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Why isn't there a good Hybrid SSD/HDD made?

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attack

Member
Joined
May 23, 2002
Yeah I know the Seagate XT...but 4GB of SLC NAND isn't crap.

For laptops with only 1 HDD bay you're stuck with getting a single SSD and using external storage and lugging it around. Or paying an arm and a leg for a 256GB HDD.

There's gotta be room for a single platter 2.5" drive to squeeze 64 or 128GB of NAND and a 320 or 500GB platter!?!

If Seagate saw the market for their drive I gotta believe a nice Hybrid drive should exist....what's everyones thoughts on this?
 
I would think that the price for them to make that would be comparable to the same size SSD.

I could be totally wrong though ;)
 
Are you talking about a hybrid drive that appears to be one single unit to the user, or appears to be two dedicated drives? I am curious if SATA controllers can handle "two" drives off one channel... Sure it's like two partitions, but I have no clue how it works.

Of course, I am assuming you are thinking about a 2.5" drive for notebook applications, correct? In most desktops, having multiple drives doesn't seem to be a big deal.

I honestly think there isn't enough demand for a 'two partition' hybrid drive yet for manufacturers. I think there are three markets. 1) Mainstream crowd that just looks for the biggest # GB hard drive. 2) Premium crowd that will pay $$$$ for a large SSD. 3) The 'enthusiast' crowd who wants the performance of a SSD, but is not willing to pay for a high capacity one. The first crowd is a money maker because there's many of them. The second crowd makes money cause there's a high price premium (I'm guessing/hoping). The third crowd (us) isn't large enough to fully justify making a high capacity, semi-high performance solution that has a low cost (yet, at least).

Maybe instead of putting the burden of a high performance, high capacity solution on the hard drive manufacturers, it should be on the notebook manufacturers. For example, the Acer Acer S laptops apparently have a 20GB SSD and a 320GB HDD. I am not sure if the SSD is just for the 'quick sleep' business, or if it is actually accessible by the user, but I believe this concept should be pursued by other manufacturers.
 
The logic and programming required to make the SSD worth having as a cache is apparently difficult to do well. Intel's SRT appears to be the only working software available at the moment. There's a few companies marketing themselves towards OEM providers (ie, the SSD manufacturers), but nobody seems to be biting.

If it worked, and worked well, it would indeed be an ideal solution for a compromise between speed and capacity. Hopefully more products using such tech will reach market soon.
 
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