Seagate Momentus XT 500GB ST95005620AS Review

Testing:

To test the new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive, I will be running a series of benchmarks designed to test the raw power of the drive. These tests are designed to push the drive to the limit and output scores that allow us to decide if the hardware is for us or not based on our needs. To get an idea of how the new Hybrid design stacks, up I put it up against a 7200RPM Seagate 3.5" drive also with a 32MB cache and several SSD's ranging from the lower end 64GB Patriot Torx to the new SandForce based, OCZ Vertex 2 100GB. To keep all scores consistant, all of the additional hardware were run at the same specifications including the speeds, timings, latencies and voltages. All of the drives were run as the main drive with a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional on them and all of the latest drivers and updates installed. Seagate was also kind enough to send us a few of the Momentus XT drives for testing so I also setup two of them in RAID-0 using the onboard ATI ACHI Raid for the ASUS M4A890GTD Pro board which uses the ATI SB850 Southbridge to control the RAID Array.

Testing Setup:

• Processor(s): AMD Phenom II X4 965
• Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
• Memory: Mushkin Blackline 2 x 2GB  1600MHz 7-8-7-20
• Video Card : XFX Radeon HD 5870
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
• Hard Drive: 1x Seagate Momentus XT 500GB, 2x Seagate Momentus XT 500GB RAID-0
• Optical Drive: ASUS DVD-RW
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Comparison Modules:

• Comparison Drive #1: Seagate ST3750330AS 750GB 7200.11 HDD
• Comparison Drive #2: OCZ Vertex 2 100GB
• Comparison Drive #3: Patriot Torqx 64GB
• Comparison Drive #4: Corsair Nova 128GB

Benchmarks:

• Drive Tests:

1. HD Tune 3.50 Pro
2. HD Tach
3. SiSoft Sandra 2009
4. Crystal Disk Mark
5. ATTO Disk Benchmark
6. AS SSD
7. I/O Meter
8. PCMark Vantage
9. Windows Startup / Shutdown

Some of the benchmarks are designed to test RAW IOPS for both HDD and SSD and some of the benches are designed just for SSD’s. I put this mix in to gauge both aspects of the Momentus XT for the mechanical side and the SSD side to show the improvements or disadvantages if any.