Was doing the review for the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive and the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, and I really needed to do a boot time comparison for the Seagate Momentus XT, so I decided why not do it in video form. So, the video below is the outcome of the test. Watch and comment! If you’re interested in the test setup along with the 3 drives tested today, be sure to scroll down for more details.

Test Setup and Drives Tested

For those coming from the YouTube channel who’re interested in the test setup, here are the details:

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K

Motherboard: Asrock Z68 Fatal1ty Professional Gen 3 (Intel SATA 3 6Gb/s, AHCI mode)

Graphics: Intel HD3000 Graphics

Memory: Gskill Sniper 1866MHz DDR3 1.5v

Storage: Patriot Pyro SE 120gb (This drive, and all its contents were cloned to every other drive)

Power Supply: Corsair HX650

Case: HSPC High Speed Tech Station

Special thanks to HSPC for providing us with the High Speed Tech Station (Large) for our test bench.

For those interested in the tested drives, here they are:

Testing Methodology

The methodology here was quite simple. I cloned all 3 of the drives using being tested using data from the Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD I typically have on the test bench. Afterwards, it was simply switching each drive in and out, and trying to hit the power button at the same time as the timer start button. I boot each drive 3 times and recorded the video for the 3rd run only, with the exception of the Momentus XT where both 1st and 3rd runs were recorded. More about the methodology in the video.

Conclusion

So, if you watched the video, you can pretty much ignore what I’m about to say, but basically the SSD (Vertex 3) still ended up being the king in terms of boot up speed while the hybrid hard drive (Momentus XT) was able to come in quite close, but only after it had “learned” the boot up sequence after a couple boot ups. As expected, the traditional hard drive lagged behind by a very wide margin. Of course, do take note that the hard drive included in this comparison test, the WD Scorpio Black, is intended for notebooks, so it will be slower than something intended for desktops like the WD Caviar Black. That being said, I feel like the Momentus XT was designed more for notebook users in mind, so I wanted this to be a notebook drive test. That’s why I chose to pit the 2.5″ Scorpio Black against the SSD and Momentus XT instead of something like a Seagate Barracuda or WD Caviar Black.

For the full review on the Seagate Momentus XT, please click here.