Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I would like to know what do you guys think about this particular hd, the Seagate Momentus Xt 750gb + 8gb Ssd 6gb/s 7200rpm. Is it reliable, and if so, fast enough.

Thanks in advance

Don't have the 750 GB version but I am running with 3 of the 500 GB. For OS and program load it's pretty fast. Definitely faster than your standard 7200 rpm HDD even though it benchmark the same. It took about a week of usage for the firmware to learn the caching pattern. Overall I'm pretty please with it even though it is not as fast as a SSD. Even my T61 with only SATA II capability is noticably faster running a SSD than a the Momentus XT.

For balance of speed and capacity the Seagate is hard to beat. For pure speed a SSD is the way to go. If like me, you're running a second HDD in the Ultrabay, the I'd recommend a SSD.

Thank you cigarguy!

I haven't use one myself, but I've read quite a few reviews of it having problems with hanging, sometimes for 15-30 seconds for no reason. Support will tell you to update the firmware to fix it, but most people experiencing this problem report that the new firmware gives little or no help. My guess is that the firmware is hanging when it tries to decide what data to store on the flash memory.

Some users report they don't have this problem, so it's hard to say what you should do. I think the best option is a separate ssd and hdd (ultrabay), rather then combine them together.

I run a real SSD in my main bay and spinning disk in the UltraBay... I was wary of these hybrid drives but was helping a friend upgrade her computer and purchasing a SSD of suitable capacity for her needs simply wasn't in the budget. I was pleasantly surprised! A fine compromise. I used to be all about WD's Scorpio Black drives, but I will push these going forward if real SSD is not an option.