LaptopDrives
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Seagate outs second-gen Momentus XT: a 750GB hybrid laptop drive for $189 (update: actually $245)
Seagate was quick to jump into the hybrid HDD/SSD fray last year, with the decently priced and capable Momentus XT. Now we have a successor with identical branding, but with the HDD upped to 742GB, NAND storage slightly increased to 8GB, plus a faster SATA III 6Gb/s interface. The 'flash-assisted drive' promises to cut boot-up and lag times compared to a standard laptop hard disk, by gradually learning which of your files are popular enough to deserve a spot in that solid state VIP lounge. We're looking at a price of $189 $245, including a five-year warranty, and availability from today. Read on the full PR. Update: The press release sent to us stated $189, but the one that's now live on Seagate's site (at the source link) says $245, so we're switching to that. Thanks to everyone who spotted this.
A 200GB hard drive upgrade for your MacBook or MacBook Pro
Got $500 bucks? Need a larger single drive in your shiny new MacBook or MacBook Pro? Care more about battery life than RPMs? Then head over to MacService and they'll hook you up with a large, 4200RPM drive upgrade for a cool $445 (installation and Ground shipping included) or $494 (includes installation and overnight shipping). The shipping costs are there because you have to send your precious portable to them in Santa Clara, CA to have the upgrade done. Or you could just order a new MacBook/MacBook Pro from Apple and get the 200GB drive option for only $200 more, which is surprisingly inexpensive for an Apple BTO option.Or you could buy a 200GB 2.5-inch SATA drive yourself and use one of those handy iFixIt guides to do your own installation. But I can't find the drives for sale anywhere. If I had to guess, I'd say they'll street-price for about $300.Which drive are you getting with these upgrades? Well there are only two manufacturers rolling out 200GB notebook drives that I know of. There's the Toshiba MK2035GSS and the Fujitsu MHV2200BT, so it's one of those. Both utilize perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which is fancy talk for cramming a whole lot of data onto 2 tiny platters. There may be other 200GB that I am just not aware of. It's been known to happen. Worth it? For some, no doubt. And although I kid about 4200RPM drives being slow, there are several folks who know far more about this kind of thing than I do that swear the technology used on these drives makes them almost as fast, if not faster, than the "standard" 5400RPM notebook drives when it comes down to real world use. 7200RPM may be better, of course, but only the serious pros probably need that for audio and video and such.How many of you are actually considering or have already ordered a 200GB drive for your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Did/will you BTO from Apple, DIY or ship it off to a service provider?
