This 2.5″ drive from Seagate has been classified as world’s fastest drive for laptops. Called Momentus XT HDD, the drive features a 7200RPM spin speed, 4GB of quick SLC NAND Flash memory and is up to 100 percent faster than an usual 5400RPM drive.

Soon available in 250GB, 320GB and 500GB of storage capacity, the Momentus XT offers high SSD-like performance at the lower price of an usual hard disk drive.  Seagate is getting closer to the solid state drive standards with this hybrid and, if you want to shorten the gap between SSD’s and HDD’s, two hybrid Momentus XTs in a RAID configuration will do the job.

Check the press release after the jump for more details

” SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – May 24, 2010 – Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) today 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 groundbreaking new technology from Seagate that learns and optimizes the drive’s performance to each user by moving frequently used information into the flash memory for faster access. The Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive boots up to 100 percent 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.

Momentus XT, 2.5-inch Solid State Hybrid Drive

The Momentus XT drive is a best-of-both-worlds solution that combines a 7200RPM spin speed, 4GB of solid state memory and Seagate’s Adaptive Memory technology to deliver unprecedented hard drive performance. 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.

“For notebook PC users looking forward to faster PC performance without sacrificing storage capacity or affordability, now there’s an option,” according to John Rydning, IDC’s research director for hard disk drives. “Seagate’s new Momentus ® XT drive is the first storage device for notebook PCs that raises the bar for affordable capacity and performance.”

“We see the Momentus ® XT drive as a game changer, a product heralding a new generation of hard drives that combine SSD and HDD capabilities so that laptop users don’t have to make trade-offs on speed, cost or capacity,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. “The feedback we’ve received from customers, industry experts and early reviews has been overwhelmingly positive, and Seagate will continue to drive innovation that provides more value and a better computing experience to consumers.”

Momentus ® XT Drive Brings Unprecedented Speed to New ASUS Gaming Laptop PC
ASUS has also announced that it will offer the Momentus XT drive as an upgrade option for its new Republic of Gamers (ROG) G73Jh notebook. The system is powered by an Intel i7 720Qm quad-core processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and DX11 capable ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870.

“With the Momentus ® XT drive, ASUS gives gaming customers who prefer the ASUS ROG G73 the capacity they need and the performance they crave,” said PC Wang, vice president of the ASUS Systems Business Group. “Seagate’s innovative solid state hybrid drive hands down delivers the best value, capacity and SSD-like performance to a wide audience.”

The Momentus XT drive installs as easily as a traditional 9.5mm-high notebook drive for new systems or laptop upgrades and, unlike early hybrid drives, operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset “

Via Gizmodo

Intel is about to launch a new Core i5 processor later this year, the Core i5 580M, and it will be replacing the -540M chip which is now available on the market.

The current i5 540M processor has a clockspeed of 2.53Ghz and the turbo overclock speed is reported to 3.06 GHz. Intel says that the new 508M processor will be faster and comes with a clockspeed of 2.66GHz and turbo overclock speed of 3.33GHz. The graphics core of the 580M model will spin at 500MHz and it can be overclocked at 766MH.

The new Intel Core i5 580M is expected to enter the market in the last quarter of 2010.

Via Nexus404

It appears that rumors saying that Seagate will launch a 3TB hard disk drive later this year are true.

The company’s upcoming HDD will only be compatible with 64-bit operating systems. Why is that? The current LBA (logical block addressing) standard offers support for hard drives up to 2.1TB of storage capacity. So, in order to work with full power, the drive requires a 64-bit OS such as Windows 7, Vista and some versions of Linux.

So if you are eager to try Seagates’s upcoming 3TB hard disk drive, you’ll need to get rid of your copy of Windows XP. For now, there are no details on when the new drive will be available of about pricing, but it will surely be expensive.

Via ThinQ

The Samsung Story external hard drive has been designed to offer high data transfer speeds using USB 3.0 technology. The device comes with different storage capacities, 1TB and 2TB and it features three energy saving modes : idle, sleep and suspend, allowing you to leave it on without thinking about the energy draw.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface is capable of up to 5GBps which is incredibly faster than any device using USB 2.0 that usually has an average transfer speed of 480Mbps. The Samsung Story external hard drives are now available anywhere in the world and come with 3-year warranty.

Via Techchee

The Patriot is a company known for producing stuff like flash drives, memory and SSDs and they just announced a new SSD called the Zephyr series.

Patriot’s new Zephyr series is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities and all of their new drives are using the new JMicron JMF612 controller, with a level cache of 64MB DDR2.  The Zephyr series is capable of high data transfer speeds, somewhere up to 240MBps reading speed and up to 180MBps writing speed. The drives also feature native support for the TRIM command in Microsoft Windows 7 in order to maintain the integrity of their performance.

Patriot’s goals are to offer advanced technology and high performance to its users at a reasonable price. The company claims that their new SSD drives are “durable and reliable, with an aluminum housing to minimize typical wear and tear and with NAND memory at their core” so there are no moving parts to fail or to be damaged from daily use.

Via Patriotmemory

A-DATA announced today their latest USB 3.0 portable hard drive, the 2.5″ NH01.

The device is using the latest USB 3.0 interface and it can reach impressive data transfer speeds of up to 88 MBps reading speed and up to 81 MBps writing speed which is twice faster than the hard drives using USB 2.0 interface and brings us satisfaction considering that we deal with large amounts of multimedia data every day.

The NH01 has a starting price of 70€ for the 320GB version, 88€ for the 500GB version and 110€ for the 640GB hard drive and all drives come with 3-year product warranty.

Via tweaktown

Asus’s latest nettop computer, the Asus Eee Box EB1007, has just debuted on their webpage. The device sports a 1.66Ghz Intel Atom D410 Pine Trail processor, backed up by 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160GB hard disk drive for your personal data.

The nettop also features Wi-Fi connectivity, 6 USB ports, a SDHC card reader, eSATA port and, if want you to transform it into some sort of a desktop PC, Asus offers you keyboard, mouse, stand and a VESA mount kit which is perfect to mount the device on the back of your TV or monitor.

There are no details on when it will be available or about pricing yet.

The Asus ROG MATRIX 5870 is the graphic card that all gamers want to assemble to their gaming machines. The new Asus MATRIX 5870 has been designed with only one purpose, to offer high-end gaming experience.

It features 2GB of GDDR5 RAM running at 4.8GHz.  The power system can be seriously overclocked. The video chip can also be overclocked from 850 MHz to 894MHz. The cooling system reduces the temperature by 13 degrees Celsius in comparison with the standard cooling system from the HD 5870.

Also, the graphic card includes Super Hybrid Engine function which will automatically overclock the card where needed, up to 19 percent in 3D games and up to 50 percent when working with 2D graphics accelerator. There are no details about the price yet, but be sure you’ll have to empty your piggy bank for this beauty.

Via Fareastgizmos

Western Digital have created a new SATA hard drive, the Western Digital AV-25 2.5-inch, which was designed to offer cool and quiet operation, providing maximum reliability especially in always-on environments.

The hard drive is capable of working with up to five simultaneous HD video streams, being the perfect device for DVRs, surveillance cameras and more. The Western Digital AV-25 hard drive comes with different storage capacities, offered in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB with prices from $50 to $80.

The Western Digital AV-25 SATA hard drive can be purchased from Western Digital

The Keydex 2.5-inch HDD Enclosure with an unique screw-less case that allows you to replace the hard drive with it very fast, in about 25 seconds. It doesn’t require any tools or screwdriver to open the enclosure. The Keydex offers SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection that is capable to reach a transfer speed of up to 4.8Gbps.

Also, the Keydex HDD features HDD stabilizer technology which prevent accidental data loss. Its case is also stackable and allows a number these enclosures to be stacked on top of one another. The Keydex 2.5-inch HDD Enclosure comes in three colors black, silver and bronze. More details on the product page

Via Techchee