Accelerate PS3's Speed with Seagate's Momentus XT (Review)

"When one speaks on the performance of a computing machine, whether it’s a laptop or desktop, the main topics of discussion often relate to the processor, graphics processing unit, and RAM. While all three of these components undoubtedly play a large role in the performance of a computer, the speed and technology of one’s hard drive is just as important."

-TheGamerAccess.com

[mbsaeger]

Great to see high speed drives becoming more popular, and seeing the amazing speed increases that it comes with!

[Venjense]

I would exactly call the speed gains amazing but I do love how the PS3 allows you to upgrade to better HDs at normal prices unlike my 360.

I hope they keep this feature next-gen.

[darthv72]

is one of the high points of the ps3 but there can be a catch. Performance varies between brand. I may not like the fact you cant swap out any drive on the 360 but you do get the guaranteed compatibility for all 360 units with those drives.

So the trade off is 100% supported hdd that does not run the risk of voiding the system or hdd warranty. But the price for that guarantee is steep.

Sort of like how Apple computers are built by only one company and guaranteed to run the software that is released for them. Where as on the clone pc side there are so many variables that can cause software to not run right. But you can build a good machine for cheap.

[arnyftw]

Yeah, ms is always gonna keep it's HDD'S. They make way too much money off them to give them up next gen. And I dont think we'll ever be able to use USB's over 16 Gigs. They would lose HDD sales

[insomnium2]

Whatever darth. Unless you have solid proof all you do is spread FUD with something like that. Not that it surprizes though....

[cyborg6971]

Keep on trolling darth. Your argument is weak. Your really reaching with that one.
http://community.us.playsta... would you look at that. I just googled a list of compatible hdd's and found a list of them. Gtfo darth.

[darthv72]

I am afraid i dont understand.

When I replaced the 80gb in my ps3 with a 160gb WD I read reviews and suggestions from others and picked a drive that was deemed to be really good for the price/size (at the time). There are lots of drives that could physically fit but I was told of certain criteria to look for.

I didnt have those kind of decisions to make when i upgraded my 20gb 360 hdd to the 120gb. reason is, there was only the one choice and that cuts out the guess work. Was I happy paying $80 for the hdd? Not really but I havent looked back.

The plus side to what MS has done is the guaranteed compatibility. The down side is that type of convenience comes at a price.

The plus side to what sony has done is give the consumer choice in what size hdd they want to use and how much they want to pay. There isnt really so much of a down side unless having so many to choose from can lead to making the wrong choice.

I did well in upgrading mine and will upgrade it again as this one is starting to hit the 3/4 mark.

thank you insomnium and cyborg for attacking me. I can take the criticism.

edit: i removed the apple stuff as there was no relevance to my statement and added in the size hdd of my ps3.

[SilentNegotiator]

@darth

Riiiiight, choice is a catch because you might buy a cheap piece of crap HDD (Do they even sell 2.5 HDD with less than 5400rpm?), but hooray for the xbox, for it's "guaranteed" to not be one of the better HDDs, right? Please, go back to an article about your favorite little system, where you can praise something instead of spread FUD about a system that you despise.

Anyone buying a HDD that's not through the black market does NOT have to worry about their warranty being voided or not working...FUD, FUD, FUD.

And @ The site...
Light gray on a white background is NOT an appealing read.

[darthv72]

Thanks for putting it into a different perspective. It didnt seem like it was a trolling comment at first until you see it reworded. You are right it isnt so much a catch. I knew what to look for when I upgraded mine because i did my research.

There are so many that dont so forgive me for trying to convey that sometimes choices can be tough to decide on. Like cyborg said. If people are unsure they just need to google and see what the results are.

Thanks for at least being a bit more respectful when calling me out on my error.

[grahf]

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt.
I had to google that. And I didn't get that from your posts, Darth. Performance of HDDs VARY WILDLY from brand to brand, even at the same labeled RPMs. You need to be a smart consumer to get the most bang for your buck. No fear there, just do research and you're fine.

Just a quick question for everyone bashing the Xbox HDD and the inability to use anything else... How exactly is that different than the Vita's proprietary memory card? They could have easily used SD, Pro Duo, or any other memory format on the market, which all have varying read/write speeds as well, but they opted to force people to buy theirs. Piracy? Please...

[cjflora]

I thought I read somewhere that you shouldn't use a drive with higher than 5400RPM. Has anyone else heard/read this? I can't remember where I saw that...

[Soldierone]

@Darth I don't agree with your initial statement because the overall ability to get something crappy is to be outright cheap...With technology if your are going cheap then of course it won't be that good. However any tech person at any store is going to warn you about it..."Hey I know it's cheap, but you should get this"

It doesn't even take a lot of research either. EVERY computer part will have reviews sitting right there. If lots of people are saying something is crap, don't think yours will be special.

Apple holds a monopoly over their products for money, same with Xbox HDD's. There is absolutely no other reason behind it. Anything they say otherwise is just smoke and mirrors to make their fanboys follow them. If Xbox said okay to third party HDD other companies would start making it cheaper. If Apple said okay to third parties making parts for their computers, their computers suddenly wouldn't be overpriced.

Sony doesn't make HDD's, so they don't care if other companies make that money. Sony DOES make memory cards, and piracy is also a HUGE part of it, so that explains the Vita excuse.

[ApplEaglElephant]

Are you for real? You are defending overpriced 360 HDDs?

Do you realize at that 360's hdd price range, you could get far better HDD for PS3 at FAR bigger storage space.

and please wtf are you talking about "guaranteed compatiblity" any regular 2.5 inch standard HDD works fine for PS3.

You dont need special one for PS3.
Being forced to buy a crappy HD at crappy price is not a good thing for 360.

LOL at 360 fanboys.

[svoulis]

@grahf

Are you really comparing a proprietary flash card to the ridiculous a HDD for the 360?

The big difference is that you cant just use a regular micro SD card in a Vita. Yet you can actually use a regular laptop HDD in a newer xbox 360...oh wait you can't...wont recognize it...

Also 20 dollars for a 4gb flash card isn't that bad, do you remember how much a 256mb memory card was for the 360 when they were available?

Sony's reason for using the proprietary memory card is far more valid than anything you can say about Microsoft using "there own firmware" on whatever HDD's they feel like. They are no different than going to a store and buying a Hard drive, I have seen many 360 HDD's and most are Hitachi brand. Very Common Drives.

[gamingdroid]

Holy cr@p!

You have to wait 50 minutes for a game to install less than 7GB on the PS3? Even with a super fast drive, you have to wait over 30 minutes?

Fastest is SSD, and it makes my laptop fly through the boot screen. It was the most dramatic increase in speed that I have ever witnessed on any component.

[kreate]

Says the guy who claims to have installed metal gear solid 4 on his ps3.

[dktxx2]

I would advise against buying a hard drive anytime soon unless you really had too. HDD prices have skyrocketed because of floods in Thailand, and they've just barely starting to go down.

[kingPoS]

No worries here, I'm glad I bought my 500gb hd
while it was still $99.99 Mwaha ha ha hah haha!!!

[superrey19]

you could have gotten 1tb with that money... before the Thailand floods of course. Now the prices are just ridiculous.

[Nick212004]

With the rate of technology, I would not be surprised to see the next Xbox and PlayStation implement SSDs.

[Persistantthug]

Size and cost are important factors, and in order to get a large enough size to be effective, say 200gigs...

That's $300.

Unfortunately, those prices aren't going to come down fast enough to make them financially viable for MS or Sony to put into their future consoles by 2014.

And then you also have to factor in that we are going to be having 1080p, with 3D, and possibly an attempt at Quad Definition. Were talking about 40 and 50 gig+ games ALL OF THE TIME.

So in reality, we are going to need TERABYTE drives.

Solid State won't work as a default addition from factory because $1000 consoles are not an option.

[Bebedora]

I'd like to see some quasi-nano-data swap speeds faster than I can say 'wow'. With a magnitude of one bit being an atom and memory being one gram of data made of memory. and bits having a posibility of being ones and ohs at the same time.

They say reality is bigger than your imagination...think about it.

[gazgriff2k12]

maybe a two hdd solution would be best for next gen consoles ssd as the primary hdd

[Soldierone]

Really depends. Consoles could be the thing that forces the price down, similar to how PS3 did that for Blu-ray.

I still don't see it happening, however if it did happen I wouldn't be a person standing in line on day one because for a FACT those prices will go down within a year.

I do however see the option posted above as viable. SSD for the main OS and main functions to help the console run fluently. Also allow the SSD to work alongside disc based titles. Then a regular HDD for everything else.

[superrey19]

@persistantthug

What the funk is quad definition??

[Persistantthug]

It's what Sony showed off at CES
http://www.engadget.com/tag...

From what I understand, it's been in Japan for a couple of years.
Sony might try and take a stab at it for next generation.....maybe not, but maybe.

[BattleAxe]

I wouldn't buy a Seagate Momentus. I just upgraded my 120GB HDD with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB HDD. When I was doing the research before I purchased my HDD, I had seen so many forums where people were having problems with all Seagate Momentus models. I had seen nothing but good reviews about the HDD that I decided to go with, and I can confirm that is been great so far.

@Nick

You have no clue of what you're talking about, but whats new.... If you had done any kind of research you would have easily found that people have had nothing but trouble with Momentus Hard Drives just by doing a simple Google search.

[Dac2u]

If you had done your research you'd have found that the same can be said for nearly EVERY hard drive on the market.

http://www.amazon.com/Weste...

The Momentus XT is a better HDD, period. Just because you have a list of people, all within the normal range of failure rates, complaining about their drives doesn't mean it's not a good choice for an HDD.

@Nick - The speed of a hard drive is no where near as important as CPU, RAM and especially not a GPU when it comes to gaming. A few seconds added onto loading times is no where near as bad as playing a game at 15-20 FPS.

[Ven1000]

I agree with BattleAxe. I too did my research and found FAR MORE complaints about the Momentus than the standard WD 5400 drive. I went with the latter. The standard WD drives have been getting solid review for YEARS from PS3 and PC owners alike. No need for me to jump ship to a new fancy drive with "minimal gains" and questionable longevity.

[Dac2u]

I'm not saying the WD is a bad drive, I've been using WD drives off an on for years and have no complaints.

My main gripe was that BattleAxe is saying that Nick212004 has "no clue" because some people HAD problems with the Momentus HDD's. The main issues people had have been ironed out with a firmware update that happened almost a year ago. The drive that ships today comes with the newer firmware which resolved nearly all the problems people were having.

In the end, I'd agree with you that this drive is a waste for the minimal gains from a PS3. Although, it's a solid choice for a PC HDD.

[spongeboob]

I am one of those early Momentus XT adopters and after the firmware update i did a year ago i haven't had any issue with it. The laptop i have it in boots into Win7 in about 18 seconds down from 48. It's a pretty solid drive and I would recommend it as a decent alternative to an SSD drive if you want to save money. Back then i bought this 500GB drive for 120 bucks and now it's going for 180.

[hiredhelp]

Ok i have to jump in here guy's if i may...
Last year i bought a segate momentus xt "sata 3 version" i looked around at the time ssd were too costly and very low storage, they have gone up abit since then however knowing it was PART SSD and mainly magnetic standard drive i was curious price was also right so i bought one.
Is it as fast as a full ssd NO is it as fast as a WD raptor as promised certanly not.
I have updated the firmware too on this drive being 64mb cache thought it would be better than what i got.
I built my mates rig for him put in a WD 32mb cache 5000gb black sata 3.
IT BEATS THE CRAP OUT OF MINE.
Needless to say i was bit pissed.

[BLow]

@ Nick212004...Unless the price comes down significantly and the sizes get bigger then I wouldn't count on it. Remember, these companies have to produce these consoles by the millions and at the same time try to make them as cheaply as possible. Especially, if they become more like the Vita and offer DL versions of all games then storage space will become extremely important. But you never know what can happen when it comes to technology. Just my 2cents...

[madjedi]

Hdd will either continue down the ssd/flash type or in maybe 10-20 yrs barring government interference, we will have drives/cpu/gpu that use quantum technology.

And if they ever do let quantum hardware out to the general public, big brother will be watching everything you do, because any current security for websites, online banks, personal computers ect are useless against a quantum computer.

And ssd's are one of the stupidest option possible for default next gen, they don't hold enough data and they are too expensive per gigabyte. It will cheap and huge old 3.5 inch hdd's by default, i think the disc speed and memory are more important that the hdd speed.

The next gens might benefit from a ssd, but it will be the user that puts it in, not sony or ms.

[SaffronCurse]

Im fine with my 500gb.

[WitWolfy]

my 320GB is starting to reach the 100GB threshold but im still cool for now, but will def look into this for my other 60GB PS3

[Emilio_Estevez]

Too expensive for me, I would need a 500gb prolly and they just cost way to much right now.

[SnowBlu]

im fine with what i have

[Robotronfiend]

When I install a game, its the first time I play it - NOT the third. There won't be any game data in the flash memory when most people install games and you won't get any real benefit during initial install. The lowered install time was due to that being the third time they popped the disc in and installed.

Don't buy this thinking you are going to cut down install times. It will help with scene or GT 5 track loading (after you've loaded that stuff at least once or twice).

[LNDCalling]

Weird, I was looking at some drive stats the other day (for PS3) and whilst the momentus performed ok they suggested that if they took out the solid memory it would perform the same. A decent 7,500 drive should do (WD Scorpio black) even the cheap 5,400 drives performed well!

Found out the other day my 350 is maxed :-O not good with Starshawk beta and demos of late (looking at you TM). I wouldn't mind but there's no films, pictures or music on their I have them all on an external 2tb drive!!

[ShabbaRanks]

I have a 500gb momentus XT myself in my PS3. I installed it last summer if I'm not mistaken. I paid about 130$ for it, but its definitely worth it. I play alot in Lan with my cousin.

I put my HDTV next to my HDmonitor and we play online together. Its cool because when we play online games we can just peak at each others screen to see were the other is and if he needs help and stuff like that.

...And since I have my momentus I noticed by playing with my cousin that its much faster then the normal drives. One time we decided to start playing GTA and I put the disk after lol, but still got in GTA first :P . He has a launch 60gb and I got a MGS480gb.

I got the momentus because I was starting to run out of space. GrandTurismo5 is 8gb, ResidentEvil5 almost 6 lol and alot of games have installs now. I hope next gen consoles will have much bigger HDDs at launch lol.

[Derpy]

Regardless of how fast the drive is, if it's plugged into a SATA port, it is bottle-necked by the SATA port's bandwidth. This can be overcome by the SSD having it's own controller card that plugs into a PCIe slot, but since this not an option on the PS3, I can't see this adding much improvement to the PS3 unless it's default HDD is a particularly slow one.

[Lulz_Boat]

stupid... why not an SSD?

[Animals_as_Leaders]

32 minutes for a 6.4gb install? lol what is this, news from 1999?

[Basjohn]

Absolutely pointless and hype driven. Hard-drives account for the least speed factor of all components (if you have enough ram it all gets loaded in there and NO harddrive performance is factored in at all) and on the PS3 it would only make ANY difference if the game is installable and even then only effect load times.

[InTheZoneAC]

without even reading this:

-ps3 runs any hard drive at 5400 rpm. No matter what fancy high speed HDD you put it, it'll only run it at 5400rpm.

Not a big deal to me, but don't go out buying this if you already have a bigger or the same size hdd already installed.

[THEDON82z1]

AFTER READING THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ,I THINK THEY NEED TO DO A MORE DETAILED COMPARISON , BECAUSE TO ME ITS NOT THAT BIG OF A DIFFIDENCE . I HAVE A 80 GIG AN BEEN LOOKN TO UPGRADE JUST BEEN LAZY ABOUT IT ,HOWEVER IF I CAN GET A MORE DETAILED COMPARISON TO THE STOCK(PS3 HDD), I WILL DEFIANTLY GIVE IT A TRY !!

[neogeo]

This made me think about how much faster Bluray has gotten. PS3 is slow now compared to new bluray players that are cheap. Go check out any new quick load Panasonic or Samsung they are past 16X speed. Panasonic is the record holder with a 7 second start up. that's blazing fast. So it makes me think that Ps4 will do fine with a new Gen Blueray drive like 24x or 32x speed. Toss in a snappy new Hard drive like this and we will all be happy gamers!

[mindedone]

hdd speed really isn't that important in gaming.

[Scuzzlebutt]

I have the 500GB Momentus XT in my PS3. Great drive and great price. 7200RPM, 32MB cache (4x over 5400RPM drives) and 4GB NAND to boot.

[Tsar4ever01]

Since sony standardised the Seagate HDD on the ps3, I wouldn't be surprised if sony uses a second, third or forth gen version of the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid SSD/HDD 8-16GB SSD/500GB HDD drive as a standard in the ps4.