The first high-quality jump in the storage area in personal computers occurred about 30 years ago - when the main drive was the hard drive. The staff-equipped personnel really went on a different level compared to predecessors equipped with only floppy disk drives, or even working with household tape recorders, and in all respects. Just because the high container and the speed of the hard drive drives led to a sharp increase in the power of application programs, and indeed to another scenario of the use of equipment. Actually, that is why this scheme quickly became standard and has not changed for many years.
However, now the next progress began on the market. Winchester continue to remain the main type of drives in mass computers. However, not the only one - flash memory comes on the heels. However, the solid-state drives still can not compete with hard drives by capacity, but the entire focus is just not needed high container. In any case, it is not needed in each computer - now the staff is not the only device of this kind at the disposal of the owner, but only a part of the global infrastructure, including local NAS, and global cloud services. Accordingly, there are already parameters such as performance or resistance to external adverse effects (by the same shaking, for example) on the leading places in many areas of use, and here there are already drives on the basis of flash memory to be superior to their mechanical relatives.
But in practice it is still more difficult than the frontal confrontation of mechanics and semiconductors. The fact is that manufacturers have long been engaged in hybrid drives, including both. According to the tank, they do not lag behind the hard drives (which is not surprising, since the basis of all the hard drive is the basis of the hard drive), but at the same time many of their shortcomings are inherit, and it is more difficult with her. A conservative assessment (with which we tend to agree) states that hybrid performance is not lower than that of hard drives, and in a number of use scenarios, it can be comparable to solid-state devices. But not always, i.e. everything is just just at least: Winchesters are slow, SSD - fast. And hybrids - how lucky.
However, such a vague definition certainly suits not everyone. The problem is only that accurate testing of systems with hybrid drives is extremely difficult just such such a variability of the results. Depending on the selected scenario and test programs, it is not so difficult to obtain both indicators at the level of conventional hard drives and comparable with solid-state drives. And the more larger test programs we take, the more the results of the first type we get. And the high-level tests of the entire system are usually not too depend on the performance of the actual drives, so that they can easily reach parity between all types of the latter.
But no matter how difficult the look for an accurate answer to the question, they need to do it. Including, with the help of different approaches. In the line of articles dedicated to testing actual drives, we mainly make focus on low-level tests and try (for understandable reasons) not to compare devices of different types with each other. Today's material is a kind. In it, we are just limited to high-level benchmarks, but we will test five different drives within the same system. And what will happen from this - let's see.
What and how we test
Not so long ago, the MSI GP60 game laptop was hit by the MSI GP60, from most of the devices presented in the market with the use of Western Digital hybrid hard drive. This is already interesting in itself, because, unlike Seagate, selling its hybrids to the right and left on all channels (so you can buy them anyone), WDC while shipping its drives of this class only manufacturers of finished systems. According to the company, this should help the most complete and correct use of the potential of hybrid hard drives and avoid "wrong" use. For example, a separate buyer can try to put a pair of hybrids in RAID0, which is not too reasonable (mostly sequential operations are accelerated, but the same level of speed in them can be achieved on a cheaper array of conventional hard drives), or use additionally external flash caching that In most cases, only worsen indicators. And the manufacturer of the laptop of nonsense to do will definitely not be done :) And it will also be possible to configure the system accordingly, and the "right" utilities will be in the kit (ideally). In general, such an approach with its advantages and minuses. And the main disadvantages of it from the testers (i.e. us) is that it is impossible to just go to the store and take one hard drive there - you need to get a whole system with it somewhere. However, as we see, it is not so difficult :)
So, actually WDC WD10J13T is interesting in itself. Despite belonging to the Black Series, it has the speed of rotation of the plates only 5400 rpm., In general, it becomes usual: laptop hard drives are dying on 7200, since hybridization is becoming the main method of improving performance. So in this model, a 24 GB of flash memory has been installed, which is not so bad - the caching SSD SanDisk, which actively used by many manufacturers of laptops have just such a container. A package of pancakes is also familiar - two 500 GB discs, which is currently a maximum for 9.5 mm WD Winchesters. Note - only models at 5400: "black" by 7200 rpm. It has not been updated for a very long time ago and uses less dense plates, so 750 GB is limited by tank, and with some types of load, it is already a higher speed of rotation of the plates, it does not help to break away from cheaper "blue" models (respectively, and senior hybrids) . In general, such a capacious hard drive accelerated by hybridization.
Who to compare it with? Of course, testing would be incomplete without SSHD Seagate. The closest in technical specifications is ST1000LX003: also terabyte on two plates and 32 GB flash memory, but, unfortunately, we have not yet been tested. But Laptop Thin SSHD ST500LM000 "Hand" was found. The plate in it is the same as in the senior models, but alone. However, in comparison with SSD, its 500 GB capacities look still not bad - the flash memory of such or greater capacitance is still too expensive from the point of view of many buyers. So the main disadvantage of this TTX of this model is only 8 GB flash buffer, which, as we have already found when testing the drive, is not enough. On the other hand, the technology worked in a few years may well and compensate for the advantage of the Western Digital drive in the flash container, so that the comparison promises to be interesting.
But, be that as it may, and the question is "what a hybrid to buy?" Users ask themselves much less often than "Is it worth buying a hybrid hard drive?" (Moreover, as already mentioned above, Western Digital has not been selling its models to retail, which further narrows the possibility of choice as such). That is why it is impossible to do without comparing with the "ordinary powder", i.e., by simple hard drive. So as not to be offended by anyone from the manufacturers, an example of this today will serve Hitachi TravelStar Z5K500-320: the neutral manufacturer's soblastinist with the same rotation frequency of 5400 rpm, as in both subjects. Of course, there are and faster "classic" hard drives, but we are more important to the modern "floor", and not the "ceiling". And in general - as already happened more than once, the latter already begins to slowly disappear: the role of top models is beginning to perform hybrids, and devices with a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. become a dead-end branch of evolution.
And finally, today's favorites are solid-state drives. There will be their two - budget CRUCIAL M500 by 120 GB and relating to a slightly higher class Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB. Note that the "budget" M500 in general is also relative - at a price it is approximately equal to the terabyte hybrid from Seagate with 8 GB flash memory (WD10J13T retail prices does not yet exist, but it is unlikely that the cost of two similar drives of different companies can be too much differ). Actually, this is the answer to the question - why solid-state drives are still unable to displace mechanical: too, prices are different. Yes, of course, to purchase SSD at the price of HDD (especially, SSHD) is now real, but the container will differ radically - eight times, that is, almost an order. A quarter of the Terabyte Flash is relatively more profitable than the eight, but then absolute prices are generally better not to compare with hard drives. And if the buyer needs half-ithate, you will have to either buy an SSD at the price of a budget (not even cheaper) laptop, or ... either to smell your hand to all theoretical advantages of new technologies and refer to the proven time. Or also new, but less radical, i.e. to hybrid drives.
As for the toolkit, there is no particular sense to lean the tests of low no - we have already installed. But PCMark is suitable as a measuring instrument. Moreover, the two last (at the moment) version of this test package is used and when testing laptops, so that part of the results have already been obtained earlier.
Low - technology matters
So, let's start with specialized trails. Detailed results are too much, so we will limit ourselves to general ratings.
Suitable tracks in PCMark7 two, so let's start with more "refined". As we see, hybridize do not hybridize, but the solid-state drives are inaccessible. By themselves, they can vary greatly by high-speed indicators, but also the budget SSD is already a couple of times faster than the fastest of the three participating hard drives. However, flash buffering is not so bad - it allows to increase productivity on this highway by 30-50%, but this is not at all sufficient to step over the abyss separating the "mechanical" drives from semiconductor.
If you climb the level above and get closer to real loads, the situation looks no longer so unequivocal. Yes, of course, SSD is still inaccessible, but their advantage is much reduced compared with the previous case. That is, you can only talk about a two-time difference when comparing the slow hard drive with fast SSD, and hybrid drives can somehow compare with budget solid-state. About equality, of course, we still do not go, but the backlog in some 20% on the background of many times more capacity at close prices is that many users can already go.
In PCMark8, this test group turned out to be quite a new, and not essentially recycled old. The result is at least curious - almost disappears the difference between different hard drives or between different SSDs. The first is somewhere one and a half times faster than the second, but there is not too large inside groups.
So, throw everything, break the piggy bank and run to the store? Do not hurry - these are just a relatively low tests.
PCMark7 - omnipresent storage
As we have already written in the review of the laptop itself, with the exception of the computation test, each PCMark 7 scenario has tasks for determining the performance of the storage subsystem (System Storage). Moreover, when calculating the integral result, the weight of these results is quite large. What should we get in the end?
Computation, of course, practically does not depend on the type or specific model of the system drive. A slightly influence of the latter can be traced, of course, but the difference (albeit is stable - easily repeated) somewhere within the measurement error.
The transition to other tracks sharply changes the case. LightWeight (Easy Indoor Computer Work) Almost repeats System Storage. Regarding, but not absolutely, of course: after all, there are also a considerable amount of tasks for other computer systems. As a result, we can talk about something like parity between hybrid hard drives and budget SSDs - the difference between them is only about 10%, which is not fundamental to many users. At the same time, the "traditional" hard drives are much slower, but the top SSD is much faster.
The productivity test is also very "light", and only two tracks from the System Storage group are included in it, and not three as in the previous case. True, here is one of them (namely the launch of applications), as we have repeatedly convinced when testing drives, st aboutiT everyone else. In general, the results are already familiar: the computer with a traditional hard drive is almost twice as slower than the fast SSD, and the budget models of solid-state drives and hybrid hard drives somewhere in the middle between them, and provide comparable speed. But it is not the same. True, here are the container of them to a greater degree not the same :)
In the creativity of work more, so the difference between the drives of different types begins to shrink, even if it does not disappear at all. But it is not to be surprised that many can not be noticed. That is, changes the man Winchester on SSD to work with video and photographs in anticipation Wow!And instead of "wow" receives percentage of so 20% of performance and not everywhere. Also a lot, of course, however, knowing the numbers in advance wishing to pay for them would be even less.
And finally, entertainment group (Entertainment). "Cumulative" tests here are only two (and one of the tracks is not too accelerated by SSD), and others - 11. Some of them, however, flash memory allows you to go faster, but not everything is essential. As a result, we come to the fact that for the "home-entertainment" use of the computer, the type of drive used is not too important. Hybrid Winchesters, of course, provide some productivity gain, and solid-state - even faster, but the difference is not so fundamental, as you can think on the basis of low level tests. That completely coincides with everyday logic - a quick drive will quickly start the game and / or load new levels, however, the frame rate in it will be determined by the video card (and a bit of the processor, memory and other), regardless of where the game is installed. On the other hand ... Just in order to remove these most irritating delays in the transition between levels, gamers and buy SSD. And those whom they are not too annoying (in any case, not so much to part with a serious amount of money) - do not buy.
The total result of PCMark7, as was to be expected, the performance of the drive used is tied even stronger than individual tracks. But nothing new to us does not allow us - a familiar alignment, where mechanical drives are obvious outsiders, fast solid-state - unconditional leaders, and somewhere between them there is a severity of budgetary SSDs and hybrid hard drives, which can be considered equal to each other in the first approximation.
PCMark8 - Everything is calm in Baghdad
The logic of the new test package Futuremark has changed greatly - unlike the predecessor, it does not try to "mix" accumulative tests, focusing on the "real software" (which in terms of scenarios can be really real - as we have already written, the package can use different Versions of Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office, such as user installed). However, as we have already seen, and, in fact, the group Storage in this package finds fewer differences between the drives of different types. Let's see - how it all affects the high-level tests.
Home Computer - all cola are the same. In any case, when repeatedly performing tests - only "clean" mechanics loses (and only 10%), and hybrid hard drives are able to quickly solder the bulk of the work, which makes them equal to SSD. But even if they are formed to the worst version of the development of events (which, unfortunately, it is practically impossible to simulate in this version of the package), we will "fall" only to the level of ordinary hard drives. That is, with such use of the computer, as we see, chasing the SSD (in any case) there is no need.
What is noteworthy, in an even easier "worker" scenario, the separation of solid-state and hybrid drives from traditional only increased, and they themselves remained approximately equal to each other.
If the content is not only consumed, but also to produce, the use of flash memory in any form becomes even more preferable. In itself - it is no longer necessary to chase itselves behind the top solid-state drives, since the budget models of the latter, as well as hybrid hard drives provide comparable to the level of speed. However, it is possible to look at the situation and on the other hand - in fact here the difference between the two hybrids participating in testing is comparable and with the difference between the drives of different classes.
And sometimes she can even exceed it. In fact, Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD lags behind the younger modification of Crucial M500 weaker than ahead of the hybrid WD Black. However, here the fastest of the taken SSD overtakes the slow "classic" Winchester less than 15%. But overtakes, i.e., already established dependencies in force.
Perhaps the most difficult work scenario at the same time turned out to be the most loyal to solid-state drives. So we come to the conclusion that for the use of Adobe products, the purchase of SSD is extremely desirable. Which is not surprising - the applications of this manufacturer work very actively with hard drives. Especially the same Photoshop, actively creating a large number of temporary files. Hybrid Winchesters strongly speed up the process is unable - after all, the mechanic interferes with obtaining high indicators. But the potential of solid-state drives is used fully. "Explicit" SSD allows you to get a semi-sighterative increase in speed relative to the hard drives, which in conditions of the same environment is very noticeable. Especially in portable computers, where, for example, it is impossible to obtain a similar increase due to the processor in some cases - we will remind that the Core i7-4700Qm has been installed in the system we used: albeit not elder in the model range, but quad-core Haswell lagging behind extreme The models of their generation of all percent on 20 (the competition with representatives of older lines even less unequivocal). But, of course, to get such an effect, the solid-state drive should be used not only for installing programs, but also to work with data - otherwise the increase will be much more modest. And this unambiguously addresses us to the capacious models of top lines (for the rest, everything that can not be placed tritely), which themselves can cost as a middle class laptop. Thus, hybrid technologies are even more relevant - as we see, such hard drives are quite capable of dealing with some budget SSD, offering the buyer at times more than the workspace, which may be extremely important ("Nature" a hundred gigabytes of photographs of a modern mirror is simple and within one trip). In general, on the aggregate of factors (speed, capacity, price) there are no unambiguous leaders and unambiguous outsiders. And this means that all technologies and their combinations will continue to be relevant in the near future. Just every - in its place.
TOTAL
Manufacturers of solid-state drives "love" in advertising to use the results of low-level benchmarks, and when promoting hybrid focus is being done on the fact that sometimes they are almost not inferior solid. Both are true. But not all :) In the first case, you should not forget that low-level "parrots" are extremely rarely achievable in practice - more often the speed of the entire computer in solving certain objectives "rests" in the characteristics of completely different components. And even at all in anything other than the user. It is easy to guess, this is exactly what is often "stumbling block" and for hybrids: a lot of loads, where and "ordinary" hard drives are often not very lagging behind the solid-state drives and without any hybridization. Therefore, it is not necessary to count on the fact that the installation of SSD instead of even the slowest hard drive in any laptop will accelerate it everywhere and everywhere - at the time of doing practical tasks it may not be affected at all, i.e., as you processed a photo of 15 minutes, and Continue. Another question is that the comfort of this event can increase - in particular, will cease to be noticeable delays in the launch of programs. Or "brakes" when loading levels in the game, etc. But the frequency of frames, as we wrote above, will not increase - everything depends on the video card and, to a lesser extent, from the processor. To see a photo in the RAW format, it seems to be able to quickly count from the carrier. However, with a high resolution, the "manifest" of the RAW can take a few seconds (and then and tens of seconds) - Against this background, the file reading time even from a USB flash drive is simply "lost".
SSHD is a new marketing term invented by Seagate employees to indicate the storage market, known as hybrid hard drives and represent a combination of a traditional hard disk (HDD), as well as new technologies.
Today we will talk about the advantages and minuses of this type of drives and whether they cost your attention and, which is important, money.
What is the advantage of sshd?
Seagate advertising headers say the following - "SSD performance. Hard disk capacity. Affordable price". In essence, they are trying to say that SSHD combines the benefits of two technologies without any significant costs. But, if this is true, why then the technology of hybrid hard drives has not yet produced a revolution on the storage market? We'll talk about it, but still try to consider these "hybrids" closer.
SSHD, in fact, represent ordinary HDDs, but only with a compact solid-state storage device of a small container added to the disc controller and protruding as, a kind, cache for frequently used files. Therefore, it is not to be surprised that the memory volumes from SSHD are not inferior to classic hard disks.
Sshd. As for the cost, the hybrid hard drives are approximately 10-20% more expensive than traditional HDDs is the result of adding additional cache and firmware to control the same cache. On the other hand, they are much cheaper than solid-state drives, many times cheaper.
It sounds all cool enough and optimistic, but ...
Is SSHD performance really like SSD?
The productivity of hybrid hard drives directly depends on how the user system uses, and the limiting factor of the very performance is a small amount of cache memory (now it is about 8 GB), which is simply not enough to perform more or less serious tasks.
If the user "uses" his PC at a minimum, well, say, Surfit Internet, sitting in social networks, reads email, folds solitaires and rides in chess, then such a user will have the greatest benefit from using hybrid hard drives, because in this scenario of what is happening Cache memory is enough to fully process all data at speed corresponding to SSD.
But, if you take into account another user who, suppose, plays a variety of "heavy" computer games, then we can safely say that this user will not notice any difference in performance if HDD is changed on SSHD. Why? Because the amount of cache is quite small and the files of the most computer game in it will be constantly updated and will not be able to be reused (from cache), because they will be deleted and replaced with new files. And if files are not reused, then there will be no real benefit from SSD cache.
The same applies to copying data. If you copy, suppose the file folder and want to transfer it from one place to another, and it takes more than 8 GB, then, accordingly, the SSHD cache will be used, and its usual memory on the magnetic hard disk, and the copy speed will be the same , as well as on classic HDD.
But, as a "sweetener", it is worth noting that the system loading when the computer is turned on, it will be about 10 seconds, which practically corresponds to the SSD speed.
So who needs SSHD?
Primary market for solid-state hybrid disks - laptops. The fact is that the limited space of the housing does not allow you to install more than one disk in these systems. Installing only one SSD can provide greater performance, but limit the amount of data that can be saved on it. On the other hand, the installation of the only HDD will provide a lot of space, but the hard disk will work as well as a solid-state drive.
SSHD, in turn, can offer a simple and affordable way to provide higher performance, with the same amounts of internal memory - excellent compromise. Plus, since most of the laptops are used to work, and not for games, the advantages of SSHD drives are becoming even more attractive.
For desktop systems, after all, I do not recommend installing hybrid hard drives, since the body of a personal computer allows you to easily install multiple drives, namely SSD (for system operation) and HDD (for data storage), which will give excellent performance and big Volume of disk space.
The exception may be mini-desktop systems that have internal space only for one drive.
In this article, I will tell you what is a hybrid hard drive than it is best usual to us HDD, as well as pros and cons compared to SSD.
For most ordinary users, I will now open a big secret - the weakest (read slow) link in the computer system chain is a hard disk or hard drive. You may have the fastest processor, the best video card and a lot of RAM, but slow and sorry for the expression "stupid" hard drive all the work of this steep iron negates.
So it was until recently. Now appeared SSD or solid discs. They helped get rid of this bottleneck in computer performance. Many of them are used as the main boot disk under the operating system, which is very justified, but the high price and the small amount of memory does not make it possible to apply them more widely.
The manufacture of hard drives is a very complex technological process, since it has a plurality of moving parts, which strongly limits the decrease in the size of the devices, without losing certain characteristics (probably, therefore, so many modern hard drives are out of order). Manufacturers were in a technological impasse. On the increasing capacity of the discs and their density is nowhere.
To solve this problem, solid-state drives were created, and in 2007 Seagate developed the world's first hybrid hard disk or SSHD (Solid-State Hard Drive). This is a physical storage device in which the storage technologies of the 60s (hard disk on magnetic disks, NGMD) and modernity (SSD drives) are splashing.
In general, this is an ordinary hard disk with a significantly enlarged flash memory. The first samples had 128MB, but now there are models from 32GB.
As a result, a very interesting and practical product was obtained. From a regular disk, he inherited a large capacity, but from a solid-state drive large, you can even say a huge amount of cache.
High-speed parameters or HDD and SSD VS SSHD
The process of increasing the speed of operation in the operating system and the application with such hybrid disks is as follows:
After installing the operating system to a hybrid hard disk, the first load will occur at normal speed, but after several reboots, the time will decrease by making the device microcontroller to the volumetric cache of the most frequently used operating system data areas. Tests have shown that the system loading with SSHD is only 5-10% slower than on the usual SSD. The same will happen with various applications, games, etc. The main thing is that the disk has enough flash memory for everything you need.
At the end of 2011 and early 2012, speed tests showed that hybrid solid-state drives with a 750 GB HDD and 8 GB of Cash memory slower at random read / write and sequential read / write, but faster than hard drives when you start applications and turn off.
The amount of cache memory significantly affects the cost of the final product. Therefore, when choosing a drive, you must necessarily take into account how much the resource-intensive applications you are going to run on it and their number.
The basis of the technology of hybrid drives lies with the decision on which data elements are priority for flash memory, and which are not. Therefore, SSHD can work in two main modes:
Automatic Mode or Self-Optimized
In this mode, the hybrid hard drive independently accepts all solutions related to data distribution and does not depend on the operating system.
Host Optimized Mode or Host-Hinted
In this mode of operation, the hybrid SSHD includes an extended set of SATA commands "Hybrid Information". Based on these commands, the operating system and the device driver, given the file system structure, makes a decision on which data elements are placed in the NAND flash memory.
Some specific features of SSHD, such as HOST-Hinted mode, require software support in the operating system. Support for Host-Hinted Operations appeared only in Windows 8.1, while Patches for the Linux kernel are available since the end of 2014. In the future, their inclusion in the Linux kernel is expected.
Historical reference
In 2007, Seagate and Samsung presented the first hybrid discs: Seagate Momentus PSD and Samsung Spinpoint MH80. Both were 2.5-inch and a volume of 128 MB or 256 MB of flash memory. Products have not been widespread.
In May 2010, Seagate introduced a new hybrid product called the Momentus XT drive and used the term " solid State Hybrid Disk "(SSHD). It includes 500 GB of memory to NGMD with 4 GB of integrated NAND flash memory.
In April 2013, WD introduced 2.5-inch WD Black SSHD drives, including SSHD 5 mm thick with 500 GB of ordinary memory and flash memory in size of 8 GB, 16 GB and 24 GB.
Pros and cons of hybrid HDD
The main advantage of the hybrid hard disk is a significant increase in the performance of the disk subsystem, especially in netbooks and laptops, where hard drives are less productive and cannot be installed a second disk as in a regular PC. No wonder the very first SSHD disks were developed by a 2,5-inches laptop format. Later, 3.5-inch hybrid discs were released. Although now in laptops with a drive, there is an opportunity to replace it with a hard disk or a solid-state drive, but how I will tell you in one of the following articles.
To disadvantages, you can attribute the inability to fit all the critical data on the SSHD disk flash memory. But also installed on the hybrid sshd more than 32GB does not make sense, as it will be cheaper to buy a regular SSD to 64GB.
At the price, they currently significantly exceed the usual hard drives. For example, at the time of writing Article 1 TB Hard Drive Seagate Desktop SSHD Model ST1000DX001 cost about 6000 rubles, and its competitor 1TB Western Digital WD Blue SSHD WD10J31X is about 5500 rubles. At the same time, the usual 1 TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA ST1000DM003 Hard Drive will cost you 3600 rubles. And this is the model of everything from 8GB of memory. With a lot of difference will increase. But still it is several times less than the cost of SSD similar volume.
Output
Hybrid hard drives are a compromise solution that allows you to increase the overall performance of the system in which they are installed and reduce its price.
You can say this evolutionary development of ordinary HDD. Due to the increased cache, it was possible to reduce the number of appeals to the disk, which was reflected on the decrease in energy consumption and heat dissipation, durability and reduce noise during operation. All this makes them an order more productive and practical than HDD, and several times cheaper SSD.
The initial goal that SSHD should have been performed is an inexpensive replacement for solid-state drives and hard disks in laptops and mobile computers has been successfully completed. After running the technology and eliminating shortcomings, manufacturers began to produce 3.5 inch formats under the usual PC.
Thus, for an expensive PC and a laptop, it is better to choose a high-speed solid-state drive with a large capacity to install the operating system and the program and the applications are necessary for the operation, well, and for a regular PC and especially the laptop will be perfect for SSHD, which will be replaced by morally obsolete and slow Hard Disc Drive.
For many users, solid-state discs are quite expensive, and the usual HDD is not produced enough. In this case, hybrid discs can be a compromise - the so-called SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). They are a combination of low-cost drives on magnetic disks, several gigabytes flash memory based on the NAND cells and an intelligent SSD controller. The latter places frequently used data - for example, system files OS and software files in fast flash memory, and rarely used, such as photos or music - on a magnetic disk. For optimal performance, SSHD requires a certain time on learning during which it remembers the references to frequently used data. As a result, when loading a PC can access the flash drive before it starts to work with HDD, which can significantly reduce the start time.
Currently, SSHD is available in all common form factors. Almost all indicators combined drives are ahead of standard HDD. Immediately after installation, but before creating an optimized area in a flash memory, a hybrid disk demonstrates significantly higher speed. After multiple reboots, the separation increases. In some conditions, SSHD may even be faster than SSD.
Hybrid hard drive - This is a high speed of the SSD drive in combination with a large capacity and low cost of the usual HDD. Work with a quick solid-state drive (SSD) solid comfort: PC is loaded in just 10-15 s, the programs are started very quickly, and the data record is not reflected at the speed of other processes. But despite the rapid transmission of data, they do not allow large collection of films, photos and music on disks. To combine high speed and large volume, you can use combined solutions that work in a duet: a classic HDD and a solid-state drive.
In such a tandem, the SSD carrier is used as an intermediate storage device (storing frequently used files), while the classic hard disk is used for long-term storage of information. What information should be placed in the SSD disk determines the integrated controller, defining the most frequently used data type during the operation. There are certain limitations: the volume of the solid-state drive is sufficient for system files and small documents, of course it is not enough for multimedia and it will not increase it.
Advantage SSHD.
Some SSHD models can "Like" to the level of ordinary HDD when writing data. This suggests that the disk controller almost all flash memory uses to optimize read operations. In comparison with the standard hard drive, the hybrid drive significantly increases the speed of the laptop, but it does not withstand comparisons with SSD. The main trump card SSHD is the price: despite the significantly higher performance, they stand almost as much as HDD.
Performance of a hybrid disk
Hybrid drives work with SSD speed only if intermediate storage of information can correctly organize. Unfortunately, it does not always succeed. In performance, such carriers are very close to the full SSD, as in practice, the operating system starts with hybrid disks by almost 15-20 seconds faster than with classic HDD, and performance when checking a computer for viruses, at one level with solid-state discs are far Not all, the Hitachi HGST Z5K320 and Toshiba MQ01ABD100H has been shown better than everyone. The hybrid discs reach maximum performance only after several reboots of the OS, since the effective operation of the hybrid hard disk is possible after the learning process (the hybrid disk must recognize frequently used files).
Well, it's time to summarize. The Laptop Thin SSHD line did not show anything special. The use of a spindle rotating at a speed of 5400 rpm, significantly reduced the speed of the drive. The disk demonstrates good results with a consistent reading and recording, although they are far from even budget models of solid-state drives. But with random read / write, as well as working with small SSHD files from Seagate literally fails.
Much more interesting, in my opinion, look SSHD TOSHIBA. The presence of the Marvell controller makes itself felt. Random read / write, small volume data - under these conditions and MQ01AF050H, and MQ01ABD100H demonstrate excellent performance indicators. Yes, a model with a capacity of 1000 GB (depending on the reseller) by 500-1000 rubles more expensive than ST1000LM014, but it is worth it. I think so.
Another interesting model is seagate ST2000DX001. The drive demonstrated a dozen high-speed ability with a sequential reading and writing. Although working with random data, as well as small-sized files in comparison with the same SSHD Toshiba leaves much to be desired. However, if you need a surround drive, but there is no possibility to install in the desktop SSD, then the ST2000DX001 will be a good choice.
The seagate ST4000DX001 model for obvious reasons is inferior to ST2000DX001, besides pretty road.
Summarizing, I note the following:
- hybrid solid-state hard drives have the full right to exist: despite the fact that they are more or less comparable at the price with classic HDD, this type of devices really accelerates the operation of the system. Of course, you should not expect from SSHD Acne and SSD efficiency, but the most frequently used programs will work faster;
- still, in our time the volume decides a lot. There is a category of users (not small, it is necessary to recognize), which is not satisfied with 120-256 GB as a disk subsystem implemented in the form of SSD. The realities of the market are such that the 1000 GB solid-state drive will cost the user at best for 17-18 thousand rubles, and SSHD stands within 3000-5000 rubles. And this is a weighty argument in favor of hybrid hard drives.