NoteBook Hybrid HD for a Desktop Boot drive?

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
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Hi Everyone, Is there any reason why an Notebook Hybrid hard drive couldn't be used as a desktop boot drive?

Reason for my question, I've been looking at getting an SSD, but the price is outside of what I want to pay for the size I would like to get. I was Fry's this evening, looking at drives & saw the Hybrid drive, which I was curious about if it would work or not. I know it wouldn't be as fast as a strictly SSD drive, but would think it would be faster then using a standard Sata drive.

Thanks
 

RedBeard

Diamond Member
Sep 29, 2000
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To answer your question, of course it would be faster than standard drives in most situations...

By why? Do you need a 500GB boot drive? Just get an SSD and call it a day. A 64gb SSD will be muuuch faster and have plenty of room for an OS plus programs.
 

lsv

Golden Member
Dec 18, 2009
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To answer your question, of course it would be faster than standard drives in most situations...

By why? Do you need a 500GB boot drive? Just get an SSD and call it a day. A 64gb SSD will be muuuch faster and have plenty of room for an OS plus programs.

+1 on this. My SSD purchase was the single best thing I could have bought, even when purchased at $300 for 80gigs it was worth it. The time saved from my software loading, which I open on a daily basis has paid for itself.
 

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
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I wouldn't need a boot drive that big (if the drive was strictly used for the OS & the program files only.. All data on a separate drive). I do know that a 64g drive would be pushing it (I did a fresh install a couple of days ago & at about 62g right now & haven't finished installing everything).

Like I said it was just an idea & was curious if it would work or not.

To answer your question, of course it would be faster than standard drives in most situations...

By why? Do you need a 500GB boot drive? Just get an SSD and call it a day. A 64gb SSD will be muuuch faster and have plenty of room for an OS plus programs.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Yes, in that context, it would work.
 

Coup27

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2010
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(I did a fresh install a couple of days ago & at about 62g right now & haven't finished installing everything).
If you are a power user and require a lot of software, simply decide to install some of the software on a secondary HDD. 64GB will be more than enough for Windows and the programs you regularly use, and put some of the other programs (or largest) on a HDD. You would still end up with a setup massively superior to a hybrid drive.
 

Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
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I'm using a Seagate Momentus XT as a desktop drive.
It's NOT like an SSD but it's a nice little drive.

If you have room for a 3.5" HD then buy a 7200rpm WD Black or Samsung F3R.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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or get a 1TB platter drive, even faster.
 

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
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Wow different ways to go with this. I can say that I went to Fry's yesterday & attempted to get either a 120g or 180g (they had each on sale AR for $120 or $180), but they were sold out, so I'll have to try again later.

One thing I did do was turned on AHCI on my MB & do notice a slight better response compared to when it was set for ide.