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Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

Mav
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Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

Seen 1TB HDDs advertised that are apparently something called Hybrid.
Quote
Boots and performs like an SSD SATA 6 Gbps with NCQ for interface speed Faster than a traditional HDD All-in-one design for simplicity and ease of installation Installs and works just like a traditional hard drive in any laptop or PC, and with any OS and application Now available in a thinner, 7 mm z-height model for ultra-thin, ultra-light laptops

But if they still have discs such how can they really perform like an SSD?
Are they worth the extra cost over a normal hard drive or of value being much cheaper than what an equivalent SSD would cost?

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picbits
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Re: Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

The majority of your stored information just sits on a hard drive doing nothing most of the time.
A small part of the hard drive normally stored the operating system and programs you use often - these are moved to the SSD part of the hybrid drive.
The same effect can be achieved by using both a SSD and a normal HDD but having your operating system and most used files on the SSD
VileReynard
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Re: Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

That hard drive only has a 8GB SSD.
Even worse, its only 5400 rpm.
Get a 7200 rpm disk instead.

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Mav
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Re: Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

Thanks.
I wasn't thinking of purchasing one as I already have a 64GB SSD with a 500GB for the remainder of programs installed- just wondered how they worked.

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orbrey
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Re: Hybrid Hard Drives - what's the score?

Another point worth bearing in mind is they're not great if you dual boot - the drive will only move the most frequently accessed files to the SSD part so your second OS (whichever is used less) will get none of the benefits and may well be slower than if it was on a regular mechanical drive.