# Should I get a SSHD/Hybrid for storage?



## CK011885 (Dec 20, 2015)

I did some light reading about SSHD's and my initial thought was that for storage purposes as a second drive, there isn't really a reason to be using a SSHD over a traditional hard drive. I just wanted to double check with the smart peoples here if that's true before I go ahead and make my purchase. Thanks.


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## Dethroy (Dec 20, 2015)

No tangible benefit when you already have a seperate ssd for your OS.


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## Kursah (Dec 20, 2015)

For storage no, I actually use one for storage (got the 2TB SSHD for cheaper than the 2TB HDD at the time)...you won't notice a difference.

Now if you were using that SSHD as an OS drive as I do in my lappy, it does help with load times. Depending on the game it helps at times too...though the technology banks on you being consistent, and I've been random lately so really the only noticeable benefit vs a standard HDD in that aspect was the OS boot time. I have my drive imaged to the factory 500GB and run a 1TB SSHD in my Dell 3540. Was a nice upgrade...still not nearly as-fast-as an SSD of course...but it was a cheap storage upgrade!

Save the money if it costs more, but don't hesitate to get it if it's cheaper.


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## 95Viper (Dec 20, 2015)

"Should I get a SSHD/Hybrid for storage?"

Only if you plan on using it for some other purposes later; or, you can get the same capacity and other specs for the same price or cheaper than a regular ole HDD.



Kursah said:


> Save the money if it costs more, but don't hesitate to get it if it's cheaper.



Got me... gotta type faster...


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## RejZoR (Dec 22, 2015)

Dethroy said:


> No tangible benefit when you already have a seperate ssd for your OS.



People still going on with the SSD boot drives. Which is the dumbest investment possible. All you benefit is faster boot and few apps that you have on SSD. Everything else will run at snal speed because it's stored on regular HDD. Hybrids and SSHD's boost performance regardless of storage location. So you can utilize huge capcities while having basically SSD speed. Sure there is tiny gap where it behaves like HDD until data is cached, but once it is, it'll be almost as fast as SSD.

So, grab a huge HDD, pair it with 64GB or even 128GB SSD (or even M.2 if you can) using eBoostr/PrimoCache. Voila.

Not only it is fast, it's also very affordable and fail proof. Even if SSD dies (we know SSD's tend to just die sometimes for no reason or warning) for whatever reason you won't lose any data because it's not a RAID mirror.

People who bitch how stupid hybrid setups are haven't actually ever used one and they just want to be smartasses. I've been using it for like 3 years now and it's superb. Ancient WD Caviar Black 2TB paired with 128GB M.2 AHCI drive and eBoostr (also tried PrimoCache). First time I reboot system or run games and apps they start at HDD speed. Next time, it fires up almost with SSD responsiveness even after cold boot (meaning nothing is cached in RAM). Cost? 100€ for M.2 SSD and around 15-30€ for the caching software. And you can keep your existing HDD.


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## rtwjunkie (Dec 22, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> All you benefit is faster boot and few apps that you have on SSD.



Unless you actually install all your programs except games on the SSD C drive.  Then no SSHD will beat it.  It's not just boot times, it's every program's operation that is faster.


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## RejZoR (Dec 22, 2015)

If you're a gamer that owns Steam, forget it. Not possible unless if you plan on uninstalling and reinstalling games constantly. Hybrid however dynamically caches whatever you happen to run most often.

Trust me, I know how all this works. I do have laptop that only runs SSD as well as tablet with solid storage. I know how things work and how they limit you capacity wise.

I'm a huge advocate for SSD's because they are awesome, but only when you can entirely go SSD without compromises. And before you try M.2... I'm craving for a 2TB SSD SATA so I can finally toss all spinning shit out. And now I've tried ridiculously fast M.2 drive. And now I'll be hesitating buying a SATA drive when M.2's are so much better. I think sometime next year prices will drop enough so I'll be able to afford one. M.2 NVMe. Until then, hybrid all the way.


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## Frick (Dec 22, 2015)

A friend had a computer. He started it when he got up, then made coffee and had some breakfast, read the newspaper. When he was done with all those things the system was essentially functioning. I like that. It sounds peaceful.



RejZoR said:


> If you're a gamer that owns Steam, forget it. Not possible unless if you plan on uninstalling and reinstalling games constantly. Hybrid however dynamically caches whatever you happen to run most often.



Or you just have the games on a HDD anyway, as he said.

The next reinstall I might try this. But then I have to shuffle around all those bytes again, blergh.


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## RejZoR (Dec 22, 2015)

Yeah, well, that's the point of hybrids. You don't have to shuffle any data around. Clever algorithms do that for you. Where with small boot drives, you have tos huffle data around manually and that's just stupid wasting of time.


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## hat (Dec 22, 2015)

I still recommend a true SSD for OS, and a HDD for storage. I don't even use much of my 128GB SSD, and would have been just as happy with a 64GB model. I'm not sure how many programs or what type/size of programs other people would use to load up C: so much, but for me, I'm sitting at around 25GB right now. After I got my OS SSD, I bought a 512GB SSD after a lot of working overtime and was disappointed. I could have just as well chugged along with a spinner for my games.

If I were to build myself a new computer today from the ground up, I would probably use one SSD for my OS, wherever price and performance met their sweet spot. Capacity is high enough and my actual usage is low enough for it to not even matter. Then, I would probably get 2 (games) drives for RAID 1, or 3 drives for raid 5, whichever turned out to be cheaper (e.g. 2x1TB for RAID 1, 3x500GB for RAID 5). Storage for other things not so much of an issue, as I would have a media server to store bulky files on. The only reason I'd bother putting my games on RAID is because it would suck for a drive to die, and have to re-download/re-install them... especially with ISP data cap.


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## Dethroy (Dec 23, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> People still going on with the SSD boot drives. Which is the dumbest investment possible.



No, not boot drives. Storage drive SSDs. It's not like SSDs are super expensive anymore.

But if you so still need a data graveyard, then feel free to buy a simple HDD or a hybrid. But since that drive will be solely used as a graveyard, a hybrid won't pose much benefits since the data will just sit there and will never be read - or when it finally comes to reading data, the small flash cache won't be big enough to make a difference anyways.

Edit: I would simply avoid using platters at all. A hybrid or HDD would actually be the loudest part in my pc.


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## rooivalk (Dec 23, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> If you're a gamer that owns Steam, forget it. Not possible unless if you plan on uninstalling and reinstalling games constantly.


There are two alternatives:
1. Use Steam Mover
2. Create two library location (you'll be asked what folder/drive when installing the game).


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## RejZoR (Dec 23, 2015)

And yet you still have to shuffle data around manually. With hybrid you just use the system.


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## ypsylon (Dec 26, 2015)

There are no real benefits of SSHD for storage, unless it's something like Drive Pool where all what matter is number of disks and you can supplement pool with small SSD(s) for larger R/W cache.  If I'm not mistaken only SSHDs available are Seagates 5900 rpm drives and these are equipped with 8GB SSD buffer - too little for sustained writes/reads, too slow for any random access queries. For RAID SSHD are undesired and unreliable because of lack certain RAID functions (primary TLER and any kind of Vibration control).

If you just want simple mirror setup of Raid 1 or drive pool which can offer almost infinite redundancy provided you will supply the space then sure go ahead, but for performance oriented storage SSHDs are nowhere. HGST NAS 3 or 4TB without any kind of SSD cache on board leave any Hybrid drive in the dust.


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## RejZoR (Dec 26, 2015)

Software hybrids. I'm shocked freaking NO ONE knows about it and I've been experimenting and using it since introduction of ReadyCache back with Windows Vista... With software, it's behaving like SSHD without any downsides.


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## fusionblu (Jan 17, 2016)

CK011885 said:


> I did some light reading about SSHD's and my initial thought was that for storage purposes as a second drive, there isn't really a reason to be using a SSHD over a traditional hard drive. I just wanted to double check with the smart peoples here if that's true before I go ahead and make my purchase. Thanks.



No realistic benefit as just a storage device unless you use it as a boot drive.
I had considered this before for storage, but soon realised there was no benefit after a light research given I'm not exactly going to access something on this type of drive regularly and will mostly be adding stuff to it.

For just general media storage a normal HDD of a high capacity is more than enough and it doesn't need to be the fastest either.

With my current set up I use a 512GB SSD for main OS, 1TB SSD for game storage and a 2TB HDD and 8TB HDD for general media storage.
Will phase out the 2TB HDD as it was originally the first storage drive, but my data is close to filling the 2TB HDD so soon I will move the larger data to the 8TB HDD.
The 8TB HDD was my most recent upgrade for storage.


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## RejZoR (Jan 20, 2016)

People constantly say SSHD or hybrids are not worth it or have no benefits without ever actually using it. Well, I'm using hybrid systems for years and it's perfect. Nearly SSD speeds with 2TB capacity.

They are worth it and if you already have HDD of desired capacity, just buy PrimoCache and some small SSD and pair it with HDD. It's cheap and it just works.


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## Dethroy (Jan 20, 2016)

It has a very narrow and limited use - I give you that.
But it does by no means reach anywhere near SSD speeds.


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