Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
Conclusion:
PROS:
- Excellent overall performance from a very thin form factor SSHD.
- Outstanding performance when considering Cost/GB.
- Caching works full time, without the need for any configuration or driver.
CONS:
- Cache size is smaller than we'd like to see in a 3rd generation Hybrid.
Pricing and Availability:
Here's a current snapshot of Hybrid pricing:
- Momentus XT 500GB (1st gen): $140 ($0.28/GB) – Newegg.com Link
- Momentus XT 750GB (2nd gen): $140 ($0.19/GB) – Newegg.com Link
- Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD (500GB): $100 ($0.20/GB) – Newegg.com Link
- Seagate Laptop SSHD (1TB): $120 ($0.12/GB) – Newegg.com Link
You've gotta love hybrid pricing. $120 for a 1TB laptop drive that theoretically gives SSD-like performance for most real world usage is nothing short of outstanding. We'd like to see the Thin model a bit cheaper, but super slim HDD's come at a bit of a price premium. Also bear in mind the Thin model contains all of the hybrid / SSD components and performance of the larger model, minus 1 platter, meaning a mere $20 reduction in cost is not that far out of line once you think about it.
Warranty:
Seagate SSHD's ship with a 3-Year warranty.
Final Thoughts:
Seagate appears to be leading the way in the mobile Hybrid drive market. Each and every generation has pushed the envelope further and come closer to native SSD speeds. The catch is those speeds are only attained for data that is in the cache, and the meager 8GB of flash seems to be holding these devices back when in the hands of more demanding power users with heavier workloads. While we'd like to see a larger caches in future models, the current Seagate SSHD yields outstanding performance in a very small package, and does so at a very competitive price.
If a laptop is your primary PC and you can't afford an SSD of the necessary capacity, you no longer have an excuse to be stuck in the stone age. It's upgrade time. You'll be glad you did.
I’m glad to see Seagate
I’m glad to see Seagate coming into this market in a strong way. WD and Seagate definitely had to be planni9ng on deploying these SSHDs for sometime as they knew the spinning disc market is becoming more specialized and less general purpose.
Also interesting is the 3 year warranty! Traditionally Seagate has been on the lower side of warranty coverage length since the now-infamous flood.
Can’t wait to tell my boss to order some of these in.
Speaking of storage I thought
Speaking of storage I thought the following was also interesting!
One SSD Vs. Two In RAID: Which Is Better?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html
What poor grammar and
What poor grammar and spelling! Isn’t there anyone who spell checks or proofreads these articles?
Leave it to “Anonymous” to
Leave it to “Anonymous” to make a comment like that. Poor kid was afraid to tie his name to it.
These are geeks that write this stuff – not English majors.
If you are looking for perfect writings, read a poem.
One does not have to an
One does not have to an English major to use correct grammar and sentence structure. I’d expect that from a sixth grade student. The comment has merit. What’s so hard about spell checking and writing correctly, more to the point- what is the benefit of presenting your thoughts incorrectly? I’m sure “geeks” have to capacity to make the effort to write concisely- don’t you?
Hi,
It looks good on
Hi,
It looks good on synthetic tests, but in real life it is slower that seagate 500gb 7200rpm.
Anybody know when the Seagate
Anybody know when the Seagate ST1000DX001 will be available? I can’t seem to find it ANYWHERE! Please advise.