Seagate FireCuda

[whoololon]

On the one hand, I read the news just a few hours ago, and it turns out that they are already selling it on sites like Newegg: a 2 TB SHD for about $105.

Okay, it's not cheap; it's basically a Seagate at 5,400 rpm to which they've added a NAND of... 8 GB; the usual is 6 GB. Another interesting fact is that it has a 5-year limited warranty from the manufacturer, compared to the 2 years of the HDDs.

Honestly, I think these drives are great for laptops that only have an HDD and don't support M.2, which are usually the low-end ones or those with a few years; and a bad investment if we take them out of that assumption.

Anyway, there you have it. :nerd:

[kynes]

I think it's short on NAND. At the current price, it wouldn't be a problem if they put in 16 or 32 GB, and it would make a huge difference in performance, but of course, they don't want it to perform too well and eat up the entire SSD market.

[cobito]

Hybrid drives have always caught my attention but I'm with @kynes. 8Gb seems like a ridiculous amount. Today, does it even allow you to install the operating system? Linux might, but Windows hardly.

[whoololon]

Well, you already know how an SSHD works: from the user's point of view, it's a simple, ordinary mechanical disk; you can't "choose" to install the OS on the NAND. It's the built-in controller that manages the use of that memory; normally only the essential files for booting or dumping RAM in hibernation (and the most recurrent ones) go there.

Let's say that the only thing that improves compared to an HDD is the speed with which the computer starts up and the input/output of hibernation. In the rest of the operations that require normal reading/writing, there is no difference.

[kynes]

@whoololon with 32 gigabytes of flash memory would start to speed up the launch of the most used programs, not just the cases you mention. You don't need all the files in flash, the small ones and the ones with more access do, the large ones with not having the disk very fragmented is enough for you.

[whoololon]

@kynes But that's how they work, it's the manufacturer's thing. Even with that amount, we would still not be able to access the NAND area directly.

The cost of a device with the characteristics you mention would most likely not be profitable for the user.

In fact, there are plenty of them: the ST1000LX001 comes with 32 GB in NAND (about €180) and 1 TB in HDD, and there is a WD with 120 GB in NAND and 1 TB in HDD (about €280). That said, I don't think they are worth it, for €70 you can get a 240 GB SSD and for €50 an HDD of 1 TB at 7,200 rpm.

As I said before, they have a very specific use, and taking them out of there makes them a device that is, at the very least, dispensable.

[kynes]

@whoololon said in Seagate FireCuda:

In fact, there are some: the ST1000LX001 comes with 32 GB in NAND (about 180 €) and 1 TB in HDD, and there is a WD with 120 GB in NAND and 1 TB in HDD (about 280 €). That said, I don't think they are worth it, because for 70 € you can get a 240 GB SSD and for 50 € an HDD of 1 TB at 7,200 rpm.
As I said, they have a very specific use, and taking them out of there makes them a device that is, at the very least, dispensable.

I didn't mean to access them directly, but completely transparent to the user. Cache the most necessary files and speed up the operation of a magnetic disk. A hybrid disk has a clear destination, laptops that can only have one disk drive and with a contained price for high capacity, and with a 32 GB cache you have more than enough for the important files of the operating system and typical programs.

MacOS has an option that does exactly that, you put an SSD and an HDD in the same computer, and the system moves the files from one drive to another, transparently to the user, depending on what is used the most.

[cobito]

I thought that two physical disks would appear. So I'm not very convinced by using an SSD as a cache. With such intensive use (constantly copying and deleting data) I imagine that its useful life won't be very long. And I also imagine that when the flash part fails, the whole disk will fail.

I don't know, maybe on a laptop something like this would fit but it has too many weaknesses and its price isn't very attractive from my point of view.