As I outlined in the original hybrid drive post earlier today, the performance of a laptop with the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive is nothing short of phenomenal. In this post we see if the same can be said for desktop computers using the XT drive.

The main physical difference between a laptop drive and a desktop drive is size. The former being a 2.5" drive, the latter a 3.5". Also the height on desktop drive is much, much larger (maybe 1" or so) while laptop drives a much thinner (maybe 3/8" or so). The XT is a SATA drive so the same  SATA connectors were used on both the original 3.5" drive and the 2.5" XT drive.

Incidentally, laptop drives usually use less power than their desktop counterparts and the XT specs mention an average 1.1W operating power  and 0.8W at idle.

As with the other test, I imaged the original drive (OS, applications, and all) using Acronis Wcho Workstation 9 and placed  this identical image onto the XT drive. This was done to more correctly measure real-world computer performance and not some lab test.

The computer in this post is Lisa's main STS desktop machine and has Skype, Tweetdeck and other applications a "power" business user would have. So what's the verdict.........

Test 2 - Dell Optiplex 330 Desktop
Approx 12 months old and is Lisa's main office computer.

Specs:
Intel Core Duo 2 E7200 @ 2.53Ghz
2GB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP3
Notes 8.5.2 CD5

Original drive was a 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB hard drive with SATA 300. (ST3160815AS).

All times in seconds

	Old Drive	New Drive pass 1	New Drive pass 2	Difference old vs pass 2
From BIOS to Windows being loaded and drive activity ceasing	146	92	39	73% reduction in load time
Lotus Notes 8.5.2 CD5 loaded to home screen	34	27	8	76% reduction in load time

Again, so pretty impressive results. This goes to show that putting a 2.5" XT hybrid drive in a desktop can lead to some considerable improvements over classic, pure mechanical drives.

Now, for the sake of clarity, I bought my test drives in the retail channel (from TigerDirect), but as of today, in the US,  you can order quantities of 25 or more from STS should you wish. Be mindful these things are selling like hotcakes so be patient if you are wanting some.

P.S. I don't think Lisa will let me get this drive back ;)