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AppliedMicro

macrumors 68020
Aug 17, 2008
2,212
2,531
If OWC is gonna make 3.5 SSDs why can't they make a 3.5 Hybrid-drive like the Momentus XT?
The point about these 2TB is, as OWC says: "performance and capacity" - uncompromisingly. These drives are made for people who need the performance. And I'm sure many of the targeted audience will count on consistent performance. It's a premium product for a specific audience, to be put in High-End machines, where price is secondary.

Hybrid drives on the other hand aren't "uncompromisingly fast" - they aren't faster than conventional hard drives in Reads once you hit the "wrong" sectors on the drive. And for demanding users/uses, many Writes won't be either. Hybrid drives don't achieve consistent performance, so they are no substitute for SSDs.

Also, keep in mind that hybrid aren't only inherently more complex from a design standpoint (you'd not only have to get the SSD part right but also the communication and caching between SSD and conventional drive), they should also be less manufacturers being able to produce them. Conventional hard drives have to be assembled in a cleanroom environment (and I doubt you can get them "barebones"), while SSD should be easier to assemble.

For companies, it's not only much easier to get into the SSD business than the one for conventional HD - the former is a burgeoning market while the latter is shrinking.

Bottom line: Hybrid drives give up the benefits of proper SSD (uncompromising and consistent performance), are more difficult to design, test and manufacture (especially companies that don't already make HD), the targeted audience is small (esp. in the Apple world, it'd only fit in Mac Pro and iMac 27", nothing else) and the advantage compared to existing 2.5" hybrid drives is only a relative one (no way near as significant as to SSD).


But why don't go and purchase an SSD and create your own Fusion Drive with Disk Utility? There are instructions on how to do it...
 

el-John-o

macrumors 68000
Nov 29, 2010
1,588
766
Missouri
The point about these 2TB is, as OWC says: "performance and capacity" - uncompromisingly. These drives are made for people who need the performance. And I'm sure many of the targeted audience will count on consistent performance. It's a premium product for a specific audience, to be put in High-End machines, where price is secondary.

Hybrid drives on the other hand aren't "uncompromisingly fast" - they aren't faster than conventional hard drives in Reads once you hit the "wrong" sectors on the drive. And for demanding users/uses, many Writes won't be either. Hybrid drives don't achieve consistent performance, so they are no substitute for SSDs.

Also, keep in mind that hybrid aren't only inherently more complex from a design standpoint (you'd not only have to get the SSD part right but also the communication and caching between SSD and conventional drive), they should also be less manufacturers being able to produce them. Conventional hard drives have to be assembled in a cleanroom environment (and I doubt you can get them "barebones"), while SSD should be easier to assemble.

For companies, it's not only much easier to get into the SSD business than the one for conventional HD - the former is a burgeoning market while the latter is shrinking.

Bottom line: Hybrid drives give up the benefits of proper SSD (uncompromising and consistent performance), are more difficult to design, test and manufacture (especially companies that don't already make HD), the targeted audience is small (esp. in the Apple world, it'd only fit in Mac Pro and iMac 27", nothing else) and the advantage compared to existing 2.5" hybrid drives is only a relative one (no way near as significant as to SSD).


But why don't go and purchase an SSD and create your own Fusion Drive with Disk Utility? There are instructions on how to do it...

Exactly. This is NOT a consumer product. MacRumors readers tend to forget that when they look at a lot of Apple/Third party Apple products, like Mac Pro's with 12 cores and a lot of RAM for example. These are for very high end niche markets that need a LOT of performance and have the budget to pay for it.

This is an insane-performance-is-necessary product. Avatar was rendered on a farm of computers with something like 108TB of RAM, and who knows what sort of CPU and GPU performance. That is a perfect example of an unlimited budget, I-don't-care-what-it-is-as-long-as-it's-the-fastest scenario. That same company that does rendering for those high end animated movies, would probably buy up a bunch of these drives. Lots of pro videographers are moving to 4k and even 8k video, even though the final product is 1080p (gives them a lot of flexibility). Those files aren't small. I can really see a pro video customer using a SET of these 2TB drives in their Mac Pro for working with huge video files in FCP, etc. Many of them are already using an array of 2.5" SSD's, so this would allow them to pack in even MORE fast storage.



All we need now is something from Apple (that's less than three years old) to put it in.

Zing.

Supposed to make an announcement this year on the Mac Pro aren't they?

You know there was a time the 'Mac Pro' (whether it was called that, or a PowerMac, etc.) was the flagship Macintosh by which all other workstations were judged. I really hope it does't go the way of the Xserve. True, with improved laptop performance many many professionals are now using MacBook Pro's instead of desktop computers, but there are still QUITE a few who need desktop level performance.
 

tootalltech

macrumors newbie
Jan 21, 2013
5
0
The Price

Great leaps forward for Desktop users. This way we will no longer have to by those pesky little coversion trays! I do think the price for SSD hd are ridiculous. Its cheaper for me to get a 65' LED tv than a few SSD hd! Give it some time and it will go away!
 
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