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Are Hybrids faster/better choice than a good single platter HDD?

285 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Lady Fitzgerald
It seems hybrids are starting to catch up in popularity however I still kind of turn my nose up at them because they are 5400rpm and 2.5". Are people still preferring a fast single platter drive like a WD Blue WD10EZEX or is Hybrid the way to go if you aren't going full out SSD?
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You should be going SSD even if its 64GB. I dont see the point of hybrid drivers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayjr1105 View Post

It seems hybrids are starting to catch up in popularity however I still kind of turn my nose up at them because they are 5400rpm and 2.5". Are people still preferring a fast single platter drive like a WD Blue WD10EZEX or is Hybrid the way to go if you aren't going full out SSD?
You can still use a single platter WD 1TB Blue Caviar, and instead of using an SSD to improve performance, why not go with a RamDisk or other software utilities to cache?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er View Post

You should be going SSD even if its 64GB. I dont see the point of hybrid drivers.
Price per GB, zero "tweaking" needed, size? Not everyone has a large/file media server at home. Besides SSD prices are up compared to where they were last year at this time making hybrids more appealing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er View Post

You should be going SSD even if its 64GB. I dont see the point of hybrid drivers.
Hybrid drives (SSHDs) make sense for use in inexpensive and, possibly, mid-range laptops, notebooks, etc. that have room for only one drive. While one could put in a large SSD, it doesn't make much sense to do so when the cost of the SSD approaches or exceeds the cost of the SSD. One could replace a 5400 rpm HDD for less than an SSD and gain a little bit of speed but that will reduce battery life. A SSHD is a compromise that will decrease boot times and speed up program loading, albeit not as dramatically as a SSD, for a much lower price. The older SSHDs had some problems but the current ones have been getting decent reviews, about the same as the better HDDs.

I have a Lenovo G570 15" notebook I got to use when traveling (and to serve as a backup machine if my desktop at home ever goes down) because it's fairly light, doesn't take up much room, and didn't cost much so if it gets stolen or damaged, I'm not out all that much. A 256GB SSD (which would've been cutting it much too close for the capacity I need) would be approaching the price of the notebook; a 512GB SSD would far exceed the cost of the notebook. I just couldn't justify spending that much money for a machine that only gets occasional use. At the same time, I'm spoiled by the speed of my SSD in my desktop rig.

My situation is an example of where an SSHD makes sense. For little more than a replacement 5400 rpm HDD, round the same price as a good 7200 rpm HDD, and one heck of a lot less than an SSD, one could get an SSHD instead. While not as fast as an SSD, they are still faster than an HDD. I installed one in my notebook a couple, three days ago and, after only four restarts, my two slowest programs on the notebook, calibre and Media Monkey, open up almost as fast as they do on my SSD blessed desktop machine. According to reviews I've seen on this SSD, it can take as many as fifteen restarts to "train" the SSHD to increase boot times. Sometimes, the SSHD will start booting up slower at first and, after several restarts gets back up to speed, then starts booting faster as the SSHD gets "trained". During those first four restarts, my average boot times never went below what they were for the original HDD and the average actually did improve a bit. I didn't bother to do any more than those four restarts because it was getting late and I was happy with the performance increase I already had received (especially since I caught it on sale) so I put the machine away. I'll be fooling around with it some more this weekend when I do my weekly anti-malware scans and backups (I normally do those on the notebook only a few days before a trip but I'm going to make an exception this weekend).

SSHDs are a niche product that aren't for everyone but, in certain scenarios, they make perfect sense.
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