How do SSD, HDD and SSHD stack up?

I'm getting a SSHD for my notebook tomorrow. Moving my SSD over to my main PC.
 
Are there newer SSHDs using larger caches? Reviews I read before showed that they were certainly faster than a plain hard disk, but nowhere near that close to a decent SSD. Their primary problem is that the cache was typically too small to keep everything used regularly.

My own experience of switching to an SSD was that application loads appeared nearly instantaneous versus a fairly long wait with a hard drive.

Of course that video is marketing so undoubtedly they've tailored their tests to make their drives look really good.
 
Space_Chief said:
I don't think SSHD is worthwhile. The advantage of an SSD is that it's not only fast, but for laptop use will not crash when exposed to extreme movements. In addition there is some power efficiency because of no moving parts.
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Well if you want a lot of space on your laptop without breaking the bank then it is worthwhile, In a desktop I'd say a SSD + HDD combo would be better than an SSHD.
 
Nduimiso said:
Well if you want a lot of space on your laptop without breaking the bank then it is worthwhile, In a desktop I'd say a SSD + HDD combo would be better than an SSHD.
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But it's still a movable part. Rather get a tiny SSD and keep your datas on USB 2/3 drives.

For laptops - ONLY SSD.
 
Hybrids have an advantage over ssd in that the firmware makes a copy of frequently used data to the solid state side and it's not constant write and erase cycles.

The life of an ssd is determined by its size as it moves files around to get even wear of cells to minimize cells dying due to write and erase cycles. Ssd's also keep a portion of the drive in reserve for when cells do die.

The controller used on the ssd should also be taken into consideration as its the brain that runs the whole device.

Size also affects speed due to arrangement of the cell clusters.
 
Latest trends in notebooks is an mSata cache drive and an HDD.

My XPS 15 came like this. Replaced the 32gb mSata with a 128gb and used it for the OS.

My Alienware came with a 32gb mSata and 2 x 1TB HDD's. Replaced the primary HDD with a 256Gb vertex 4 and just ignore the cache drive. If I ever find myself short on space, I will upgrade the mSata and use it for OS, and put back the 1TB on primary.
 
If you can afford an SSD, then that's the best choice, but these hybrid drives make a good compromise.
 
Nduimiso said:
You'll just have to be careful, like we all had to be before SSD's.
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Yep - whether you go the SSD or HDD route you need to back up your drive.

I've got a SSD and a SSHD in my laptop but after getting fed up with managing two drives I turned them into one logical drive Apple style and so far I've been pretty happy with the results.
 
To me, and my setup, SSD is only meant for my OS, applications and games (only heavy games). That is the main and only purpose of my SSD.

HDD is only meant for storing data only, that data that does not need to run at 500MB/s...like movies, series, etc...

SSHD is a bit faster than HDD but still gives me no performance difference when I want to watch a movie or video...It's just a marketing gimmick for people that want something a bit faster than an HDD but can't afford an SSD as per cost/GB...

So all in all, I will use SSD and HDD and see no point in going for SSHD.
 
CamiKaze said:
To me, and my setup, SSD is only meant for my OS, applications and games (only heavy games). That is the main and only purpose of my SSD.

HDD is only meant for storing data only, that data that does not need to run at 500MB/s...like movies, series, etc...

SSHD is a bit faster than HDD but still gives me no performance difference when I want to watch a movie or video...It's just a marketing gimmick for people that want something a bit faster than an HDD but can't afford an SSD as per cost/GB...

So all in all, I will use SSD and HDD and see no point in going for SSHD.
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You don't need performance drives to watch movies, I run my my HD movies/series from WD Green 5400rpm drives with no stutter.
 
Crowley said:
He also said this


Which to me means he is having performance issues on his normal HDD.
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No i don't have any issues at all...my machine is running like a beast...

What I am trying to say is that you really don't need a fast drive to run movies...5400rpm is fine if you are storing such data...but having such data on an SSD is really a waste of money. Even on an SSHD.

The reason I have a 7200rpm HDD is because it only cost R20 more than a 5400rpm...

I run all of my less intensive games on this HDD...like MK9.
 
Roger Moore said:
Hybrids have an advantage over ssd in that the firmware makes a copy of frequently used data to the solid state side and it's not constant write and erase cycles.

The life of an ssd is determined by its size as it moves files around to get even wear of cells to minimize cells dying due to write and erase cycles. Ssd's also keep a portion of the drive in reserve for when cells do die.

The controller used on the ssd should also be taken into consideration as its the brain that runs the whole device.

Size also affects speed due to arrangement of the cell clusters.
Click to expand...

Depending on the drive of course. The Samsung 830 256GB can handle as many as 4 Peta bytes of writes. That's 1000x 1000 x Gigabytes. After that the drive will no longer be able to write new data, but you can still read the old data off.

Most SSDs sold in the last few years will outlast their computer. You will need to upgrade the CPU before your SSD. And with the case of the Samsung above, you're looking at over 30 years (1 TB per day of written (not read) data) of heavy usage. You think your laptop keyboard will last that long?
 
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I have numerous machines running all forms of the above:

- Normal HDD
- Normal HDD with 60GB SSD cache drive
- SSHD (750GB HDD with 8GB cache)
- SSD

There's no doubt about it that SSD wins in all respects, except for size and cost. I don't like having an OS drive smaller than 2TB (for many reasons) and as nice as the Mac Air is with it's 64GB SSD, it's just annoying having such a small amount of space. The 750GB SSHD is great, boot times are very impressive and most apps open quickly, but nothing compares to the setup on my main machine which is (apart from storage drives) a 7,200 RPM 2TB supported with a 60GB SSD cache drive. It boots as quickly as an SSD and every app I use on a daily basis opens up instantly, as do all of the frequently accessed files. 60GB as a cache is plenty, and then you can have a 3TB or 4TB drive for your OS. So essentially for 95% of the time you can have what feels like a 3TB SSD for just over R2,000. It's a very simple choice in my opinion.
 
I have a 60GB SSD boot drive, bought in 2009 so soon to be replaced with a 250GB SSD, running my OS and applications.

Large folders get symlinked off to a separate 1TB storage drive freeing up quite a bit of space on my SSD, I'm looking at you WinSXS folder.

Then for any non critical data I have 2x320GB HDDs running in RAID 0 and then a couple of teras network storage for keeping series, movies, games, backups etc.
 
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