Seagate Momentus 750GB (ST9750420AS) 2.5 inch Notebook Storage Hard drive

[The Sorcerer]

Notebook users like it big- and big they shall get. Manufacturers pretty much started off 500GB but none of them calling it quits, more density in platters, more Storage space and punching it all for notebook drives.


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Very recently, I've received couple of 750GB Notebook drives. As Mentioned on Facebook's "This just arrived" section, one of them is the Seagate Momentus 750GB drive.
Product pics and Specifications:


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 The 16MB Cache on the PCB is made by Winboard and the controller is from LSI. Unlike the Momentus XT 500GB, this one comes with a foam and heat dissipation strip sandwiched between the drive and the PCB. 

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Momentus is packed with features and storage space. This one comes with 0G Sensor on the PCB which senses free falls and hence helps to decrease possibility of data loss. As per Seagate's notes, it detects the free fall before it takes place within nominal drop of 8 inches. This is how "G-Force protection" works. 
 
There's also "Self-Encrypting" but according to this marketing bulletin sheet, this drive doesn't seem to have one.

Self-Encryption works (in a nutshell) by assigning a key on the Hard Drive itself.

You can either use Seagate own DriveTrust API to do so (but once you assign a password/key, there's no Admin section incase you lost it, as mentioned in the whitepapers) or 3rd Party software like TrenMicro's Drive Armour. Momentus series are equipped with one, but according to the screenshot, it seem to be limited till 500GB versions (including OEM versions). Once I receive any official word from Seagate, I'll update the needful.

SmartAlign and Advanced format are another features with this drive. As this is a drive with sector size of 4k instead of the 512 bytes.

If you're looking for a detailed explanation, Seagate whitepapers sums it up! If you're looking for a not-so-layman reason, this helps better areal density and error correction+ reliability level of a hard drive is increased, also helping to getting a more value (Price per GB) and offering higher storage space. However, bear in mind that its the Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 onwards that lets you use this sector size. Using XP with this drive will most likely "emulate" 512byte size sector, but Seagate's hints clear warning as doing so degrades performance significantly.

Long story made short, best to be used with Operating systems from Vista SP1 for windows, OSX Tiger for Mac onwards, automatic alignment takes care of it. Western Digital has their own manual alignment utility for their own drives, both separately being for 32bit and 64bit Oses.

Benchmarks:

Atto Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=65&zx=57oimaa82yej
Write Tests clearly shows the difference between the Momentus and Momentus XT.
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=66&zx=g055ctcmju63

Read Tests shows bit of a difference in most of the file transfer tests.
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AS SSD Write Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=67&zx=yemn8vi438dy
AS SSD Read Benchmark

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=68&zx=pcgbtrugqhq9
AS SSD Copy Benchmark (Speed)
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=72&zx=qu1lokzdirvc
AS SSD Copy Benchmark (Duration)


AS SSD Compression Benchmark
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Crystal Disk Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=69&zx=4ukzexylkhcu
Read Tests

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=70&zx=axx486uv97xa
Write tests
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Aida64 Write Tests

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Aida64 Read Tests

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HD Tune


Write Benchmarks

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HD Tach
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Boot Load Time
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=54&zx=bcn7yabcgz80
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Conclusion
The sequential and Burst rate seem to be a strong point for this drive so far but access time during write test takes a hit. It could be because of the density of the platter. Write Access time and Boot Load time does show a difference as well.

For some, 750GB is a lot of space for a notebook and for some, they rather have have a big enough storage space inside their notebook compared to carrying an external drive. Most of the mid-end notebooks come with a standard (and maybe even lower RPM 5400RPM), so if you're looking for a bigger and faster notebook storage, you can shortlist this drive. Boot Load Time isn't impressive but its not easy to have a 750 gig notebook drive maintaining the thickness of one-size-fits-all-notebook 9.5mm. Plus you're getting Advanced format, Smart Align, G Force protection and Self Encryption. You are getting what you're paying for and it comes with 3 years warranty. Its a recommended drive for using with operating systems like Vista SP1 for windows, OSX Tiger for Mac onwards and certain Linux Oses. There's Western Digital Black Scorpio 750gigs selling for $112.99 and its quicker+ 5 years warranty, so you could also consider this.

Coming down to the price, this is priced at Rs. 5850.