Seagate Momentus 5400 PSD – The Company’s First Hybrid HDD

Seagate has launched the Momentus 5400 PSD laptop-use hybrid hard drives, featuring 256MB of embedded Flash memory for faster boot-up and better system performance.

According to InformationWeek, the 5400 PSD 2.5-inch hybrid HDD has 160GB of storage capacity and sells for $190, “which is almost a 30% premium over a traditional drive of equal storage”. This Seagate’s Power Savings Drive for notebooks can quicken the time it takes to boot a PC by 20 percent, and uses half as much power as a traditional hard drive reportedly.

The first notebook with the Seagate Momentus 5,400 PSD will be the Sony Vaio SZ650, which gets 25% more battery life from using the hybrid drive.

On the other side, ExtremeTech reports hybrid drive technology is not delivering the “order of magnitude” improvement it originally promised, due to first-generation, non-tuned drivers for the Vista operating system.

The Momentus 5400 PSD’s specifications say it will be additionally available with 80GB and 120GB capacities. The drive has 5400rpm rotational speed and uses a 1.5Gb/s SATA interface.

This summer, Samsung has also announced its hybrid HDDs.

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