Hybrid hard drives – any issues?

Not used one but I read a fair bit about them and decided they weren't that much of a gain for me.

As I understand it, they offer huge performance increases over standard drive if you are only accessing the same files over and over again such as working on office type docs. Once your file size exceeds the cache or you are constantly writing new files (both were true for me) then they are no faster.

So, yes, it is way too good to be true.

I run a 128GB SSD as my main system drive and a second (64GB) for swap/paging files with standard SATA drives for storage.

The lag in picking files up off the SATA drives isn't noticeable enough to bother me once I turned off the power down option of the disks.

My PC starts much faster (power on to Windows desktop ready to use is about 20 seconds) and swap file and Photoshop scratch file activity is lightning quick with full screen filters being applied to 10000 x 8000 pixel images in a couple of seconds

Cheers Andy, you have a similar set-up to mine then as I use my SSD for OS+Applications only, the other SATA drives are raided and used for storage or back-up.

I think it might be worth a shot in a laptop where multiple (internal) drives are not really an option, at least it won’t be any slower. I’ll double the RAM which will probably make the biggest difference anyway!

Agreed, the RAM will make the biggest difference.

If the hybrid drive is comparable in price there's no real reason not to use one if the old drive needs replacing

Waste of time, mate, just get a proper SSD.

andy_k said:

Agreed, the RAM will make the biggest difference.

If the hybrid drive is comparable in price there's no real reason not to use one if the old drive needs replacing

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A 500gb seagate hybrid is about £60 which is not too bad?

hermand said:

Waste of time, mate, just get a proper SSD.

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Trouble is a 500gb SSD is pretty pricey and not sure she would want to spend that much, or tbh, really need it for her work usage

Passion 4 said:

A 500gb seagate hybrid is about £60 which is not too bad?

Trouble is a 500gb SSD is pretty pricey and not sure she would want to spend that much, or tbh, really need it for her work usage

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I appreciate that, but does she need a 500GB internal drive? There's nothing wrong with the hybrids, and it may be worth a punt if you absolutely need 500GB of internal storage but the problem is, it only has 8GB of SSD.

And, you don't get to choose what goes on there. So, basically, you end up with Windows on there and perhaps a couple of frequently used apps. If, for example, you have Photoshop but only use it a couple of times a week - chances are it won't be cached and optimised for you.

Personally, I'd be getting the biggest SSD you can afford and then using an external drive for storage.