Momentus XT Review: Seagate's Marriage Of The HDD And Flash Memory

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Update: with more real-world testing under our belts, Seagate's Momentus XT is receiving our rare Best of Tom's award for excellent performance. This new hybrid hard drive combines up to 500GB of storage and 4GB of flash memory to maximize performance.

Test Setup And Throughput Diagram

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Low Level Benchmarks Test System
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB Shared L3 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAX Revision: 1.0; Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R; BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35, 400GB ST3400832NS; 7,200 RPM, SATA 1.5Gb/s, 8MB Cache
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W; OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.12PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software and Drivers
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007
Notebook Benchmarks Test Platform
NotebookDell Latitude D630Mobile Intel GM965 Express Chipset
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo T9500 (45 nm; 2600 MHz, 6MB L2 Cache)
RAMCorsair ValueRAM 2 x 2,048 MB DDR2-667 SDRAM 5-5-5-15
HDD ISeagate Momentus 7200.4 7,200 RPM, 500GB, 16MB Cache
HDD IISeagate Momentus XT 7,200 RPM, 500GB, 16MB Cache
DVD-ROM8x DVD+/-RW
WirelessIntel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) mini Card
Screen14.1 inch WideScreen WXGA+ LCD (1400x900)
Graphics CardIntel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Sound CardIntegrated
Power Supply9-Cell/85WHr Primary Battery
System Software and Drivers
OSWindows 7; Updated on March 20 2010
Benchmarks and Settings
MobileMark 2007Version 1.06Productivity

Throughput Diagram

The throughput diagram is impressive for a 2.5” drive, but not revolutionary. Performance basically evolves.