Hard drives: SSD vs Hybrid SSD vs Regular HDD

[shengoro86]

Hi all,

So I recently lost my laptop hard drive to corruption (r/w heads smacked the platters) and was in the market for a new one.

Upon doing research, I see that consumers now have the option for SSD Hybrid drives.

So I propose the following questions:

Which kind of drive do you prefer?

Why do you prefer it?

Any negative comments about Hybrid SSDs?


Personally, I bought a 1TB hybrid SSD to cut costs but stilll have my OS booting off of an SSD cache.

Thoughts?

[Raithos]

I've always been a fan of dedicated drives. SSD for OS/essential programs and mechanical for storage. Even before SSD came about I would have my OS on a small mechanical drive by itself. Not a fan of constant read/writes on the same drive as my OS. Its a little different with a laptop though, options are limited. I have a 500GB SSD in my work laptop. But I haven't seen anything bad about the hybrids honestly. We have some guys here at work that swear they are unreliable, but you will find people who are like that with any piece of hardware. I don't think you can go wrong either way.

[shengoro86]

I've always been a fan of dedicated drives. SSD for OS/essential programs and mechanical for storage. Even before SSD came about I would have my OS on a small mechanical drive by itself. Not a fan of constant read/writes on the same drive as my OS. Its a little different with a laptop though, options are limited. I have a 500GB SSD in my work laptop. But I haven't seen anything bad about the hybrids honestly. We have some guys here at work that swear they are unreliable, but you will find people who are like that with any piece of hardware. I don't think you can go wrong either way.

True yeah I hear opposing opinions on hybrid drives as well.

[AnimeGamer183]

I have been having some trouble with my laptop hard drive, every time I go to task manager it seems like my disk is always at 100%, I turned off a few more start up processes (HP bullshit start up apps etc), that didnt do much so i paid attention to what was taking up alot of my disk usage, and I think its turned out it was mcafee constantly scanning like every day, so I turned off scheduled scanning which I thoguht I turned off before but apparently got turned back on some how, maybe when I re-installed the software back in January when I reknewed my mcafee protection for all my devices. Anyway im still waiting to see if it fixes the disc over load problem, I dont want my hard drive dying already especially over a mcafee scan. And all I do is use this laptop for internet browsing, I havent really changed anything on it or used it for hardware demanding apps, I played one very low spec game, Trails in the Sky 2 on it, but that shouldnt have made much difference. It has an i5 with 4 gigs ram and it should be plenty for what im doing, I dont see my memory usage ever out of control in task manager either, its always the disk or maybe CPU from time to time. Hopefully I have nailed down the problems causing the slow down of my OS, its been taking forever to shut down here lately....

[Mr357]

Unfortunately the hybrid drives are a gimmick. Still better than a regular HDD if that's all the budget allows, but after installing my first SSD back in 2012 (256GB OCZ Vertex 4- great drive, still have it), I simply can't go back. I now use a 1TB Crucial M550 which I received as a very generous Christmas present (2014) from some family members.

The biggest perk besides the speed is their size. I have mine velcro'd to the back panel of my case (opposite side of the motherboard), so it's completely out of view.

[BlueMue]

I am running an SSD only system for 4 years now and it's just a totally different world to HDD in terms of reaction time and noise.

For a laptop I would definaltey, without any second thought buy an SSD. The benefits there are even greater as the speed difference to a small laptop HDD is even more impressive. Also they use less energy and produce less heat and they are extremely shock resistant. It's as if they were made for laptops.

[Axm]

I will probably finally take the plunge and get a SSD this year as the prices are coming down.
Any brand reccomendations Cost to Quality?

[Axm]

I will probably finally take the plunge and get a SSD this year as the prices are coming down.
Any brand reccomendations Cost to Quality?

Samsung's are arguably the best, but among the most expensive; Crucial's are pretty much the king of price/performance; Plextor's are great, but a little more expensive than Crucial's I think; and Corsair (not sure if they even still make SSD's) and Intel are just stupidly overpriced. OCZ's were great with the Vertex 4's and Vector's, but like Corsair I'm not sure if they're still making SSD's.

Mushkin, Kingston, G. Skill, AMD, etc. are pretty much all shit tier (sorry to anyone who owns those).

Avoid older Sandforce (memory controller, not a make) drives like the plague.

[shengoro86]

Thanks for all of the info. I went with a hybrid drive for now just to see how they are in my own experience, but yeah SSDs are the best solution.

[Raithos]

The biggest perk besides the speed is their size. I have mine velcro'd to the back panel of my case (opposite side of the motherboard), so it's completely out of view.

Hell yeah me too. I have both of mine Velcro'd in between the side of the case and panel where I have the wires tucked. Removed all restrictions to the air flow from the front fans across the GPU/CPU.

I will probably finally take the plunge and get a SSD this year as the prices are coming down.
Any brand reccomendations Cost to Quality?

Samsung's are arguably the best, but among the most expensive; Crucial's are pretty much the king of price/performance;

Yep. They have been consistently going on sale lately too. Wait for a good deal on either of these two and you will be set. Other brands work, but with SSD's you really do get what you pay for. And no one likes losing their data!

[shengoro86]

Yep. They have been consistently going on sale lately too. Wait for a good deal on either of these two and you will be set. Other brands work, but with SSD's you really do get what you pay for. And no one likes losing their data!

Some SSDs lose data? I have not heard of this. Normal wear and tear or just shitly made SSDs?

[Mr357]

Yep. They have been consistently going on sale lately too. Wait for a good deal on either of these two and you will be set. Other brands work, but with SSD's you really do get what you pay for. And no one likes losing their data!

Some SSDs lose data? I have not heard of this. Normal wear and tear or just shitly made SSDs?

I think what he meant is that the less reputable SSD's are often more prone to early failure, which is true.

[Raithos]

Yep! That's what I meant. SSD's in general or more reliable than an old mechanical.

[FlagshipFighter]

Personally, I use an SSD because I deem it safer and less prone to damage when travelling. I found this out the hard way when I lost a bunch of work many years ago :-( On the bright side it's really increased the longevity of my laptop, mthe HDD really slowed it down.

I've never got to try a hybrid, but they sound alright. Personally, I would stay away from moving parts etc. I know SSD isn't the answer to everything, so I have my work syncing on onedrive at all times to. I believe SSD consumes less power and emits less heat too? imo As long as it's a trustworthy brand (mine is from crucial) you can't go wrong esp. with laptops.

[FlagshipFighter]

I believe SSD consumes less power and emits less heat too?

Correct. Cutting out the motor which HDD's rely on allows SSD's to use just a few watts at most as opposed to about 10-30 on mechanical drives. The only advantages HDD's have are cost and mass storage (the largest SATA SSD is a 2TB from Samsung whereas consumer HDD"s can go all the way up to 6 or 8 ).