SSD vs HDD vs Hybrid drive?

[cняis]

The 5 year old 160GB HDD in my ageing Windows XP system is becoming increasingly slow despite attempts to streamline its contents, so I was looking to replace it with a new HD. I stumbled across SSDs and hybrid drives (part conventional HDD, part intelligent SSD storing frequently used content only), and wondered which way to go?

I only use the PC for internet/basic photo manipulation and storing MP3s/photos. I'm only using around 140GB at present. I dont need huge storage, but resent paying 2 or 3 times as much for an SSD if I'm not going to see much of a benefit. Will I really notice much of a difference with SSD? Are hybrids a fad?

Another thing, I havent got a SATA3 mobo, so wont get the full speed benifits of SATA3 devices. I also only want a single drive to save messing about.

The PC spec is modest, but once programs have loaded its more than adequate:
2GB DDR ram
Pentium D 2.8Ghz
SATA 2 mobo
Win XP

Thoughts?

[bobotheclown]

get the SSD. you will feel the difference, even if you are only surfing the web. i went for the crucial m4 256gb from amazon and the difference was amazing. boot up time 24 seconds!

[Jay]

I've been considering the same, ebuyer are doing SSD's quite cheap now.

[bobbarley]

SSD's are still the daddy.

However I own a hybrid drive as well and can report that they're seriously fast too!!

[Ridg]

SSD's are still the daddy.

However I own a hybrid drive as well and can report that they're seriously fast too!!

This!

A hybrid will give you a massive increase over conventional, but wont be as fast as an SSD

There is no real noticeable difference (to the user) between SATA2 and SATA3 so don't worry about getting a SATA3 drive for your machine.

As you only want one drive then hybrid is probably best for you, depending on how much space you need.  You can get a 256GB for about £120 at the moment.

A multiple drive solution really isn't that hard, plenty of guides on the net of how to move you user folder and if you want you can move the "my documents, my music etc" folders in about 3 clicks.

Personally I use an SSD for windows, RAID5 array (3 drives) for documents / user files and a RAID 0 array for games that aren't on the SSD

Also do yourself a favour and upgrade from XP

[sharki786]

if you only doing the basics the i would save the money until you need to replace the hdd. what i normaly tend to do when people ring me to say that there computer/laptop is slow, i look at what programs are running with boot up or in the back ground. i disable them from booting up e.g adobe, itunes (if you dont own an apple device) real player etc.
this makes boot up alot faster. also error check the hard drive for bad sectors.
i installed etka on my laptop & realised that after putting my password in my laptop took about a minute to log in, i disabled it & its just like before installing etka
if you need more details pm me

[justalex81]

get an ssd. the samsung 830 series and ocz agility drives are backwards compatible with sata 2 and sata 1. That way when you upgrade your computer the drive can be re used and will run faster!

[cняis]

Sounds like SSD is the way to go.

I have however found the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid (750GB with 8GB flash i think) for around £100, and the 500 GB version (4GB flash) for around £65, compared to conventional SSD e.g. OCZ 256GB for £120.

Decisions, decisions.

[bobbarley]

I bought the Samsung hybrid, 500GB, for £65 about 6 months ago.  Its great I use it in a usb3 caddy for backing up my Mac. 

[stealthwolf]

I bought the momentus 750GB. Sped things up a bit but not massively. Normally the first thing I load up is Firefox so now time from power on to using firefox is about 38 secs.