Uh, what is a HDD with 4G of SSD Memory?

[Alcsaar]

So I'm building a laptop, and I have the choice between two hard drives (They cost the same)

500gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R306) ( + 0 )

or

500gb (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid (Serial-ATA II 300 - 32MB Cache) (SKU - S5R413) ( + 0 )


On the second one, it says "W/ 4GB SSD Memory"

Does this mean it has a 4 GB SSD in it (essentially?) or is it just clever wording?

Basically I'm trying to decide if its worth losing the 250gb of space for. If it DOES act as a SSD and the OS is installed on it...then thats great. Otherwise, forget it. I plan on adding a SSD later anyway.

[Nitrax]

The SSD part only acts as a fancy cache, if you are getting a real SSD it's not worth it.

[PBitt]

I've never heard of such a thing but I can assure you Windows 7 will not fit in such a small space.

[BicycleMafioso]

It's a cache, so it basically allocates the most often read files and puts them there so they can be queried faster.
You have no actual control over it, though.

Don't get it in place of an SSD, but it will give you extra oomph if you only do get a magnetic storage drive, if you do a lot of repetetive tasks.

[Alcsaar]

K got it I'll go with the 750gb HDD with no SSD cache, then I'll add a SSD later and use the HDD for data (if two will fit).

Thanks people.

[AlamarAtMMOC]

HDD's, being a bunch of discs that spin, and an arm that reads from spots on the discs, are slow because of all that moving around...

If you're reading/writing one bigass file, you won't notice as much of a difference between HDD's and SSD's, but as most file access is a lot of small files, there's a lot more delay from the actual reading/writing. In an SSD, it being 'solid state' (memory), the time difference while jumping around with lots of small files is negligible...

Keeping that in mind, a 4GB (Still a very large amount of data - thousands of small files) SSD 'cache', could make an HDD run as fast as an SSD most of the time, and for a fraction of the cost, giving you the benefit of a lot of storage (HDD) with a lot of speed (SSD).

Personally though, I may never buy another HDD, as it's rare I need to keep around hundreds of gigs of data (I delete a lot).

-Alamar

[Masark]

If you're reading/writing one bigass file, you won't notice as much of a difference between HDD's and SSD's

Actually, current SSDs slap around HDDs in both random and sequential operations.

[BicycleMafioso]

Actually, current SSDs slap around HDDs in both random and sequential operations.

True. But it's not really super-noticable with big ones as it is with 4K for instance.

[Alcsaar]

HDD's, being a bunch of discs that spin, and an arm that reads from spots on the discs, are slow because of all that moving around...

If you're reading/writing one bigass file, you won't notice as much of a difference between HDD's and SSD's, but as most file access is a lot of small files, there's a lot more delay from the actual reading/writing. In an SSD, it being 'solid state' (memory), the time difference while jumping around with lots of small files is negligible...

Keeping that in mind, a 4GB (Still a very large amount of data - thousands of small files) SSD 'cache', could make an HDD run as fast as an SSD most of the time, and for a fraction of the cost, giving you the benefit of a lot of storage (HDD) with a lot of speed (SSD).

Personally though, I may never buy another HDD, as it's rare I need to keep around hundreds of gigs of data (I delete a lot).

-Alamar

Well hell, what do I do then?

I can't imagine I'll need 750g of storage on a laptop, its not replacing my PC after all, its just for when I'm not home (Campus, trips, ect).

But I do plan on gaming on it, so if it will help with load times even a bit it would be nice. Additionally I could probably then hold off on getting the SSD a little longer and decide if I even need it.

[c0rnel]

You should just a get a slightly larger ssd for your main stuff then if you need more space use a backup normal hard drive.

[BicycleMafioso]

But I do plan on gaming on it, so if it will help with load times even a bit it would be nice. Additionally I could probably then hold off on getting the SSD a little longer and decide if I even need it.

Only if you keep loading the same textures repeatedly; Else it'll be overwritten by something else, prioritising your most used tasks.
Most likely browser + your media player(s).

[Nitrax]

If I'd had to guess, the hard drive will try to keep "start of files" in the SSD to lower the percieved access time, but the fact is, 500gb is not going to fit in 4gb. I havn't read any reviews which praise hybrid drives and the diagrams on the site of the hard drive show something very vague... I get "ReadyBoost" vibes from this.

BUT, at the same time there's probably not anything negative with getting a hybrid drive if its the same price and you won't use the space anyway...