do a comparison in terms of speed and behavior between the XT1 and XT2 ?

[duffer6]

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KrypteX wrote:

Can you do a comparison in terms of speed and behavior between the XT1 and XT2 ?

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Sure.  What exactly would you like to see.  I have read write benchmarks of both the XT1 and XT2 as well as app and boot times.  Let me know what you want to see.

[WiseDrive]

Don't bother with the benchmarks.

Do an actual use (e.g. loading OS, etc.) test.

Do things your normally do with your computer.

[KrypteX]

duffer6, give the data as you consider it to be appropriate (XT1 vs XT2). Thanks. For me a test and a benchmark sounds the same. (Edited: Please be courteous.)

[WiseDrive]

UPS just brought 2 spanking new XT2 750Gb to my desk.

Test results... etc. will have to wait a few days... as I am backed up solid.

[duffer6]

Keep in mind that your drive will get quicker and quicker over a two week period.  Also the benchmarking I did with Quickbench 4.0 maybe faulty due to the onboard memory not being used.  Hostely though I am truly enjoying the XT2 and it has been rock solid for me.  It has peformed perfectly for me under heavy use including video editing. Lastly I feel like the issues that some had with the XT1 are a thing of the past with this drive.  I too had a few minor issues with the XT1 (minor, no where near the issues some have had) and I can say this drive does not show any sign of the previous XT1 issues (major or minor) 

If you would like more info feel free to ask!!!!

Boot Times: (Average of 5x)	XT2*	XT1*
Startup	19 seconds	34 seconds
MS Word	4 seconds	11 seconds
Adobe PS	6.9 seconds	27 seconds
Iphoto	4.1 seconds	13 seconds
Safari	3.9 seconds	14 seconds
Shutdown	14 seconds	24 seconds

 *This is under MacOS 10.7.2 with a 2011 MacBook Pro 2.4 with 8g of ram

Here is my read, write speed test with QuickBench (take this one with a grain of salt) the on board memory is not used for this portion of the benchmarking so this is like comparing a standard 7200rpm HDD to the XT2

Info	Drive	Mac OS	SoftWare Test
5 Cycle Test	XT2	10.7.2	QuickBench 4.0
Transfer Size	SeqRead	SeqWrite	RandRead	RandWrite
4 KB	14.073	12.962	0.75	2.546
8 KB	21.358	28.103	1.644	4.592
16 KB	40.706	55.579	3.119	8.152
32 KB	72.557	86.737	5.892	13.205
64 KB	93.449	155.445	11.711	24.024
128 KB	76.5	188.768	21.834	48.909
256 KB	111.428	238.08	39.719	93.004
512 KB	199.75	360.522	37.754	67.125
1024 KB	431.692	348.034	69.74	83.349
Standard Ave	117.946	163.803	21.352	38.323

[WiseDrive]

Impressive and thanks for doing the homework.

Based on my read of your data --- the improvement in performance going from XT1 to XT2 is considerable on actual usage.

If you can, what I would like you to run is the identical usage test with a SSD --- a moderately priced, mid grade SSD that is as close to a "direct competitor" as the XT2.

Yes, no real SSD is, as none would offer that much capacity --- but lets do a 120gb and see.

I am willing to bet you that the apps / boots will not be that much faster with the SSD.

The limiting factor may be the interfaces (SATA 3) rather than the drives.

Which brings it to another point.... what is the benefit of a superfast SSD that just overloads the interfaces?

I would love to hook up an interface analyzer to see what the XT2 is actually pushing through the SATA --- noting that most will be connected to SATA 3 and not SATA 6 interfaces.