Seagate Momentus XT upgrade?

[hhmcsv]

I'm very happy about my present T60, which runs very stable and serves my needs fine. However, even though I am glad about a start-up time of 80secs. (from touching the start button to my Google Calendar is loaded in Firefox) I am inspired about several threads reporting on better performance using the hybrid Seagate Momentus XT drive. I would be considering the 250Gb version, as I am not in a very big need for more storage space. However, I would be very interested in hearing about actual experiences using the Seagate drive.

1. What improvement can I expect in the start-up time, 30secs. would be nice, but is that realistic?
2. In some forums there have been reported issues using the Momentus XT, some have experienced BSOD out of the blue, and others report crashes using Lenovo Toolbox. Are these issues a risk on my T60?
3. The hybrid drive is also reported to affect battery time, how much decrease in battery up-time can I expect (I'm using a 9-cell battery at present, having 3-4 hrs operation)?

[jdrou]

I haven't done any actual measurements but I haven't noticed any significant change after upgrading to a 500GB Momentus XT in my Precision M4400. I haven't tried the new Seagate firmware update released this month yet though (SD24). After I update the firmware I'll time the boot and then swap the old disk back in and time that.

[Worzyl]

I have a 250GB Momentus XT in my T60p. To be honest with, my last harddrive wasn't really that great to begin with. I was also using winxp and am now using win 7 (not sure if that makes any difference). I've currently used around 38GB and haven't had any problems so far.
The 30 seconds mark seems about right, but I will also time it.

[kaczart]

I'm also looking for some reviews from thinkpads t60/t60p users. I'd like to swap my old samsung 320GB for seagate XT 500GB. I have t60p 2613-CTO. I read about a lot of issues with this drive working in lenovo notebooks, but nothing special information about T60 series.

What about AHCI compatibility?

I'll runing it on WIN7 pro with a lot of programming/engineering/bussiness applications, what do you think? is it worth it?

ps. SSD (>120 GB) + HDD in bb slot are to expensive for me

[Tasurinchi]

ps. SSD (>120 GB) + HDD in bb slot are to expensive for me

Do you need such a large SSD if you will have 500GB in the ultrabay? I'm asking because I had the same dilemma a while ago. I personally did find that the price of the 500GB Momentus XT was slightly lower than an combination of 60GB to 80GB SSD and a standard 500GB HD.

So at the end I opted for an 80GB Intel SSD and a 500GB Samsung HD. A smaller SSD would also do the job but there was an action for that Intel model at that moment.

My 0,02 cents...

[kaczart]

90-100 GB it's minimum what I need on C partition (windows + all apps)

Prices in Poland:

Intel SSD 120GB ~280USD
HDD 500GB ~70 USD

Seagate XT 500GB ~160USD

[mrybczyn]

Get an 80 or smaller SSD, and keep windows plus just the apps you need to be fast on, it, and the rest of your apps on D:\