Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive: Close to SSD performance at HDD price

The performance close of an SSD with the pricing of an HDD; that’s what Seagate promise is possible with the new Momentus XT range. A series of 2.5-inch laptop hard-drives, the Seagate Momentus XT use a hybrid combination of 4GB of SSD memory paired with a 7,200rpm HDD: by using the SSD partition with Seagate’s new Adaptive Memory technology – which learns typical drive use and prioritises key files – the company reckon users will see around 400-percent performance improvements on regular 7,200rpm HDDs but at a quarter the price of a true SSD.

Adaptive Memory basically monitors which files are opened frequently and which data is regularly accessed, and intelligently shifts those into the faster, solid-state memory. The first time you open a file, Seagate say, the Momentus XT is on a par with a regular 7,200rpm HDD; the second time, it’s more like an SSD. Over time, the hybrid drive creates a custom partition in the SSD memory suited to how the individual uses their machine.

Since it – and all of the other hybrid functionality – is handled by the Momentus XT itself, it’s completely software independent. That means you can drop the hybrid drive into any 9.5mm bay and be up and running just as though you’d used a regular HDD. Seagate say users will see around 100-percent faster system start-up speeds, too.

Best of all, though, is the price. The 250GB Seagate Momentus XT is priced at $113, the 320GB Momentus XT is $122 and the 500GB Momentus XT is $156, all considerably cheaper than you’d pay for a comparably sized true SSD. ASUS have already announced they’ll be offering the Momentus XT as an option in their Republic of Gamers (ROG) G73Jh notebook.