Hybrid vs SSD

danny_bhoy

danny_bhoy

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I've just upgraded my Macbook Pro from 4GB to 16GB - the next job is an SSD.

I was just about to buy an SSD from Crucial when I started reading about Hybrid drives. As I understand it (and bare with me here) they're a mix of HDD & SSD. That's where my understanding begins and ends.....what would be the advantage of a Hybrid drive over an SSD?

Cheers.
 
Basically, it's an HDD with a small SSD (typically only 8GB) that is used as a cache. If what you use most fits in the cache then you might see a speed improvement over an HDD but I've tried one and I swapped it for an SSD fairly quickly.
 
SSD for balls out speed.

with a hybrid you're relying on the drive management deciding what should go on the flash. if it doesn't decide the images you've just put on the drive are worthy then you'll have the slower performance.

personally id rather manage my files manually, i keep my working images on SSD and archive off to NAS when finished.
 
neil_g said:
SSD for balls out speed.

with a hybrid you're relying on the drive management deciding what should go on the flash. if it doesn't decide the images you've just put on the drive are worthy then you'll have the slower performance.

personally id rather manage my files manually, i keep my working images on SSD and archive off to NAS when finished.
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Balls out speed is what I'm after. I'll be using it to view images with clients when out and about and a little bit of editing on the fly.

I think I'll end up getting 750GB SSD from Crucial.
 
SATA3 SSD is the way to go as minimum these days, Flash storage (PCIe SSD) even better :)
 
Recently bought a second hand Mac Mini and the previous owner had made his own 'fusion' drive like Apple sell nowadays and whilst it was quick, i thought it could be quicker so i split the two drives myself and reinstalled the OS. Now i have a 256gb SSD and a 500gb HDD. I haven't done much editing on it up to yet so everything is being saved to the SSD atm just for ease and speed but eventually i will save my files to the HDD.

Crucial would be where i bought one from too if i was in the market. Dealt with them before and they're always spot on.
 
SSD's used to be very expensive and small. Hybrid drives such as WD Raptors gave an increase in speed over normal drives with additional capacity. (Spot the person whose old PC ran 4 x 600Gb WD Raptors plus 2Tb drives)
SSD's are now relatively cheap and really should be used. Not all SSD's are the same, if you have an M2 slot it's worth looking at the Samsung Evo 950. I'me getting 1960Mb/sec write and 2500mb/sec read from mine and have my OS on it. Otherwise I can recommend the Samsung Evo 850 SSD's, I'm currently getting 550Mb/sec write & read from these.
Obviously these are still size limited, large ones are pricey but 500Gb ones are reasonably priced.

It's good to mix media for the speeds you need, so on my PC my OS is on the 950, I have two 850SSD's, one for Lightroom Cache and Catalogue, the other for this years raw files, then 4 x 4Tb wd red sata drives in Raid 5 for long term storage as these don't need the spped.
 
minnnt said:
.....i thought it could be quicker so i split the two drives myself and reinstalled the OS. Now i have a 256gb SSD and a 500gb HDD.
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Literally everything you've just said there is well above my capabilities and understanding! haha. I'm starting to feel like my dad when it comes to tech!! :)

Good to know about Crucial too. Seems pretty straight forward so that's where I'll go.
 
Byker28i said:
SSD's used to be very expensive and small. Hybrid drives such as WD Raptors gave an increase in speed over normal drives with additional capacity. (Spot the person whose old PC ran 4 x 600Gb WD Raptors plus 2Tb drives)
SSD's are now relatively cheap and really should be used. Not all SSD's are the same, if you have an M2 slot it's worth looking at the Samsung Evo 950. I'me getting 1960Mb/sec write and 2500mb/sec read from mine and have my OS on it. Otherwise I can recommend the Samsung Evo 850 SSD's, I'm currently getting 550Mb/sec write & read from these.
Obviously these are still size limited, large ones are pricey but 500Gb ones are reasonably priced.

It's good to mix media for the speeds you need, so on my PC my OS is on the 950, I have two 850SSD's, one for Lightroom Cache and Catalogue, the other for this years raw files, then 4 x 4Tb wd red sata drives in Raid 5 for long term storage as these don't need the spped.
Click to expand...

In simple terms for someone who's a bit hard of understanding, could I just take out my existing HDD and bung in a 750GB SSD and run everything from that (OS, files, LR catalog, the lot)?
 
danny_bhoy said:
Literally everything you've just said there is well above my capabilities and understanding! haha. I'm starting to feel like my dad when it comes to tech!! :)

Good to know about Crucial too. Seems pretty straight forward so that's where I'll go.
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Haha, trust me, i asked plenty of questions and did plenty of googling. :D being a clean install it didn't matter too much as i didn't stand to lose any data if it went belly up. I just 'unfused' them and reinstalled the OS over the internet which is a cool feature. Then went about installing Lr and PS etc.
 
minnnt said:
Haha, trust me, i asked plenty of questions and did plenty of googling. :D being a clean install it didn't matter too much as i didn't stand to lose any data if it went belly up. I just 'unfused' them and reinstalled the OS over the internet which is a cool feature. Then went about installing Lr and PS etc.
Click to expand...

If anyone even slightly technically proficient could see some of the questions I've asked Google about this subject recently I'd be well embarrassed!! :)
 
danny_bhoy said:
Just had a quick check and they seem to be comparable with the price I was looking at for a drive from Crucial.
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great drives in my experience. got a 850 pro and 830 (equiv of a pro but was before they started using the term) in the editing machine. both been faultless.

got a samsung mSATA in the dell laptop too and also very good.
 
which macbook pro you have? year? CPU? Screen size? I guess they won't have HDD with temperature sensor like older imac's did
 
asaspasas6 said:
which macbook pro you have? year? CPU? Screen size? I guess they won't have HDD with temperature sensor like older imac's did
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neil_g said:
i think a lot of SSD have temp sensors? at least i get a reading from both of mine in my hardware monitor.
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It's a 13", 2.3Ghz, early 2011 model - hence the reason for wanting to beef it up a little.
 
neil_g said:
i think a lot of SSD have temp sensors? at least i get a reading from both of mine in my hardware monitor.
Click to expand...

what i meant is iMac (2010) had HDD's with extra conenction for temp sensor which connects to motherboard (and regulates HDD fan according to temps) MacBook Pro porbs won't have it
 
danny_bhoy said:
In simple terms for someone who's a bit hard of understanding, could I just take out my existing HDD and bung in a 750GB SSD and run everything from that (OS, files, LR catalog, the lot)?
Click to expand...

Simple answer is Yes, thats fine.
I've split things for better performance as this is the way I've used to extract the maximum speed :)
 
Byker28i said:
Simple answer is Yes, thats fine.
I've split things for better performance as this is the way I've used to extract the maximum speed :)
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Ah that's good to know. As you've probably gathered my grip on all things technical has loosed a little in the last few years! :)

I won't be putting the machine under any real stress so I should be fine doing it the easy way and lumping everything on one drive.
 
Another advantage of ssd only is that it could mean you now have no moving parts in your mobile system (assuming no optical drive)
 
On a sort of related note I've just realised that I may have dropped a b*****k when buying my RAM upgrade. I went with this: Link as it was about £20 cheaper than the one from Crucial.

However I've just noticed that the one from Crucial is DDR3 and the one I have bought from ebay is SODIMM.

Is DDR3 more modern/faster or am I worrying about nothing?

@neil_g @Byker28i
 
How are you finding it now Danny with the new RAM? What did you upgrade from? Have you sorted the SSD now too?


Edit: just noticed it was in the opening line of the thread... 4GB. :LOL:
 
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Having got a Hybrid Drive, i would not get another one>
 
Variable Boot Times, SSD does not show on File Explore. Just a general miss trust of Unit.
 
minnnt said:
How are you finding it now Danny with the new RAM? What did you upgrade from? Have you sorted the SSD now too?


Edit: just noticed it was in the opening line of the thread... 4GB. :LOL:
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Just seen this mate.

It's much snappier and loads more responsive. Maybe it was in my head but the new OSX Sierra seemed to become quite unresponsive and really slow to respond, even with very light use, compared to El Capitan - but bumping the RAM seems to have sorted it.

16GB was probably overkill but for not much more pennies it seemed like a no-brainer.
 
minnnt said:
Cool. I've recently upped mine to 16gb from 8gb but yet to see much of a difference. I think the SSD is the single best upgrade imo.

Did you sort one?
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Yeah I might not have bothered if I already had 8gb but at 4gb it was like pulling teeth :)

Haven't got the SSD yet, that'll have to wait until payday, but I'm pretty set on the 750gb one from Crucial.....for no other reason than I've run their scan and I know it'll work with my Macbook.

Ps using the Macbook more and more is making me wonder how much longer I can use my Windows editing PC before switching to a Mac.........it's going to be an expensive few months :)
 
I've always been a Windows user, probably 18+ years but was talked into trying a mac and I love it. I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with a dual core i5 processor, 16gb of ram and a 256gb SSD. It also has a 500gb HDD in there too. If you don't want to shell out tonnes of cash I can happily recommend the Minis. The newer model isn't as upgradeable as the 2012 model but you could pick up the 2012 quad core i7 model if you needed more poke. Can't say I have had any issues with my lower spec model as of yet though.

Scour Gumtree for a bargain as eBay seems to command a premium as do computer shops.
 
minnnt said:
I've always been a Windows user, probably 18+ years but was talked into trying a mac and I love it. I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with a dual core i5 processor, 16gb of ram and a 256gb SSD. It also has a 500gb HDD in there too. If you don't want to shell out tonnes of cash I can happily recommend the Minis. The newer model isn't as upgradeable as the 2012 model but you could pick up the 2012 quad core i7 model if you needed more poke. Can't say I have had any issues with my lower spec model as of yet though.

Scour Gumtree for a bargain as eBay seems to command a premium as do computer shops.
Click to expand...

I'm getting on with OSX so much better than I thought I would - love it!

I did think about going down the Mac Mini route as it's save a fair few quid, although you're right, there does seem to be some right bargains on Gumtree. Can be a dangerous game though - if I was buying an iMac from Gumtree I'd have to bring someone with me who knew what they were looking for just to make sure I didn't but a lemon :)
 
It is definitely the cheapest way but I already had a decent monitor. I snagged my mini for £350 which included an apple trackpad and apple keyboard. It had 8gb and the SSD/HDD too so I think I was pretty lucky. eBay seems to be around £350-400 just for the standard late 2012 model with 500gb HDD and 4gb ram.

Also check out the apple refurb store. I don't know too much about them but they seem to be ok-ish with regards to price compared with a new one from Currys etc.
 
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