First Look: Seagate Momentus-XT

From the outside, the Seagate Momentus-XT Solid State Hybrid hard drive looks exactly like any other Seagate 2.5" notebook drive. On the inside, 4GB of Single-Layer Cell (SLC) NAND flash memory resides above a single 500GB platter. The Seagate Momentus-XT has an operating rotational speed of 7200-RPM, which is paired to 32MB of DRAM buffer memory. There are three different sizes available:

• 500GB Momentus XT - ST95005620AS $156
• 320GB Momentus XT - ST93205620AS $132
• 250GB Momentus XT - ST92505610AS $113

Best suited for performance notebook computer installations, the Seagate Momentus-XT SSD hybrid could also be utilized for enthusiast desktop systems. Seagate Momentus-XT hybrid drives have been designed with a focus on enhancing real-world user experience while maintaining a large storage capacity. Using their new Seagate Adaptive Memory Technology, the Momentus-XT learns what programs needs to be cached to the SSD based on usage patterns.

Standard 2.5" drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled and threaded into the Momentus-XT chassis, which allows for quick upgrade or addition into any existing notebook or desktop system. The mounting positions matched up to the drive bracket on my notebook computer, and after only a few minutes of drive cloning I was quickly loading the Microsoft Windows-7 O/S without a hitch.

Unlike most Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage products, SSDs are nearly impervious to impact damage and do not require (or benefit from) any kind of special vibration dampening or shock-proof enclosures. While not completely an SSD, the Seagate Momentus-XT is also very different than your average hard drive. For example, the WD VelociRaptor features and operating shock (read) value of 65G measured at 2-ms, or non-operating shock of 300G. Conversely, the Momentus-XT is safe up to 350-G's operating shock and 1000-G's non-operating.

Seagate resists publishing performance specifications for the Momentus-XT, but we'll soon see how well this 500GB SSD-Hybrid drive performs in the next few sections...

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