Hybrid hd or separate ssd (programs) and hd (data)?

[JEDI]

i have an old AMD Phenom II X4 960T (3ghz) desktop built ~4yrs ago.
Win7 pro (64bit), 1 TB hd, 4gigs ram.

it crashed recently and I'm getting tired of some of the inconveniences it has caused.
so it's time to re-install.

I'm keeping the old HD 'just in case' and will be buying a new hd.
I just use the computer to surf the web and light Word/Excel.

Which would be better for me?
- 240gig ssd and (another) 1tb hd
- 2tb hybrid hd

 

[sm625]

240gig ssd. Also consider that there are 80gig and 160 gig Intel X25 drives all over the place that are very excellent for light usage PCs.

 

[Charlie98]

If all you have on your OS drive is that and some programs, you can probably fit it on a 128GB SSD in a pinch, but I would try to spring for the 256GB SSD if you can.... and the separate data HDD.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Not sure why you'd need a 1TB hard drive just to surf the web and use Word/Excel.

Get a 250GB SSD and call it a day. They can be had for like $75.00 now. Hybrid drives are a waste of money.

 

[JEDI]

Not sure why you'd need a 1TB hard drive just to surf the web and use Word/Excel.

Get a 250GB SSD and call it a day. They can be had for like $75.00 now. Hybrid drives are a waste of money.

Why do you think hybrid drives are a waste of $?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why do you think hybrid drives are a waste of $?

Hybrid drives are useful, primarily in cases in which you are SATA port constrained. Such as in a pre-built, that came with a HDD, and you want to add an SSD, but don't want to run out of space, and the mobo only has two SATA ports total, and the PC already has a DVD drive (that you don't want to remove). In that case, a Hybrid drive fits the bill nicely.

For all other systems, though, a separate 120/240GB real SSD, and a separate 1/2TB HDD, is almost always a better solution.

 

[Charlie98]

Why do you think hybrid drives are a waste of $?

Not necessarily a waste of money, but you have two drives in one... either of which can have problems, and there you are with no drives, because it's an all-in-one. It also limits your upgrade options.

I also agree with Raistlin, in a way... do you really need a separate drive for data on a browser? I do agree that you need a second HDD, if nothing else used as a backup image drive for the SSD... because they do fail.