W520 and *9.7*mm thickHDD (Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid)

[davidhbrown]

EDIT/UPDATE: The consensus / inside info is that the 9.7mm info is a typo; both versions of this drive are the usual 9.5mm

EDIT/UPDATE #2: I bought the drive; it's 9.5mm; fits fine. Sorry the thread wouldn't die faster (Feb 13).

I'm considering replacing a platter-only HDD in my W520 (primary drive bay) with the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid drive. However, it's 9.7mm thick rather than the usual 9.5 (Newegg's site is wrong, btw... Seagate's own page says 9.7). I'm guessing that the extra 0.2mm won't bother a full-size notebook, but I thought I'd ask first and see whether anyone here has tried a drive with that thickness. Not sure I could accurately measure to a tenth of a mm.

(Forum won't let me search for 9.5 or 9.7 'cause they're too short... "HDD thick" and "HDD thickness" didn't turn anything up.)

Thanks much.

[jayton4]

I'm considering replacing a platter-only HDD in my W520 (primary drive bay) with the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid drive. However, it's 9.7mm thick rather than the usual 9.5 (Newegg's site is wrong, btw... Seagate's own page says 9.7). I'm guessing that the extra 0.2mm won't bother a full-size notebook, but I thought I'd ask first and see whether anyone here has tried a drive with that thickness. Not sure I could accurately measure to a tenth of a mm.

It is a standard size drive that fits in standard size laptop bays. Here is a website that actually used the W520 for a very thorough review of the drive:
http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_mo ... 0gb_review

(Forum won't let me search for 9.5 or 9.7 'cause they're too short... "HDD thick" and "HDD thickness" didn't turn anything up.)

Try searching on google. Type in the search box: site:forums.thinkpads.com 9.7

[tpribors]

According to this site:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/

he Momentus drive is a standard 9.5mm z-height. Can you point where it says 9.7?

[davidhbrown]

Thanks for the suggestions and links, Jayton. Clearly the folks doing the raid 0 review had no problems getting it to fit. They also printed the 9.5mm height. Wonder if maybe Seagate found a way to shrink it back to standard in production.

tpribors, the page I'm looking at is http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... ifications

This is specifically the height of the 750GB Hybrid drive -- have to click on that in the upper part of the page after it loads. Both the 500GB hybrid drive and the non-hybrid drives to which you linked are all 9.5mm.

[jayton4]

tpribors, the page I'm looking at is http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... ifications

I think that might be a typo. If you go into the Product Manual for the 750GB Momentus XT, it says .37 inches plus or minus .008 inches. On the product specs page that you link, it says the height in inches is .378, which converts to the 9.7mm.

[davidhbrown]

Sounds like a reasonable explanation; thanks. I think I must have had in the back of my mind issues with 12mm drives some people had back around 2009 or something like that. Still, I would rather be too cautious than buy a $200 upgrade I can't actually use! Sounds like there should be no problem.

[Alejandro Audisio]

Will you be replacing your primary HDD with this Seagate XT.... ie. will you be booting from this drive..? Will there be no error message or other non-Lenovo issues every time you boot... maybe this was something with the older T series machines....

Thanks.

[tpribors]

tpribors, the page I'm looking at is http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... ifications

This is specifically the height of the 750GB Hybrid drive -- have to click on that in the upper part of the page after it loads. Both the 500GB hybrid drive and the non-hybrid drives to which you linked are all 9.5mm.

The spec sheet here also says 9.5.

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datashe ... tus_xt.pdf

The Momentus XT is a hybrid version that uses a different PCBA on the same HDA as the standard 750GB drive.

Once again, provide a specific URL that states 9.7mm.

I have one in my system (W520) and it works great.

[davidhbrown]

Once again, provide a specific URL that states 9.7mm.

Hey, I'm not trying to pick a fight here; the URL I provided does say 9.7mm if you click on the 750GB information to switch between hidden and visible layers. Here's some of the HTML source code:

Code: Select all

                <div id="TabContentSpecifications" class="tabContent selfClear">
                    <div id="specTab">
                        <div class="contentChannel withSidebarSecondary">
                            <div class="productDetail noImage">
                                <!-- <img src="/pics/retail/product-shots/cheetah-drive.jpg" alt="Cheetah Drive" class="product" /> -->

                                <h3>Momentus&reg; XT 6Gb/s 750GB Hard Drive</h3>
                                <h4>ST750LX003</h4>
                                <!-- <p></p> -->
                            </div>
                            
                            <table class="specifications">
                                <tbody>
[...]                                    
                                    <tr>
                                        <td>Height (maximum)</td>
                                        <td>9.70mm (0.378 in)</td>
                                    </tr>

Glad to hear it's just a typo on that page.

[tpribors]

I think that might be a typo. If you go into the Product Manual for the 750GB Momentus XT, it says .37 inches plus or minus .008 inches. On the product specs page that you link, it says the height in inches is .378, which converts to the 9.7mm.

1" = 25.4mm

.37*25.4 = 9.398mm = ~9.4mm

.378*25.4= 9.6012

9.5/25.4 = .3740

9.7/25.4 = .382


No matter what math you do it doesn't work. I will make sure the right people are notified of this. I'm pretty sure it is an error.

[tranquility]

hi all, here is the screenshot of the page, also stays 9.70 mm
i'm also curious if it's typo. did someone used it on w520? especially in 2nd drive caddy

[tpribors]

hi all, here is the screenshot of the page, also stays 9.70 mm
i'm also curious if it's typo. did someone used it on w520? especially in 2nd drive caddy

It's a switch from nominal (on the 500GB) to maximum (on the 750GB). But even then the math does not work. It's confusing a lot of people and I'm trying to get it fixed.

[http302]

Will .2mm (the thickness of ONE SHEET of 20 lb. paper!) really make a difference in the mounting bumpers or in the UltraBay ODD tray?

Making a mountain out of a mole hill, ya'll.

[cowboy8]

I've read somewhere that after installing the 9.5mm HD in the caddy-then theres still room..but It wasnt me that wrote the review so i cant tell for sure.
I guess even if its a typo- dont get it. or just contact the company itself [the manufacturer] and ask them directly for the right specs of the hard drive...

[jayton4]

I guess even if its a typo- dont get it. or just contact the company itself [the manufacturer] and ask them directly for the right specs of the hard drive...

The bottom line is that the drive fits, no matter what data sheets say. Contacting Seagate is not going to change the fact of whether or not the drive is going to fit.

Making a mountain out of a mole hill, ya'll.

You got that right! +1


This is the person that has figured it all out:

It's a switch from nominal (on the 500GB) to maximum (on the 750GB).

[tpribors]

This is the person that has figured it all out:

A little birdie tells me the web site should be correct now.