Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB $135 @ Newegg

I would possibly get this is it wasn't a Seagate, got burned too badly by them when all their drives crapped out in my system not that long ago.

Quote from eoniverse : Think this compares favorably to a velociraptor but in a laptop I think this and the VR will kill battery compared to a ssd. http://www.tomshardware.com/revie...116-7.html

For starters velociraptors require more power than most laptops can output, the drive casing is also too thick. Even if you managed to get past the first two problems you still have to contend with the heat.

Which makes no sense why is everyone comparing this to a VelociRaptor.

I currently use a 64Gb m4 for my linux /root and I need another hdd for my windows 7 partition. I've never used this or the velociraptor. I use a desktop. Does anyone recommend the velociraptor and is it fast?

Quote from sgrinavi : No where near as fast as a quality SSD - but it is faster than a regular hard drive for redundant tasks. IMO it's worth a few extra bucks if you can't afford an SSD for your boot drive. EDIT: I'm using mine as a data drive in a drive caddy and really didn't notice any difference in speed from my previous "regular" 7200 RPM drive.

you are correct, you will not notice a difference unless you use it as your boot drive. I almost halved my boot time, and I noticed the time coming in and out hibernation has decreased significantly.

Quote from calc : For starters velociraptors require more power than most laptops can output, the drive casing is also too thick. Even if you managed to get past the first two problems you still have to contend with the heat. Which makes no sense why is everyone comparing this to a VelociRaptor.

what? i have a velociraptor and it runs cooler than my samsung F3's lol

i doubt taking it off the giant heatsink would make that much of a difference

Quote from Ranelar : My friend got a 500gb one and swears by it as the #1 thing that made his computer feel faster. I considered getting one, but decided to go for SSD instead. It was a tough choice.. this is really great for people on a budget who want to give new life to their laptop and can't install 2 drives. However, If you CAN install 2 drives (like remove your DVD player and buy a drive caddy) it would be even better to get a 128gb SSD for $100, then move your old HDD to be a storage drive.

I cloned my 3 month old WD 5400. It cut 10-11 seconds off my boot time. That was the 500gb version. All I did was shutdowns and browsing on a first gen i3. It's perfect for 1hdd when you need over 120gb. If you don't need more than that then get a ssd since they are coming down lately. It's a great hdd and it really Improved my laptop.

Quote from zores : what? i have a velociraptor and it runs cooler than my samsung F3's lol i doubt taking it off the giant heatsink would make that much of a difference

You're comparing a desktop setup to an enclosed laptop....?

I don't believe the "heatsink" does much cooling, but IF you can manage to overcome the two previous issues i mentioned the HDD space inside an enclosed laptop is very tight with next to zero airflow compared to a desktop.

The VelociRaptor was never marketed to be used inside a laptop, and as such completely irrelevant to this thread.

Got this last month to breath life into my 2009 HP Pavilion Core 2 Duo laptop. Now it performs faster in some tasks than my 2011 Quad core AMD. Boot is faster, loading apps is faster. Video processing is still faster on the quad core. I should post a YouTube of boot time vs. my Macbook air i5 with Win7 loaded. It's about the same load times.

Both my wife and I are running the XT 500GB version of this as well in our MBP and have to say they feel quick to boot and faster than the regular 7200rpm drives we tried before. Both of firmware SD28. I believe you needed to do the update in a PC environment (Parallels/Fusion/Bootcamp). Both have been running fine. NOT as fast as an SSD obviously.

For us the next step will be to "downsize" and go back to 256 GB but full SSD. Put all the images and music you don't need everyday on an external drive and then go SSD if you can afford it. Otherwise, the XT drives are a great compromise in between. Regular programs open much faster.

Don't forget free shipping with shoprunner.

I'd love to get one of these for an HTPC; nice to see HD prices finally coming down to reasonable levels.

Quote from WhyGog : I'd love to get one of these for an HTPC; nice to see HD prices finally coming down to reasonable levels.

How would this be of benefit to an HTPC? Speed increases would be negligible at best in that environment.

Quote from colonelcasey : How would this be of benefit to an HTPC? Speed increases would be negligible at best in that environment.

I have an SSD for the boot drive in my HTPC. It boots super fast. Almost instantaneous loading of FF for getting to netflix. Generally feels more responsive. Generates almost no heat to keep fan noise to a minimum in a very small specialty case.

If this single drive increases responsiveness to a level closer to an SSD AND gives you a good amount of storage for video recordings where space is an issue for slightly more than a 1TB 5400 RPM drive, I'd say it's worth the money.

I think the main reason for a drive like is for those who want speed of SSD (or close to), and want huge storage for cheap like a regular HDD. SSD is still expensive, well at least to those who want 500GB+ but can't afford.