Momentus XT 750 GB Review: A Second-Gen Hybrid Hard Drive

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When a little bit of flash memory is good, more must be better, right? Seagate's second-generation Momentus XT hybrid hard drive is out to compete with SSDs, even as it delivers capacities typical of laptop-oriented 2.5" mobile disks.

Test Setup And Benchmarks

Our testing of Seagate’s new Momentus XT 750 GB consists of three different suites:

  1. Synthetic and storage benchmarks
  2. Power consumption and efficiency testing
  3. Real-world and boot/shutdown testing
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Performance Benchmark Test System
Hardware
CPU Intel Core i5-2500K (32 nm, Sandy Bridge, D2), 4C/4T, 3.3 GHz, 4x 256 KB L2 Cache, 6 MB L3 Cache, w/ HD Graphics 3000, 95 W TDP, 3.7 GHz max. Turbo Boost
Motherboard (LGA 1155) Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, Revision: 2.0, Chipset: Intel Z68 Express, BIOS: F3
RAM 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333, Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
System SSD Intel X25-M G1, 80 GB, Firmware 0701, SATA 3Gb/s
Controller Intel PCH Z68 Express SATA 6Gb/s
Power Supply Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmarks
Performance Measurements h2benchw 3.16
Row 9 - Cell 0 PCMark 7 1.0.4
I/O Performance IOMeter 2006.07.27 Fileserver-Benchmark Webserver-Benchmark Database-Benchmark Workstation-Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes 4K Random Reads 4K Random Writes
System Software & Drivers
Driver Details
Operating System Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Driver 9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage 10.​5.​0.​1026
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Real World Benchmarking Test System
Hardware
CPU Intel Core i7-2600K (32 nm, Sandy Bridge, D2), 4C/8T, 3.4 GHz, 4x 256 KB L2 Cache, 8 MB L3 Cache, w/ HD Graphics 3000, 95 W TDP, 3.8 GHz max. Turbo Boost
Motherboard (LGA 1155) Intel DP67BG, Chipset: Intel P67 Express, BIOS: 2040
RAM 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1333, Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX
Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6850, GPU: Barts (775 MHz), Graphics RAM: 1024 MB GDDR5 (2000 MHz), Stream Processors: 960
Controller Intel PCH P67 Express SATA 6 Gb/s
Power Supply Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmarks
Performance Measurements Boot Timer
System Software & Drivers
Driver Details
Operating System Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Driver 9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage 10.​5.​0.​1026
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Drive Power Consumption Test System
Hardware
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 (65 nm, Merom XE, E1), 2C/2T, 2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 44 W TDP
Motherboard (Sockek 478) MSI Fuzzy GM965, Revision: 1.0, Chipset: Intel GM965, BIOS: A9803IMS.220
RAM 2x 1 GB DDR2-666, Crucial BallistiX CM128M6416U27AD2F-3VX
System HDD Western Digital WD3200BEVT, 320 GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 5400 RPM
Controller Intel ICH8-ME
Power Supply Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmarks
Video Playback VLC 1.1.1 Big_Buck_Bunny_1080p
I/O Performance IOMeter 2006.07.27 Database-Benchmark Streaming Writes
System Software & Drivers
Driver Details
Operating System Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Driver 9.2.0.1021
Intel Graphics 15.12.75.4.64