News - WD launches "world’s first" SSD+HDD dual drive

[OilSheikh]

Was very impressed until I saw the price!

[=assassin=]

This is a great idea for laptops, but the price is probably just a bit too high. Perhaps that will change in time.

[peterb]

I can see the point for single bay laptops, combining the speed of the SSD for the OS with data storage of the HDD. It could have applications in embedded systems too - once they develop *nix drivers for it.

[zdn1042]

It's at least £50 too pricey, it'd be better for me if it presented as 2 separate drives - that I could see a use for at the right price, but a poorly compatible fiddly cache solution just rings alarm bells for me. I'd sooner buy a 500GB SSD, I don't think many people need more than that as local storage in a laptop, and if they do then there are umpteen external solutions.

I agree. I'd rather buy a 500gb SSD with this price.

[crossy]

I don't get the hate? Clearly this is aimed for those with laptops, who want speed and storage. I'd be tempted myself for my portable laptop - but I'd rather stick a 512GB SSD in there, which is what I'll probably do, since I don't need the additional storage space. But I can see the appeal.

Opinion seems to be that this is very firmly a product targeted at Ultrabooks. Then again - like you - most would prefer a proper SSD-based solution because of the resiliency and power-saving advantages.

Why does everyone seem to think it should cost the same as a 2.5" SSD and HDD bought separately? There must have been a huge amount of R&D to cram TWO drives into the space usually afforded to one.

I don't think there is an expectation that is must cost the same as a conventional SSD+HDD combo - a small premium is expected. However, the cost premium of the Black^2, is about 60% - which is a sizable chunk of change for the convenience factor.

It would be more appealing I guess if they implemented a fancy controller to display to Windows the two drives as simply partitions of one drive, which might have alleviated any driver and platform incompatibilities, but it's still a good idea and one worthy of consideration for anyone in need of more internal storage for their laptop.

It is a good idea - but one that, based on the reviews I've read, everyone appears to feel wasn't implemented sensibly. The Windows-only nature plus the need to "activate" the drive comes in for a lot of criticism. Best comment I saw was that of someone who thought it a good idea on the face of it, but would prefer to use a USB3 crate and an conventional SSD - pointing out that a 500GB SSD (vs 1TB) means a lot less stuff to lose if the Ultrabook gets stolen or broken.

More worryingly is that there's comments that the HDD part is coupled in via some kind of pseudo USB driver, so you are COMPLETELY dependent on that driver to function correctly and consistently to be able to access your HDD. If that driver fails then you lose all access to your HDD-resident data! Plus - for the corporates - there's some doubts as to whether this would be compatible with the kind of low-level whole disk encryption technologies that they routinely deploy.

And of course the Seagate SSHD doesn't have any of these drawbacks - said it before, if Seagate boosted their SSHD storage to 32, or better still, 64GB then THAT would be a compelling product. Actually, some kind of "Momentus XT+" with a larger flash component is something I'd be VERY interested in - there a Windows8 laptop here that would greatly benefit from that kind of device.

[3dcandy]

I do believe the Momentus way is the way to go...I'm sure I read a review that said there is space on the pcb to impliment a doubling of cache easily

[Neostar]

Looked good until I saw the price :O

[ik9000]

what? Nice idea ruined by execution.
Can't consider it secure.
Has to be activated by USB key???
Can't replicate hidden OEM partitions?
Might not fit all drive bays...
Doesn't work on all systems.
Doesn't work with NVidia storage drivers (how many folk use these out of interest)

Just what can it do? For the price it had better boost game performance by 200% or frankly why would anyone go for it over a 500GB SSD as Hexus rightly point out.

FAIL.

[Odeas]

Or I could just buy a 1TB Drive for about £50 and a + 120GB mini PCIe SSD for around £100.
Saving about £100 and a whole lot of trouble.

Would seem like a good drive if it wasn't so highly priced and had so many caveats.

[kompukare]

I think people are being a bit too quick to dismiss this.

Firstly, most laptop do not have two HDD bays although some enterprise (Thinkpads etc.) do have mSATA plus a HDD bay and with laptops which have an optical drive it is possible to install a 2nd drive. But there are plenty of scenarios where one drive which does both is essential.

Secondly, this is a WD Black which have always carried a premium with their 5 year warranty etc. There are people who won't buy any other consumer HDD. I can't even find the 1TB 2.5" version - and WD's site confirms that normal WD Black only go up to 750GB:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/
Seems like the 1TB version is being launched exclusively with this drive. So, the HDD part cannot be compared to 1TB Toshiba which costs £55.

WD's Blacks have always been their premium HDDs. I think that reputation has been hard earned. As for the SSD part of the drive, I guess that's an unknown. But then personally I would not buy this drive and would rather buy two seperate drive, but I understand that it is a niche drive and not aimed at me.