Hybrid Drives

[N3rot0xin]

This is tax season (at least for those of us in the US). I'll be getting my returns fairly soon. I plan on allocating some of that to upgrading my storage in my desktop rig. My current 500gb HD is almost full, with less then 50gbs to go. Never thought I would fill that up, but i have. To temporarily increase storage, I've had to add another hard drive I've had in my external enclosure. That hdd is very old and it doesn't seem to be very responsive. So I'm replacing them both with something of about 1TB. I'm considering this one in particular:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178381

 

The main use of this drive is for game storage. So I DO need something that won't be sluggish for loading. I know that hybrid drives wont give SSD level performance, but is the increase in performance from being a Hybrid noticeable? And, more importantly, will the fact that it has SSD like components internally, is it prone to dieing sooner as a result? For the brice, it seems pretty solid. Or, should I just get the same hard drive minus the SSD portions for about $30 less because performance isn't all that much of an improvement for just gaming? Both options are viable, and I dont have any particular qualms with either. Just looking to get a more educated opinion before i go spending the money. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

From what I understand, Hybrid drives cache data for your most used programs in order to launch them faster. The amount of solid state storage on the drives is pretty small, so it may not be good for launching games. 

 

Linus did a video that explains the technology a bit 

[N3rot0xin]

I had completely forgotten he made a video on that.. I think i even watched it when it came out... -facepalm-

 

I should also mention that most of regular non gaming programs are stored on here as well, so its not just games that will be loading on here. But programs (some of them launched at boot time) are stored there as well. ( I have a 64gb SSD for booting)

[dizmo]

Doesn't it choose the programs you load the most and store them on the SSD portion? Games are quite large so if you only play one or two it might be worth while otherwise I don't think you'll see a vast improvement.

I'd almost just get a 240gb SSD for an extra $40.

[wpirobotbuilder]

If you have lots of games, a hybrid drive is very cost-effective. That drive should be fine for your purposes.

[N3rot0xin]

Doesn't it choose the programs you load the most and store them on the SSD portion? Games are quite large so if you only play one or two it might be worth while otherwise I don't think you'll see a vast improvement.

I'd almost just get a 240gb SSD for an extra $40.

I dont really need another SSD (tho a slightly larger drive for booting wouldnt be a bad thing). I want to get more storage and get rid of one of my current storage drives. I would put everything from my primary storage on the new drive, get rid of the secondary(slower/older) drive all together, and re assign the drive letters so I dont break anything in Windows. 

[gampla]

I'm thinking of getting a hybrid for my laptop can I clone my hdd to the hybrid?

[sotiris.bos]

The hybrid drives only work well as OS drives in my experience. I would use one in a laptop that can only take one drive and for a compromise between a small ssd or a large hdd. The 8GB flash based storage isn't really enough for lots of games and the drive itself chooses what is cached in there automatically so you just have a limited amount of cached files which may not be those you would prefer. If the price difference from a normal HDD is that small I would personally go for the hybrid drive but wouldn't keep my hopes up. Going for a WD black or something faster would be better in my mind. My HDD is pretty fast as well, you might want to check it out.

[N3rot0xin]

The hybrid drives only work well as OS drives in my experience. I would use one in a laptop that can only take one drive and for a compromise between a small ssd or a large hdd. The 8GB flash based storage isn't really enough for lots of games and the drive itself chooses what is cached in there automatically so you just have a limited amount of cached files which may not be those you would prefer. If the price difference from a normal HDD is that small I would personally go for the hybrid drive but wouldn't keep my hopes up. Going for a WD black or something faster would be better in my mind. My HDD is pretty fast as well, you might want to check it out.

I could go with a WD Black, I was leaning more towards Segate Barracuda, for cost reasons. 

 

Also, can someone explain this newegg (derp?) to me? Its two WD Black 1TB drives, and from what I can tell, they're the same drive but drastically different prices. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=WD%20black%20HDD&Description=WD%20black&bop=And&CompareItemList=14%7C9SIA2W019M6559%5E22-236-625-09%23%2C9SIA3UN18A2401%5E22-136-533-06%23&percm=9SIA2W019M6559%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B9SIA3UN18A2401%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

[brob]

I could go with a WD Black, I was leaning more towards Segate Barracuda, for cost reasons. 

 

Also, can someone explain this newegg (derp?) to me? Its two WD Black 1TB drives, and from what I can tell, they're the same drive but drastically different prices. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=WD%20black%20HDD&Description=WD%20black&bop=And&CompareItemList=14%7C9SIA2W019M6559%5E22-236-625-09%23%2C9SIA3UN18A2401%5E22-136-533-06%23&percm=9SIA2W019M6559%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B9SIA3UN18A2401%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

 

The FZEX uses "Advanced Format" which lets drive manufacturers store more data in the same space. There are other differences, http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf.

[sotiris.bos]

I could go with a WD Black, I was leaning more towards Segate Barracuda, for cost reasons. 

 

Also, can someone explain this newegg (derp?) to me? Its two WD Black 1TB drives, and from what I can tell, they're the same drive but drastically different prices. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=WD%20black%20HDD&Description=WD%20black&bop=And&CompareItemList=14%7C9SIA2W019M6559%5E22-236-625-09%23%2C9SIA3UN18A2401%5E22-136-533-06%23&percm=9SIA2W019M6559%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B9SIA3UN18A2401%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

Be careful when buying hdds as there are different versions of each model. I bought the 2TB Barracuda because of its 1TB/platter technology only to find out that it was a version with 3 platters instead of 2 with a density of 666GB/platter. It was noisy and vibrating a lot so I returned it and got myself the proper one which is faster and quieter. I suspect that is the deal with the WD too but WD has different model numbers when Seagate uses the same. Check this out:

http://technewspedia.com/the-confusing-2tb-seagate-barracuda-7200-14-st2000dm001/