After the first test run, the performance of the Seagate XT series appears typical of your average notebook hard drive.  The fast SSD cache is in still inactive since there have been no repeated attempts to retrieve the same data.  As far as 2.5-inch notebook hard drives go, the test results are nevertheless very good and comparable to those of fast laptop hard drives.

After several test runs of the HDTune Benchmark, we first see the advantage of flash memory.  The transfer rate remains the same, but access times drop almost to the level of SSDs.

CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD show results typical of HDDs.  Since these tests were performed while the drive was relatively empty, they should be considered optimized values.  Once the drive is filled up with more data, these rates should drop significantly.

The SLC flash memory also doesn't seem to come into use in the ATTO Benchmark.  The transfer rates are similar to those of a fast 2.5-inch HDD and do not change by much after the eighth run through.

PCMark Vantage measures the overall system performance of all components.  We analyze in particular the overall score as well as the HDD score.  In the first test run, the Seagate XT reaches a value typical of 2.5-inch HDDs.  The second run already shows a twofold increase in HDD performance with the SSD memory showing its potential.  The overall score also rises during the second test run noticeably and remains at the same level afterwards.  The HDD score continues, however, to slightly increase up until the 11th test run.

We begin the practical benchmarks with the Copy Test of the AS SSD Benchmark.  Here, three individual tests are carried out with application files, game files and ISO files.  Since caching plays no role in these tests, the SLC NAND memory cannot yield any benefit.  Compared to high-end SSDs, the Seagate only functions at about half their speed at most.  The more filled up the hard drive is (UL50VF e.g. 1/3 full), the longer it takes to copy files.

When starting up Windows 7, an improvement is noticeable already by the second start-up with the Momentus XT.  After multiple start-ups, the start-up time is cut nearly in half.  Since everyday use includes more than just starting-up the computer, such start-up times won't last.  Classic SSDs, however, remain excellent in this regard.

When opening an OpenOffice Writer file (a reference file for OpenOffice), repeatedly opening the file yielded a noticeable effect.  Since this is such a small file, though, a traditional 2.5-inch HDD should show the same effect, considering HDDs have a small Cache.