Hybrid Drive (Momentus XT) vs Standard 7200rpm HDD (Scorpio Black)

[Ub3R_aP3]

Hi there,

I have a bit of a dilemma, I've read reviews comparing the Momentus XT's to normal SSD's and normal HDD's and the general consensus is that after they've gotten used to your file reading habits they run almost as fast as SSD's, I've then also read that relying on the SSD can cause you to wait on spin-up times and for lots of disk writing actually be slower than a normal HDD.

The difference between the 750gb Scorpio and the 750gb Momentus is £51 - SATA III - 32mb cache over 16mb

The last point is quite interesting for me, I think that by having a larger cache the Momentus will be better than the Scorpio based purely on that yet I've heard differing opinions.

Here's the spec of the laptop:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3820QM (2.70GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM (PRE-ORDER, ETA END OF MAY)
Hard Disk
Here's the question
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
Carry Case
TARGUS XL CITY GEAR 16" - 17.3" LAPTOP CASE TCG417 (£43)
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days

Price: £1530 w/ Scorpio £1581 w/ Momentus
The main use will be extreme gaming so I suspect the answer from you guys will be Momentus.

 

[MadMan]

Yeah i'd select the Momentus as its faster than a caviar black.

 

[Wozza63]

the hybrid is much faster, it has a 4GB SSD cache as well as the 16mb standard cache

 

[Ub3R_aP3]

I thought it would turn out this way, especially with the 750gb as all the problems the 500gb had seem to have been ironed out.

Also, if the SSD ever does break I still have a standard 750gb HDD with a 32mb cache.

So there we have it, I'll be ordering my £1500 laptop soon

 

[Troublesum]

Hi, have you considered getting a 750gb Scorpio with the 20gb SSD Cache drive, that should be faster then the 750gb hybrid HDD on its own

 

[Benadiction]

Hey I've been having the same thoughts, found this nifty graph though which helped me decide on the Hybird 750GB.

 

[marvir]

What about the Hybrid as a 2nd HDD? Would it make a difference in performance if I was using it purely as a storage drive vs the Scorpio?

 

[Limpduck]

depends on what you going to use it for, if its just general documents etc then go with a slower but cheaper drive.

if getting into a game a couple of seconds faster is important to you go for the faster drive.

Personally i have gone for a 240gb ssd and the 750gb momentus, but i want to the 750gb as a decent scratch disk for photoshop and video work.