Hybrid Storage

[KenMicMarKey]

Hello ladies and gentlemen of the internet, KenMicMarKey here, and I'm slightly new to the community.

With that out of the way, I have a question: What are your thoughts on hybrid storage drives? What are the pros and cons? And most importantly, is there a more efficient solution to a hybrid drive without spending any more money?

 

I intend to purchase one for my new gaming PC build, and I'm not quite ready to take the leap and commit to having multiple storage devices in the same system. I like to keep things simple. The item I had in mind is a Seagate 1TB 3.5' 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive. From what I understand, it's a standard 1TB HDD from Seagate, but with a 7.8GB SSD for cache.

 

Here's a link to the item in question: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dx001

 

All thoughts and answers are welcome, and I look forward to seeing what this community has to say!

[ZetZet]

SSHD is only good if you are on very limited budget. SSD is faster still. But it is definitely not bad.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($53.99 @ NCIX US) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.88 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $103.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-20 13:52 EST-0500

Something like this is better value.

[Freaky_spider]

meh is the best word to describe it, youre better off with an SSD and a seperate HD

[KamiKatze]

Here's a cheap ass version if you don't want to invest into a SSD now but maybe want to get a small one later:

 

when installing windows, creatw two partitions. One with ~120 GB storage, the other one with the rest. Treat that 120 GB partition like your SSD and converting to the SSD will be a charm. Just use a cloning utlility, some SSDs even provide a trial of Acronis or sth. like that.

 

Another handy trick to divide your stuff on two partitions is on every program/game installation you just change the C:\ to a D:\ and leave all the rest the same. All the folders will be created normally jsut on your 2nd drive.

 

 

Edit: use a regular HDD for this of course.

[elkenrod]

Hybrid drives make sense for something like a laptop that can only handle one physical drive.  You get most of the speed of an SSD and then a TB or so of HDD-grade storage.

 

At this point, Hybrid drives make very little sense in your desktop.

 - you have space for multiple drives

 - when you fill up the Hybrid drive, you are going to need another drive anyway.

 - having your OS on the same drive as all of your data will lead to regrets.

 - 120GB SSDs and 1TB HDDs are relatively inexpensive.