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An interesting SSD Alternative.
- Thread starter Winter Charm
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It's not ridiculous. It accomplishes what most people want from an SSD: fast boot and fast application launch (usually). And you don't get the hassle of having to deal with 2 drives, one of them small.
and if something come about that you dont normally read/write to? then your stuck with the mechanical hdds read/write time (slow).
can i remember what things you access normally even when its been powered down?
Of course the flash cache is preserved across boots. It gets better after a few times.
so the stuff stored in the cache is virtually redundant again on the mechanical hdd. interesting. might that mean its possible to recover important/constantly used documents?
so the stuff stored in the cache is virtually redundant again on the mechanical hdd. interesting. might that mean its possible to recover important/constantly used documents?
The writes go straight to the platter. I don't know when the updates to the cached stuff go to the flash, but assuming it works on sectors, that may well not be immediate.
The flash caches any data often read, not just programs. There is at least one review where they test it with a big Office document.
In theory, these look like AWESOME drives. Further inspection will tell you that the SSD component is SLC, meaning that the SSD portion will outlast many of the SSD's on the market nowadays. It's almost twice as fast as it's competitors (mechanical, not SSD) right now. It's only $130-140 on Newegg, though it's out of stock ... I would wait for more general reviews to roll in before committing, but I would seriously consider one if I hadn't just upgraded to my WD Blue 750Gb drive.
thats a bit silly then - so real world performance of writing wont be that great?
yea i know, so things like swap files might be on there, taking up large amounts of space. seems like a wierd implementation. will have to see benchies.
I'v been reading the reviews on this drive. There are LOTS if you google.
And they all say the same thing, buy it, it's the fastest drive out there and in some tests it beat the Velociraptor. It also boots and loads programmes just a behind an SSD.
Also reading the reviews it's interesting how some of them say that current testing measures do not give real everyday performance results of SSD drives?
But I want to know if the drive supports the automatic head parking feature if you drop your laptop? Can't remember what Apple call it?
And they all say the same thing, buy it, it's the fastest drive out there and in some tests it beat the Velociraptor. It also boots and loads programmes just a behind an SSD.
Also reading the reviews it's interesting how some of them say that current testing measures do not give real everyday performance results of SSD drives?
But I want to know if the drive supports the automatic head parking feature if you drop your laptop? Can't remember what Apple call it?
SMS: Sudden Motion Sensor
It's built into the hard drive bay of newer MacBook pros. So it's unecessary for the drive to have a dedicated one (Seagate calls it "G-Force"). However, all the Momentus drives have one, so I assume the Momentus XT has one too.
This is a simple and cheap implementation which gives a lotf of people what they are really looking for in a flash drive: fast boot and fast application launch.
Swap files would be the FIRST thing you want cached. It doesn't mean that whole files are there. Also, I don't know if it caches files which are not popular across boots.
Thanks mate. I am going to have to skip the drive anyway as my finances will be stretched as it is and I see in the reviews the drive uses more power then a normal HDD or SSD.
I need to try and buy the computer before June 22nd as their is a big potential taxes will go up then.
Yes, but its shock tolerances are the same as any average 7200rpm HDD.
I don't know about anyone else, but I take extra care in making sure I don't drop a couple of grand on the floor. The lack of that feature doesn't bother me.
EDIT: It is good to know that it doesn't have the feature, though.
bit stereotypical though isnt it?
ah well as long as it is fastish..yea it all depends how it works - it would still most likely work at the bit level, keeping cached the most commonly accessed sectors/blocks. seeing as though i normally have ~8GB swap files at least, i dont think that would benefit me ALL that much haha
Oh okay. Thanks for the clarification.
Nevertheless, a MBP's dedicated SMS will suffice should you use the XT to replace your stock drive (rather than put it into an Optibay).