Seagate Momentus XT (second generation review: Seagate Momentus XT (second generation

The Seagate Momentus XT (second generation) is a worthy upgrade to the original Momentus XT that was released more than a year ago. The new drive now comes with twice the amount of flash memory (also known as solid-state storage) and offers 50 percent more storage space.

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Seagate Momentus XT (second generation

$93 at Amazon

The Good

The <b>Seagate Momentus XT (second generation)</b> offers performance similar to solid-state drives (SSDs) while being much more affordable. The new drive now supports SATA 3 (6Gbps) and provides 750GB of storage space.

The Bad

The new Seagate Momentus XT is noticeably more expensive than regular hard drives of the same storage space. Its data copy speed is comparatively slower than that of high-end hard drives.

The Bottom Line

Similar to the original, the Momentus XT (second generation) makes an excellent host drive for any computer, both laptops and desktops. It offers great value in terms of performance and cost, especially when compared to SDDs.

Performance-wise, the new hybrid drive is almost identical to most SSDs in terms of boot, wake-up time, and application loading. When it comes to copying a large amount of data from one place to another, however, it's just about average among all hard drives. However, the drive isn't designed for data transferring, it's mostly designed to be used as the main drive of a computer that hosts the operating system.

At the suggested price of $250 for 750GB, the new Momentus XT offers an excellent alternative to SSDs.

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