Installing windows 10 on a hybrid drive. Let's migrate to SSD! Speed parameters or HDD and SSD vs SSHD
SSHD is a new marketing term coined by Seagate to describe what is known as a hybrid drive in the market. hard disks and representing a combination of traditional hard drive(HDD), as well as new technologies.
Today we will talk about the pros and cons of this type of drive and whether they are worth your attention and, importantly, money.
What is the advantage of SSHD?
Seagate's advertising headlines read: " SSD performance. Hard capacity disk. Affordable price" Essentially what they are trying to say is that SSHD combines the benefits of both technologies without any significant cost. But if this is true, then why hasn't hybrid hard drive technology revolutionized the storage market yet? We’ll talk about this later, but for now let’s try to take a closer look at these “hybrids”.
SSHDs are essentially regular HDDs, but with a compact, small-capacity solid-state drive added to the disk controller and acting as a kind of cache for frequently used files. Therefore, you should not be surprised that the memory capacity of SSHDs is not inferior to classic hard drives.
SSHD As for the cost, then hybrid rigid drives cost about 10-20% more than traditional HDDs - this is the result of adding additional cache memory and firmware to manage that cache. On the other hand, they are much cheaper than solid-state drives, many times cheaper.
It all sounds quite cool and optimistic, but...
Is SSHD performance really the same as SSD?
The performance issue of hybrid hard drives directly depends on how the user uses the system, and the limiting factor in that same performance is the small amount of cache memory (currently about 8 GB), which is simply not enough to perform more or less serious tasks.
If the user “uses” his PC to a minimum, well, let’s say, surfs the Internet, sits on social networks, reads email, plays solitaire and plays chess, then such a user will have the greatest benefit from using hybrid hard drives, because in this scenario, the cache memory is quite enough to fully process all data at a speed corresponding to an SSD.
But, if we take into account another user who, let’s say, plays a variety of “heavy” computer games, then we can safely say that this user will not notice any difference in performance if he changes the HDD to an SSHD. Why? Because the cache size is quite small and the files are the same computer game it will be constantly updated and cannot be reused (from the cache), since it will be deleted and replaced with new files. And if the files are not reused, then there will be no real benefit from the SSD cache.
The same applies to copying data. If you copy, say, a folder of files and want to move it from one place to another, and it takes up more than 8 GB, then, accordingly, not the SSHD cache will be used, but its normal memory on a magnetic hard drive, and the copying speed will be the same as on a classic HDD.
But, as a “sweetener”, it is worth noting that the system boot when you turn on the computer will be approximately 10 seconds, which practically corresponds to the speed of the SSD.
So who needs an SSHD?
Primary market solid state hybrid drives- laptops. The fact is that the limited space of the case does not allow installing more than one disk in these systems. Installing only one SSD can provide greater performance, but limit the amount of data that can be stored on it. On the other hand, installing a single HDD will provide a lot of space, but work HDD will not be as productive as solid state drive.
SSHD, in turn, can offer simple and affordable way provide higher productivity with the same volumes internal memory- an excellent compromise. Plus, since most laptops are used for work rather than gaming, the benefits of SSHD drives become even more attractive.
For desktop systems, however, I do not yet recommend installing hybrid hard drives, since the case of a personal computer allows you to easily install several drives, namely SSD (for system operation) and HDD (for data storage), which will give excellent performance and large amount of disk space.
An exception would be mini-desktop systems, which only have internal space for one drive.
The first qualitative leap in the field of data storage in personal computers occurred about 30 years ago - when the hard drive became the main storage device. The personal computer equipped with the latter really reached a different level compared to its predecessors, equipped only with floppy drives, or even working with household tape recorders, and in all respects. Simply because the high capacity and speed of hard drives led to a sharp increase in power application programs, and indeed to a completely different scenario for using technology. Actually, that's why this scheme quickly became standard and remained unchanged for many years.
However, by now the market has begun to undergo further developments. Hard drives continue to be the main type of drive in mass-market computers. However, it is no longer the only one - flash memory is nipping at its heels. However, solid-state drives still cannot compete with hard drives in terms of capacity, but the trick is that the user often does not need high capacity. In any case, it is not needed in every computer - now a personal computer is not the only device of this kind at the owner’s disposal, but just a part global infrastructure, which includes both local NAS and global cloud services. Accordingly, parameters such as performance or resistance to external adverse influences (shaking, for example) are taking the lead in many areas of use, but here flash memory-based drives are head and shoulders above their mechanical relatives.
But in practice, everything is even more complicated than the head-on confrontation between mechanics and semiconductors. The fact is that manufacturers have long been working on hybrid drives that include both. In terms of capacity, they do not lag behind hard drives (which is not surprising, since the hard drive is the basis of all hybrids), but at the same time they inherit many of their shortcomings, and performance... It’s more complicated with it. A conservative estimate (with which we tend to agree) is that the performance of hybrids is no lower than that of hard drives, and in a number of use cases can be comparable to solid-state devices. But not always, i.e. everything is simple only at the extreme points: hard drives are slow, SSDs are fast. And hybrids - depending on your luck.
However, such a vague definition certainly does not suit everyone. The only problem is that accurate testing of systems with hybrid drives is extremely difficult due to the variability of the results. Depending on the selected scenario and test programs, it is not so difficult to obtain both performance at the level of conventional hard drives and comparable to solid-state drives. Moreover, the more test programs low level we take, the more results of the first type we get. And high-level tests of the entire system usually do not depend too much on the performance of the drives themselves, so in them you can easily achieve parity between all types of the latter.
But no matter how difficult the search for an exact answer to the question posed may be, it needs to be done. Including with the help different approaches. In the line of articles devoted to testing drives themselves, we mainly focus on low-level tests and try (for obvious reasons) not to compare devices different types together. Today's material is of a different kind. In it we will limit ourselves to high-level benchmarks, but we will test five different drives within one system. Let's see what comes out of this.
What and how we test
Not long ago we got our hands on gaming laptop MSI GP60, which differs from most devices on the market in the use of a Western Digital hybrid hard drive. This is already interesting in itself, since, unlike Seagate, which sells its hybrids left and right through all channels (so anyone can buy them), WDC so far ships its drives of this class only to manufacturers ready-made systems. According to the company, this should help the most complete and correct use potential of hybrid hard drives and avoid their “incorrect” use. For example, an individual buyer can try to install a couple of hybrids in RAID0, which is not very reasonable (mostly sequential operations are accelerated, but the same level of performance can be achieved on a cheaper array of conventional hard drives), or use additional external flash caching, which in most cases it will only worsen the performance. And the laptop manufacturer definitely won’t do anything stupid :) Moreover, if possible, he will configure the system accordingly and include the “correct” utilities in the kit (ideally). In general, this is an approach with its pros and cons. And its main disadvantages on the part of testers (i.e. us) is that you can’t just go to the store and pick up one hard drive - you need to get a whole system with it somewhere. However, as we see, it is not so difficult :)
So, the WDC WD10J13T itself is interesting in itself. Despite belonging to the Black series, it has a platter rotation speed of only 5400 rpm, which, in general, is already becoming common: 7200 laptop hard drives are dying out, since hybridization is now becoming the main method of increasing productivity. This model also has as much as 24 GB of flash memory installed, which is not so bad - SanDisk caching SSDs, actively used by many laptop manufacturers, have just such a capacity. And the package of pancakes is also familiar - two 500 GB disks, which is this moment is the maximum for 9.5 mm WD hard drives. Note - only 5400 models: “black” at 7200 rpm. has not been updated for a very long time and uses less dense platters, so the capacity is limited to 750 GB, and for some types of load it is already more high speed rotation of the plates does not help to break away from the cheaper “blue” models (and, accordingly, older hybrids). In general, this is a capacious hard drive, accelerated by hybridization.
Who can you compare it to? Of course, testing would not be complete without the Seagate SSHD. Closest to technical specifications is ST1000LX003: also a terabyte on two plates and 32 GB of flash memory, but, unfortunately, we have not tested it yet. But I found the Laptop Thin SSHD ST500LM000 “at hand”. The plate in it is the same as in older models, but there is only one. However, in comparison with an SSD, its 500 GB capacity still looks good - flash memory of this or greater capacity is still too expensive from the point of view of many buyers. So the main drawback of this model's performance characteristics is only 8 GB of flash buffer, which, as we already found when testing the drive, is not enough. On the other hand, the technology developed over several years may well compensate for the advantage of a Western Digital drive in flash capacity, so the comparison promises to be interesting.
But, be that as it may, the question is “which hybrid to buy?” Users ask themselves much less often than “is it worth buying a hybrid hard drive?” (especially since, as mentioned above, Western Digital does not yet sell its models at retail, which further narrows the possibility of choice as such). That is why it is impossible to avoid comparison with “ordinary powder”, i.e. a simple hard drive. So as not to offend any of the manufacturers, an example of such today will be the Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500-320: a single-platter from a “neutral manufacturer” with the same rotation speed of 5400 rpm as both test subjects. Of course, there are faster “classic” hard drives, but the modern “floor” is more important to us, not the “ceiling”. And in general - as has been said more than once, the latter is already beginning to slowly disappear: the role of top models is beginning to be played by hybrids, and devices with a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. become a dead-end branch of evolution.
And finally, the favorites today- solid state drives. There will be two of them - the budget Crucial M500 with 120 GB and a slightly larger one high class Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB. Note that the “budget” of the M500 is, in general, also relative - in price it is approximately equal to a terabyte hybrid from Seagate with 8 GB of flash memory (there are no retail prices for the WD10J13T yet, but it is unlikely that the cost of two similar drives different companies may vary too much). Actually, this is the answer to the question - why solid-state drives are still unable to displace mechanical drives: the prices are too different. Yes, of course, it is now possible to purchase an SSD at the price of an HDD (especially an SSHD), but the capacity will differ radically - eight times, i.e. almost an order of magnitude. A quarter of a terabyte of flash is relatively more profitable than an eighth of flash, but here it’s better not to compare absolute prices with hard drives. And if the buyer needs half a terabyte, then he will either have to buy an SSD at the price of a budget (even not the cheapest) laptop, or... Or give up on all the theoretical advantages of new technologies and turn to time-tested ones. Or also new, but less radical, i.e., hybrid drives.
As for the tools, there is no particular point in leaning on low-level tests - we have already established that. But PCMark is suitable as a measuring tool. Moreover, the two latest (at the moment) versions of this test package are also used when testing laptops, so some of the results have already been obtained earlier.
Low level - technology matters
So, let's start with the routes specialized for storage devices. There are too many detailed results, so we will limit ourselves to general estimates.
There are two suitable traces in PCMark7, so let's start with the more “refined” one. As you can see, hybridize does not hybridize, and solid-state drives are out of reach. They themselves can vary greatly in speed, but a budget SSD is already a couple of times faster than the fastest of the three hard drives participating in testing. However, flash buffering is not so bad - it allows you to increase performance on this route by 30-50%, but this is not at all enough to cross the chasm separating “mechanical” drives from semiconductor drives.
If you rise to a higher level and get closer to real loads, then the situation no longer looks so clear. Yes, of course, SSDs are still out of reach, but their advantage is greatly reduced compared to the previous case. That is, we can talk about a twofold difference only when comparing a slow hard drive with fast SSD, and hybrid drives can already somehow be compared with budget solid-state ones. Of course, we are still not talking about equality, but a lag of some 20% against the background of many times greater capacity at similar prices is something that many users can already accept.
In PCMark8, this group of tests turned out to be completely new, and not a significantly reworked old one. The result is at least interesting - the difference between different hard drives or between different SSDs. The first ones are about one and a half times faster than the second, but within the groups the spread is not too great.
So, let's drop everything, break out the piggy bank and run to the store? Take your time - these are just relatively low-level tests.
PCMark7 - Ubiquitous Storage
As we already wrote in the review of the laptop itself, with the exception of the Computation test, in each PCMark 7 scenario there are tasks to determine the performance of the data storage subsystem. Moreover, when calculating the integral result, the weight of these results turns out to be quite large. What should we get as a result?
Computation, of course, is practically independent of the type or specific model system storage. The influence of the latter can be traced a little, of course, but the difference (albeit stable - easily repeatable) is somewhere within the measurement error.
The transition to other routes changes things dramatically. Lightweight (light, non-stressful computer work) is almost identical to System storage. Relatively, but not absolutely, of course: after all, the test also contains a considerable number 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 important for many users. At the same time, “traditional” hard drives are significantly slower, but top-end SSDs are much faster.
The Productivity test is also very “easy”, and it includes only two traces from the System storage group, and not three as in the previous case. True, here is one of them (namely launching applications), as we have seen more than once when testing drives, O and everyone else. In general, the results are already familiar: a computer with a traditional hard drive is almost two times slower than one equipped with a fast SSD, but budget models of solid-state drives and hybrid hard drives somewhere in the middle between them, and provide comparable performance. But even that is not the same. True, their capacity is even more unequal :)
There is more work in Creativity, so the difference between different types of drives begins to decrease, although it does not disappear completely. But don’t be surprised that many may not notice it. That is, a person exchanges a hard drive for an SSD to work with videos and photos in anticipation Wow!, but instead of “wow” he gets 20% of the productivity, and not everywhere. Also a lot, of course, but knowing the numbers in advance, there would be even fewer people willing to pay for them.
And finally entertainment group(Entertainment). There are only two “accumulative” tests here (and one of the traces is not very accelerated on an SSD), and there are 11 others. Some of them, however, flash memory allows you to pass faster, but not all of them are significant. As a result, we come to the conclusion that for “home entertainment” use of a computer, the type of drive used is not very important. Hybrid hard drives certainly provide some performance gains, and solid-state ones are even faster, but the difference is not as dramatic as the low-level tests might lead you to believe. Which is quite consistent with everyday logic - a fast drive will allow you to launch the game faster and/or load new levels, but the frame rate in it will be determined by the video card (and a little by the processor, memory, etc.), regardless of where the game is installed. On the other hand... It is precisely in order to remove these most annoying delays when switching between levels that gamers buy SSDs. And those who are not too irritated by them (at least, not enough to part with a significant amount of money) do not buy.
The overall PCMark7 result, as one would expect, is even more dependent on the performance of the drive used than individual traces. But this still doesn’t give us anything new - a familiar situation, where mechanical drives are obvious outsiders, fast solid-state drives are the undisputed leaders, and somewhere between them is the habitat of budget SSDs and hybrid hard drives, which can, to a first approximation, be considered equal to each other.
PCMark8 - everything is calm in Baghdad
The operating logic of the new Futuremark test package has changed a lot - unlike its predecessor, it does not try to “mix” cumulative tests, focusing specifically on “real software” (which in some scenarios can actually be real - as we already wrote, the package is capable of using different Adobe versions Creative Suite or Microsoft Office, For example user installed). However, as we have already seen, and, in fact, the Storage group in this package finds fewer differences between drives of different types. Let's see how all this affects high-level tests.
Home computer - all colas are the same. In any case, when running tests repeatedly, only “pure” mechanics lose (and only 10%), and hybrid hard drives are able to quickly cache the bulk of the work, which makes them equal to SSDs. But even if we plan for the worst case scenario (which, unfortunately, is almost impossible to simulate in this version of the package), we will “fall” only to the level of ordinary hard drives. That is, with this use of the computer, as we see, there is no need to chase an SSD (in any case).
What is noteworthy is that in an even easier “working” scenario, the gap between solid-state and hybrid drives from traditional ones only increased, while they themselves remained approximately equal to each other.
If content is not only consumed, but also produced, the use of flash memory in any form becomes even more preferable. In itself, there is no longer any need to chase top-end solid-state drives, since budget models of the latter, as well as hybrid hard drives, provide a level of performance comparable to them. However, you can look at the situation from the other side - in fact, here the difference between the two hybrids that took part in testing is comparable to the difference between drives of different classes.
And sometimes it can even exceed it. In fact, the Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD lags behind the younger modification of the Crucial M500 less than it is ahead of the hybrid WD Black. However, here the fastest SSD taken outperforms the slow “classic” hard drive by less than 15%. But it overtakes, i.e. already installed dependencies in force.
Perhaps the most difficult work scenario also turned out to be the most loyal to solid-state drives. So we come to the conclusion that to use Adobe products purchasing an SSD is highly advisable. Which is not surprising - the applications of this manufacturer work very actively with hard drives. Especially the same Photoshop, which is actively creating a large number temporary files. Hybrid hard drives are unable to greatly speed up the process - after all, the mechanics prevent you from achieving high performance. But the potential of solid-state drives is fully utilized. A “smart” SSD allows you to get a one and a half times increase in performance relative to hard drives, which is very noticeable in the same environment. Especially in laptop computers, where, for example, it is impossible to obtain a similar increase due to the processor in some cases - let us recall that the system we used had a Core i7-4700QM installed: albeit not the highest in model range, but quad-core Haswell, which lags behind the extreme model of its generation by only 20 percent (the competition with representatives of older lines is even less clear). But, of course, to get such an effect, the solid-state drive must be used not only for installing programs, but also for working with data - otherwise the increase will be much more modest. And this unambiguously addresses us to capacious models of the top lines (the rest may simply not fit everything you need), which themselves can cost as much as a middle-class laptop. Thus, hybrid technologies are even more relevant - as we see, such hard drives are quite capable of competing with some budget SSDs, offering the buyer many times more working space, which can turn out to be extremely important (“splashing” a hundred gigabytes of photos with a modern DSLR is a simple matter and within one trip). In general, based on a combination of factors (speed, capacity, price), there are no clear leaders and clear outsiders. This means that all technologies and their combinations will remain relevant in the near future. Each one is simply in its place.
Total
Manufacturers of solid-state drives “love” to use the results of low-level benchmarks in advertising, and when promoting hybrid ones, the main emphasis is on the fact that sometimes they are almost as good as solid-state drives. Both are true. But not all of them :) In the first case, do not forget that low-level “parrots” are extremely rarely achievable in practice - more often than not, the performance of the entire computer when solving certain problems is “limited” by the characteristics of completely different components. Or even nothing at all except the user. As you might guess, this is often the “stumbling block” for hybrids: there are many loads where “regular” hard drives are often not too far behind solid-state drives even without any hybridization. Therefore, you should not count on the fact that SSD installation Instead of even the slowest hard drive, adding it to any laptop will radically speed it up everywhere - this may not affect the time it takes to complete practical tasks at all, i.e., you will continue to process the photo for 15 minutes. Another question is that the comfort of this event may increase - in particular, delays when launching programs will no longer be noticeable. Or “brakes” when loading levels in a game, etc. But the frame rate, as we wrote above, will not increase - it all depends on the video card and, to a lesser extent, on the processor. To view a photo in RAW format, it seems that you need to quickly read it from the media. However, when high resolution“developing” RAW itself can take several seconds (or even tens of seconds) - against this background, the time for reading a file even from a USB flash drive will simply be “lost.”
January 19, 2014 at 5:07 pmHybrid wheels SSHD - what kind of bird?
- King Servers Blog
In our work we often have to deal with a variety of information storage devices, including hard drives and solid-state storage devices. At the same time, sometimes you come across enough unusual devices, which are not widespread. For example, SSHD are hybrid hard drives. There are probably people on Habré who are well acquainted with this type of information storage device, but there are also those who have not even heard of such “hybrids”.
So, hybrid hard drives, first of all, are a compromise solution that allows you to increase overall performance system in which they are installed, and reduce the price of such a system.
After all, despite their widespread use, solid-state drives are still quite expensive, and it is unlikely that there will come a time soon when the price of such drives will drop significantly.
Conventional hard drives are inexpensive for the most part, but their performance is limited, and you cannot “jump” above a certain limit. That's why hybrid hard drives appeared. SSHD appeared a few years ago, and at first they were pure exoticism, which few people took seriously (and few knew about them). The main advantage of a hybrid hard drive is that it increases the overall performance of the system in which they are installed, using only one drive bay (rather than two, if you use both an SSD and a regular hard drive). Now there are models of “hybrids” of small sizes, for example, with a thickness of only 7 mm (this is the model ST500LM000 from Seagate), which allows you to install such drives in netbooks/ultrabooks.
The operating principle of SSHD is based on caching the most frequently used data using flash memory, that is, the SSD part of the “hybrid”. Already at the first start operating system on a laptop/PC with a “hybrid”, the files that the operating system needs to boot are placed in the non-volatile part of the SSHD memory. As a result, the OS startup speed increases, and quite significantly.
The hybrid drive, by the way, shows almost similar file transfer speed results compared to conventional hard drives. But the difference in the operation of different types of devices becomes very noticeable when comparing file access time (Access Time). For example, if we take Seagate drive ST500LT032 with a capacity of 500 GB and compare with the “hybrid” ST500LM000 of similar capacity, then the file access speed will be 24.2 and 0.3 ms.
As for the maximum speed of the interface, the difference is no longer several times, but 15%. In the first case, 101 MB/s, in the second - 115 MB/s.
There are also disadvantages, and first of all, it is the inability to fit all critical data on the SSD part of an SSHD disk. Typically, an SSD in a “hybrid” is installed with a capacity of 8 GB, sometimes more (for example, models with 32 GB of flash memory are not uncommon), but then such a drive will be more expensive.
The price of “hybrids” is only slightly higher than the price regular hard disks. If we take the models already mentioned above, then the price of the Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD ST500LM000 is $73-75, and the Seagate ST500LT032 is about $50.
So, if you want to increase the OS loading speed, as well as the overall performance of your laptop/desktop PC, we recommend using “hybrids”. Well, that's if saving money is important to you. If not, then you should use SSD and regular hard drives separately.
Well, it's time to sum up. The Laptop Thin SSHD line didn't show anything special. Using a spindle rotating at 5400 rpm significantly reduced the speed of the drive. The disk demonstrates good results when reading and writing sequentially, although they are far from even budget models solid state drives. But with random reading/writing, as well as working with small files, the SSHD from Seagate literally fails.
In my opinion, SSHD TOSHIBA look much more interesting. The presence of a Marvell controller makes itself felt. Random read/write, small data - in these conditions, both MQ01AF050H and MQ01ABD100H demonstrate excellent performance. Yes, the 1000 GB model (depending on the reseller) is 500-1000 rubles more expensive than the ST1000LM014, but it’s worth it. I think so.
Another one interesting model- Seagate ST2000DX001. The drive demonstrated impressive speed capabilities for sequential reading and writing. Although working with random data, as well as small files, in comparison with the same SSHD TOSHIBA leaves much to be desired. However, if you need a large storage drive, but there is no way to install an SSD in your desktop, then the ST2000DX001 will be a good choice.
The Seagate ST4000DX001 model is, for obvious reasons, inferior to the ST2000DX001, and is also quite expensive.
To summarize, I would like to note the following:
- Hybrid solid state hard drives have every right existence: despite the fact that they are more or less comparable in price to classic HDDs, this type devices really speeds up the system. Of course, you shouldn’t expect the speed and efficiency of an SSD from an SSHD, but the most frequently used programs will run faster;
- Still, nowadays volume decides a lot. There is a category of users (far from small, I must admit) who are not satisfied with 120-256 GB of quality disk subsystem, implemented in the form of an SSD. The realities of the market are such that a 1000 GB solid state drive will cost the user best case scenario for 17-18 thousand rubles, and SSHD costs between 3000-5000 rubles. And this is a strong argument in favor of hybrid hard drives.
Today there are a large number various types devices for recording, storing and processing information. One of the most popular developments, which has already become quite a part of our lives, is a hybrid SSHD device.
He is regular hard disk equipped with a section solid state memory. The operating principle of this device is unique.
Story
The device of this type appeared relatively long ago, almost immediately after various types of solid-state drives such as SSDs were put into mass production. The latter had extremely high performance and other advantages. But they were also distinguished by their almost exorbitant cost relative to ordinary hard drives.
Photo: The world's first transparent SSD drive
The way out of this situation was a hybrid hard drive. It, unlike its more simply designed counterparts, is equipped not only with ordinary pancakes rotating on a special spindle, but also with a memory chip.
This kind of engineering solution is to combine two various types memory in one case - made it possible to reduce the cost of computers and at the same time increase their performance.
In order to understand what an SSHD is, you need to familiarize yourself with its structure. The most important difference from a regular hard drive - the presence of memory chips.
Device
The type of device under consideration for storing and processing data consists of two main parts:
Solid state memory;
Hard drives.
Hard drives can be made of aluminum or glass plates coated with some ferrimagnetic material. Solid-state memory is a microcircuit; data is written to it non-mechanically.
The plates rotating on a special spindle are placed in a hermetically sealed closed chamber filled with nitrogen or other similar gas. It is cleared of foreign impurities, its humidity is minimal. Available dual system cleaning in case dust or other foreign particles enter the containment area. Inside the case there is a three-phase synchronous motor, as well as heads for reading and writing data.
Principle of operation
The operating principle of an SSHD device is very simple. Arrays for recording data are ordinary metal disks with a special coating. Information is recorded on them using the tunnel magnetoresistive effect. As a result of this effect, the magnetic field affects the resistance of the magnetic surface of the disks. Which leads to a change in the magnetization vector of individual elements.
Data is read in the same way. The head hovers above the metal surface and the reverse process occurs - the resistance of the surface of the plates affects the magnetic field of the writing head. The information received is analyzed and decrypted.
The operating principle of a hybrid drive is completely different from a conventional hard drive. Actually, this microcircuit is a flash memory into which various types of data are recorded. Its operating speed is much higher than that of a standard hard drive.
The essence of the hybrid SSHD is that metal plates are used to house permanently stored information.
The use of the solid-state part of the device is carried out only after starting the operating system. Those files that the system accesses constantly are written to it. Thus, access to them is greatly simplified and accelerated.
It is due to this that the speed of work increases. The connection interface uses an interface called SATA.
in all testing applications it is designated as Access Time.
For comparison, you can use the two most common models:
The data access speed when using ST500LT will be 24.2 m/s. The ST500LM has a similar characteristic of 0.3 m/s. So the performance difference is very large.
The most obvious way to see the difference in performance is when testing in some specialized work. For example, in PCMark 05.
Where is the best place to use an SSHD drive? The drives in question are used both in laptops and in regular, desktop computers
. That is why both a full-size version – 3.5 inches – and a smaller one are produced. There are also a large number of models, the thickness of which is within 7 mm. That's why they are often used in laptops. Most often, solid state drives additional memory used in laptops, since these devices suffer from a lack of performance. This is due to the compactness of the hardware. And the solid state drive allows you to compensate this disadvantage
. But you can also often find the disk in question in regular desktop PCs.
Short review Most often on sale you can find a model labeled as Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD
. You can also easily find an overview of it; in appearance, you can confuse it with the most ordinary disk drive, equipped with two metal plates coated with ferromagnetic coating. The model under consideration has 2.5 inches. The data exchange process is carried out through an interface labeled SATA 6. The internal memory capacity is 500 GB. The spindle rotation speed is not very high - only 5400 rpm.
Other performance characteristics are also outstanding:
- power consumption – 0.9 W;
- noise level – 2.2 dB;
- impact resistance – 350/1000 g;
- dimensions:
- length – 100.35 mm;
- height – 70.1 mm;
- depth – 7 mm;
- weight – 95 g.
It allows you to significantly increase productivity and reduce total weight.
Soon there will be a complete transition to hybrid and solid-state storage devices. Since this direction has very great potential for development. Extremely high operating speed allows you to carry out a greater number of operations in the shortest period of time. Solid State permanent memory
