Is it worth buying a hybrid hard drive. What is an SSHD drive. How the hybrid hard disk works
). Used in SSD not magnetic discswhich rotate (both in HDD), and fixed flash memory chips similar. However, possessing numerous advantages, solid-state still failed to completely replace hard drives even in laptops, not to mention. The main disadvantage of SSD remains a high price: the gigabytes of their volume is much more than the HDD. Therefore, we will tell, in what cases it is better to choose an SSD, HDD or a hybrid solution.
Advantages of SSD.
The main advantages of solid-state drives in front of hard disks is:
- high performance;
- resistance to physical exposure.
For example, the speed of serial read and write data recording of a 2,5-inch HDD is 100 MB / s, and a 3.5-inch for desktop PCs - 150 MB / s. The speed of random read-write (files are scattered over the entire disk surface) in HDD can be ten times lower than consistent.
Another SSD case: Even when connecting to the motherboard with an outdated SATA II interface, the speed of linear data is less than 250 MB / s. And it is necessary to pro-paint to SATA III, how speed will increase to 400-500 MB / sec. In turn, the speed of the linear record at SSD, depending on the model, can be both equal to reading indicators and be doubled (but still higher in comparison with HDD). And thanks minimum delays Data Appeals (SSD Unlike HDD does not need to move the reading head on the disk surface) Random read-write speed is also significantly higher.
Lained moving elements (electric motors, reading heads) solid-state drives are not afraid of exposure to strong vibration and shock. This allows, for example, to work on a laptop during a trip by car in a buggy dirt road. However, the SSD crash test is not worth noting then to mourn the information that was stored on it. Less afraid of SSD and overheating: permissible is working temperature up to 70 ° C, while HDD is limited to 60 ° C.
Advantages of HDD.
Old-good hard drives have their advantages, and it is the possibility of multiple data overwriting and a favorable price value and obsem. With very active use of SSD (Server PCs), memory blocks can "get lost to holes". Depending on the type of flash memory - TLC, MLC or SLC (second mass) - blocks can be overwritten from a thousand to hundreds of thousand times. Worn blocks are automatically blocked, as a result of which SSD loses in the amount of SSD.
The traditional hard drives allow overwriting data a much larger number of times - the number goes to millions. Therefore, there are no so many magnetic discs in HDD (although bied sectors They also sometimes appear on them), how many mechanical elements. However, on domestic and office PCs, the data is overwritten not as often as on servers. Except the operating registry windows systems Reads and records the data continuously (it is not surprising that the broken sectors on the HDD surface most often appear at the location of the registry).
But when it comes to the price, argue with the victory hard disks It becomes impossible. IN this moment For $ 100, you can buy a 120 gigabyte SSD volume, 2.5-inch HDD per 1 terabyte or 3.5-inch for 2 terabytes. The difference in the amount between SSD and HDD for the same price is tenfold, which is why it is worth paying attention to hybrid solutions.
Advantages of hybrids
The hybrid is called the PC disk subsystem, which combines the advantages of SSD and HDD - high speed and large volume at a reasonable price. The variants of the hybrid disk subsystem can be three: SSD sufficient for installation of the operating system and volumes of the volume (60-120 GB) plus a large HDD for storing photos, video, music and games; Big HDD plus a separate SSD small volume (20-32 GB) for caching of frequently used programs; Finally, the hybrid accumulate (HDD plus a small SSD in a single case).
The first version of the hybrid disk subsystem, of course, the best, but also the most expensive - pulls on good $ 200 (HDD + SSD). Those who want to save, it is worth choosing the second option - a small SSD for caching costs only $ 50. However, for SSD caching is mandatory motherboard with the support intel technology Smart Response ( intel chipsets Z68, H77, Z77, H87, Z87, H97 and Z97). The hybrid drives (SSHD) are best suited for laptops, where to install individual SSD and HDDs have to sacrifice a DVD drive.
SSD Forms
Not all solid-state drives are made in popular (for installation in a 3.5-inch slot requires additional fastening). In addition to 2.5-inch, there are 1.8-inch models with SATA connected. They are used, however, in the so-called embedded systems, such as side computers of premium cars. For thin laptops (ultrabooks), extremely compact SSD form factors are created. And for computer enthusiasts who are ready to give any money for the most powerful components in the world, solid lines are offered in the form of PCI-Express 3.0 extension boards (linear reading speed reaches an impressive 1000-1500 MB / s).
Migrating on SSD!
The installation of a solid-state drive accelerates the work of the PC much stronger than, say, the upgrade of the processor, even if he will have all eight nuclei. Reduction of the operating system loading time, falling asleep and awakening PCs, launching programs (even a web browser and text editor) It is difficult not to notice. And transfer Windows with HDD on SSD Together with all installed and configured programs, you can literally two clicks of the mouse with free utility Easeus Partition Master Free. Or just contact our.
Man does not know what is hybrid hDD. Fashion on combining several fundamentally different technologies in a single device is not Nova.
For example, cars in which the traditional internal combustion engine or an electric drive, and the electric drive, have become quite familiar to the movement. Such a solution allows you to do with "low blood" with gradual translation of technology on new alternative. Hybrid hard drives fully comply with this rule. Let us dwell in more detail on this issue.
Pensioner ... or all the living lives?
Currently in the field computer equipment The main device for long-term storage Information is a hard drive or hard drive (eng. HDD - Hard Drive Disk). Its design and principle of operation are quite simple: several discs from non-conductive housing are placed in a small metal case electricity material. On all sides, the surface of each of them is covered with a sprayed magnetic layer. The disks are riveted on the total spindle axis rotating the electric motor with a constant speed (in some models it can change stepwise, depending on the intensity of use). A special mechanism moves a frame with recording / reading heads over each of the sides.
When recording, the surface sections are magnetized, and when reading, a reverse process occurs - the magnetic field is induced by a current and is converted by the controller to the data stream. Over the decades, the technology is overtook, "children's diseases" is eliminated.
A dark horse
However, with the creation of solid-state memory, alternative solutions appeared on the market, in which there are no rotating parts, and the recording is carried out by changing the position of the floating shutter in the transistor. Such drives are called SSD (from English. Many believe that on the basis of solid-state memory cells, the performance of which is significantly hDD works, gradually push the classic hard drives. In the meantime, it is too early to talk about the global transition (despite the fact that there are hybrid HDDs). And that's why:
The cost of one gigabyte of disk space in SSD is at times higher than this parameter in HDD (the coefficient can be obtained by dividing the price of the capacity);
With reliability not everything is so unambiguous, each solid State Drive characterized by a permissible number of recording / reading cycles;
The technology is too new, constantly improving, so yesterday the purchased device may be unemployed today (to take at least support for the TRIM command).
Hybrid hard drive
Understanding that it is currently a complete change of technology to speak prematurely, manufacturers proposed a compromise version that combines HDD and SDD. The basis of the design of such a device - magnetic discs (Winchester with its low cost and ... not too impressive performance). The feature is that the hybrid hard drive also contains microcircuits and an SSD controller. Of course, there are no talk about hundreds of gigabytes, usually the volume is limited to a tenth. That is, the main volume falls on magnetic discs (for example, 750 GB), the capacity of SSD is 8 GB, and, of course, cache (32-64 MB). The hybrid when working copies the most demanded data into fast solid-state memory, further working with it. In other words, SSD in such a solution is a second-level cache.
Article on the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid hard drives combined strengths HDD and SSD discs
Over the past ten years or so, solid-state drives (SSD) have gained popularity in the world of IT. First, they penetrated laptops and mobile devices With their small form factor and lack of moving parts. Now they make their way in corporate systems storage. Using the same flash memory found in USB disks, mobile phones and SD cards, they offer a long list of advantages against their electromechanical analogs - solid-state hard drives. SSD discs for a computer do not have moving parts, they are more resistant to shocks and other forms of physical damage, and they are lightning at their speed of reading and writing data.
HDD storage capacity has grown quite consistently - currently, massive 3TB and 4TB disks are in the availability zone, and even 8 TB and 10 TB giants laid their way to the market. Hard drives Pick up speed up to 15,000 revolutions per minute. They are noisy, hot, require more energy than their flash analogs.
So, why can't we discard our hard drives and solid-state drives? The answer is simple: the cost of one gigabyte SSD drive is more expensive. As of January 2015, a 1-TB hard disk can cost about $ 50, and equivalent SSD costs - about $ 380 - $ 400.
In 2010, the number of manufacturers, starting with Seagate and Samsung, began to enter the third option in the world of drives in an attempt to overcome the price break and performance between hard drives and SSD drives, offering a hybrid option. Since then, Western Digital and Toshiba also started making hybrid discs. The hybrid drive provides some of the best features of both technologies, combining the SSD speed with the economic efficiency of the electromechanical HDD.
How the hybrid hard disk works
The basis of hybrid hard disk - Combining cache with rotating electromagnetic plates of solid-state HDD. A solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD), as a rule, consists of 8, 16 or 32 GB of flash containers and a larger HDD for storage part of the data. The idea is that hot data should be available quickly or often (for example, the operating system). These data can be cached on SSD and as a result are extracted faster than if they were stored on the plates themselves. This is the same principle as installation of a hard disk and SSD on a desktop machine, that is, a double disk and a hybrid solution, except that performance optimization is built into the firmware and adapts to the needs of storage. These adaptive or methods of self-learning optimization eliminate the need to manually move files / applications to the appropriate hard drives.
Currently, there are two modes of operation for all hybrid hard drives, or SSHD. First, the optimized mode, or an independent mode that defines the "hot" and "cold" data to write to the disk. For a host machine, the drive is not distinguished by the traditional internal storage device.
Another SSHD mode is a receiving optimized mode, or a hostess of securing. In this format, the owner of the car denotes which data is hot and cold with the help of its operating system, device drivers, and in some cases, through software. The host machine regularly sends the designation to the disk through sATA interface And instructs the drive as you need to save the data.
Advantages of hybrid data storage on disk
The key advantage of using a hybrid storage device is increased performance with a high storage reserve, without a significant increase in cost (about $ 100 for 1TB SSHD), while maintaining high potential. SSHDS have a hard disk capacity for a computer with an increased search speed for cached data on solid-state hard disk HDD. - And not as expensive, as in the case of SSD.
In addition, the hybrid hard disk provides a computer more fast access Critically important data, there are other benefits associated with flash memory used on SSHDS. For example, if the calibration is made correctly, you can reduce the voltage and wear on the disk, leading to an increase in life expectancy than on traditional solid-state hard drives.
Disadvantages of hybrid hard drives
Although hybrid disks are a great solution, they are not perfect. Getting data from a hard disk as quickly as on traditional solid-state HDD. Hybrid disks are still vulnerable to physical damageAnd you do not benefit from silence on SSD.
Since we are experts in data recovery, we must discuss the effects of data recovery in hybrid storage. Good news: SSHD solid part is used mainly as a cache or to store the operating system files, and you are hardly losing the data in that part of the disk. If you manage to lose data from the solid-state hybrid disk area, recovery presents its own problems, such as alternative methods of data organization.
In general, hybrid discs can offer a lot of both consumers and business users seeking SSD speed at the same time looking for the cost of a gigabyte hard disk. This is a great way to overcome the gap between solid-state HDD and high-speed SSD.
In our work, it is often necessary to deal with a variety of information drives, including hard drives and solid information storage devices. At the same time, there are sometimes quite unusual devices that are not common everywhere. For example, SSHD is hybrid hard drives. Probably, Habré has people who are familiar with this type of information storage devices, but there are those who have not even heard of such "hybrids".
So, hybrid hard drives, first of all - a compromise solution that allows you to enlarge overall productivity The systems in which they are installed and reduce the price of such a system.
After all, despite the widespread, solid-state drives are still quite expensive, and in a short time a moment will come when the price of such drives will fall significantly.
Ordinary hard drives are inexpensive, for the most part, but their performance is limited, it is impossible to "jump" above a certain limit. Therefore, hybrid hard drives appeared. SSHD appeared a few years ago, and at first there were pure water with an exotic, which few people perceived seriously (and few people knew about them). The main advantage of the hybrid hard disk is an increase in the overall performance of the system in which they are installed using the entire disk compartment (and not two, if using both SSD, and a conventional hard disk). Now there are models of "hybrids" of small sizes, for example, with a thickness of only 7 mm (just such as the model ST500LM000 from Seagate), which allows you to install such discs in netbooks / ultrabooks.
The principle of operation SSHD is based on caching the most frequently used data using flash memory, that is, the SSD part of the "hybrid". Already on the first launch of the operating system on a laptop / PC with a "hybrid" into the non-volatile part of the SSHD memory, the files that are needed are placed operating system For loading. As a result, the start speed of the OS increases, and quite significantly.
The hybrid disk, by the way, shows almost similar results of the file transfer rate compared to conventional hard drives. But the difference in work different types Devices becomes very noticeable if you compare file access time (Access Time). For example, if you take a seagate ST500LT032 disk with a capacity of 500 GB and compare with a "hybrid" ST500LM000 of a similar capacity, the speed of access to files will be 24.2 and 0.3 ms.
As for the limit of the interface speed, the difference is no longer at times, but at 15%. In the first case, 101 MB / s, in the second - 115 MB / s.
The disadvantages are also there, and first of all, it is the inability to fit all the critical data on the SSHD disk SSD part. Usually the SSD in the "hybrid" is set by a volume of 8 GB, sometimes more (for example, a model with 32 GB of flash memory), but then such a disk will be more expensive.
At the price of "hybrids" only slightly exceed the price of ordinary hard drives. If you have previously mentioned above the model, the price of Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD ST500LM000 is 73-75 dollars, and Seagate ST500LT032 is about 50 US dollars.
So, if you want to increase the speed of the OS load, as well as the overall performance of its laptop / desktop PC, we recommend using "hybrids". Well, this is if saving is important for you. If not - then you should use SSD and conventional hard drives separately.
A solid-state drive is a different thing in all respects, except for one price.
It often happens that after buying a laptop, the owner thinks about the upgrade - I want the machine to work faster. One of the bottlenecks is the speed of the drive. It would seem - the conclusion suggests itself - to put SSD and rejoice. But how to be with the accumulated data? Buy also portable hard hard? Throwing away optical drive and shaman instead of a hard disk compartment instead? All options are possible, each of their inconveniences. But! There is another option, about which they remember infrequently - to establish a hybrid drive - at the price of hybrid drives a little more expensive than normal, however, and the volume of their rather big, and the speed (as they assure) is comparable to SSD.
A wonderful representative of the hybrid family came to me Seagate SSHD., volume of 1000GB (model ST1000LM014., there is still a thin version of 500GB). Let's see how such an upgrade is justified.
0. Characteristics
For curious at once, I haveten to inform the characteristics of hybrid drives:
In the experimental disk 8GB of solid-state NAND memory and 64B cache.
The information is stored on two plates, accordingly 4 heads are activated.
Thickness - standard for ordinary laptops, 9.5 mm. For ultrabooks, a thin model of 500GB is useful.
1. Appearance.
The hard disk supplied in a modest sachet is not different from conventional drives.
Only the inscription SSHD can imagine an unusual device. 
Microcircuits on the control board are facing the body, which gives some protection from external influences. The control board is easily removed, on it we see the Seagate LSI controller controller, the Samsung cache chip from Samsung, as well as a microcircuit of the 8GB of a solid part, located next to the EASIC controller responsible for working with the SSD department. 
That's so simple: the tricky controller is taken, a piece of solid-state drive and voila - a hybrid is ready!
2. Testing
I solved the work of the drive in comparison with two obvious alternatives:- Ordinary hard drive for laptop, 500GB
- OCZ VERTEX 3 Solid State Drive, 60 GB Volume
Let me remind you that the SSD is more volume will work faster than in the tests given by me.
I also note that the price of SSD 120GB is on average comparable to the price of SSHD 1TB.
Testing was carried out in two stages:
1. Synthetic read / write speed tests and access time
2. Hard discs with a cloned OS were installed alternately in the laptop, measurements were measured by the launch of the OS and programs.
A simple set of synthetic tests seemed to me a little, because to optimize the operation of the solid-state cache in seagate disks The Adaptive Memory technology is used (I suspect that the EASIC cunning controller is responsible for its implementation), the essence of the technology is that the most frequently used data is cached on SSD and access to them is subsequently accelerated. Read more about this technology can be found on the Seagate website
Simple tests use not any data, but stupidly check the physical properties of record / reading, i.e. All cunning mechanisms remain unfounded and are unlikely to bring a tangible gain in terms of indicators.
Therefore, it is the temporary indicators of the launch of applications seem to me the most objective.
So what happened ...
2.1 Synthetic tests
Crystal Disk Mark.
aS SSD BENCHMARK.
ATTO DISK BENCHMARK.
Speed \u200b\u200bTests: CrystalDiskmark, Atto Disk Benchmark, AS SSD Benchmark gives a similar picture
It is not surprising that the undisputed leader is SSD, while SSHD and HDD show approximately equal results in a sequential read / write, but in the random read / write tests of small SSHD blocks shows the result better, although on the background of the SSD results it does not seem Significant.
PCMark 7.
Test PCMark7 When checking hard drives, acts somewhat smarter and checks not only the recording / reading speed, but also the possibility of real exploitation by imitating the operation of real applications.
The unconditional leader remains SSD, but suddenly becomes very noticeable advantage of the hybrid drive. In the tasks of launching and operations, SSHD applications excellently shows itself, leaning from a traditional drive.
2.2 Starting applications
On the stopwatch, the startup time was measured (from the POST screen before starting the Calculator program in the autoloader) and programs. Measures were carried out 5 times, the result is the average arithmetic value.
In real work, a hybrid drive shows itself great. I also note that the final diagram does not quite objectively describe the operation of SSHD, because due to the adaptive memory mechanism, the start-up time decreases each time until it turns out to be optimal. So, the first restart of the OS took 107 seconds, while the fifth measure showed 58 seconds. The final value of the load time has reached a stable 36 seconds, which in practice is not very different from the testimony of the solid-state drive.
Application download speed is also indicative.
3. Full
Summing up I want to describe your impressions. When I first tried to work on a PC with SSD I was impressed by the speed of work, launching applications, the overall responsiveness of the system. After this experience, working with HDD-based systems is a ternary torment, the OS is unbearably loaded long, the system seems thoughtful and unusual. According to the results of working with a hybrid storage, it became clear - this is the real alternative to SSD. The system, of course, is slightly less responsive, but in general, such torments as with HDD is no longer. The advantage of this compromise solution - in a low price per GB of volume (compared to SSD), since for the same money you can purchase for example or 120GB SSD, or 8 times more voluminous, 1TB SSHDThus, the hybrid has absorbed both the best advantages of both types and insignificant shortcomings.
High speed (in comparison with traditional drives)
+ Low price (in comparison with solid storage)
The speed is lower than SSD
- Mechanics on site - pancakes are spinning, the heads are growling.
Output: The hybrid drive is an excellent compromise solution for the home laptop.