Seagate delivers Momentus XT, world's fastest hard drive for laptop computers

Seagate has announced channel and OEM shipments of the Momentus XT drive, the world's fastest 2.5-inch laptop PC hard drive, combining SSD-like performance with the massive capacity and much lower cost of HDDs.

The Momentus XT drive also features Adaptive Memory - a new technology from Seagate that learns and optimises the drive's performance to each user by moving frequently used information into the flash memory for faster access.

Its solid state hybrid drive boots up to 100-per cent faster than traditional 5400RPM drives, the mainstream spin speed for laptop PCs, and sets new benchmarks for real-world system performance for laptops and gaming systems.

Today's high-performance SSDs for mobile computing cost as much as 10 times more than hard disk drives of the same capacity, with the price of a 250GB SSD outstripping even the cost of many laptop PCs. As a result, most consumers and system builders are unwilling or unable to pay the high price for the greater speed and quiet operations of SSDs. Additionally, SSDs offer fewer capacity options than hard disk drives.

The drive combines a 7200RPM spin speed, 4GB of solid state memory and Seagate's Adaptive Memory technology.

The unique Adaptive Memory technology works by identifying patterns in how often certain digital data is used, and then moving the most frequently used information to the embedded solid state memory for faster access - effectively tailoring hard drive performance to each user and their applications.