Hybrid Disc Drive

It’s almost as fast as an SSD, and retains the large capacity of a rotating hard disc.

Hard discs are the slowest component inside your laptop. If your machine is slowing down because of too much data in it, the simplest way to resolve the issue is to upgrade your hard disc drive (HDD). Solid state drives (SSD) can be a good option, but they have limited capacities (max 256 GB) and cost too much. Little wonder that no one is queuing up for them. 

Another option could be hybrid drives. They are cheaper than SSDs and much faster than typical HDDs. Also, their capacities are much higher than that of SSDs. 

The new Momentus XT Drive is the first hybrid that comes with a 4 GB SSD. This Sata drive runs at 7,200 rpm and processes data at 3 Gbps. The drive achieves higher speeds by moving the most-used files to its SSD, using adaptive memory technology. 

The drive is designed to fit most laptops, and the improved performance will be evident immediately.

I changed the hard disc in my MacBook and the boot time reduced from about  30 seconds to 15 seconds. There was significant improvement in the performance too. I would have preferred a full SSD, but its price is a deterrent for me.

Momentus is a great option in case you use your laptop for high-end graphics, number crunching or if you are a hardcore gamer. 

For techies, here are its key specs: 4 GB SLC NAND solid state memory and 32 MB of drive-level cache (the highest in notebook drives from Seagate). It is a mystery why Seagate has not put more than 4 GB of SSD in these hybrids, not even in the 500 GB versions.

For those who like to compare prices: a 128 GB SSD drive starts at about Rs 12,000, and the 500 GB Momentus is Rs 8,100. Not only is it more economical, it is faster than a hard disc drive by at least 30 per cent.

About The Author

Gagandeep Singh Sapra