MBP( early2008)HDD upgrade with hybrid HDD

[mactechy]

Hi all
I am looking at upgrading my HDD and looking for options. To speed up I wonder if it is worth while buying a hybrid drive? Are there any of those drives that the ssd would be able to fit the OS(10.6.8)? If that would be a possibility I could place all docs on a second partition which could be on the(disk) HDD?
Is that possible/make sense.I like to keep the dvd drive bay. Also I have only 4gb memory atm.
Would be nice if someone could help me on that?

Thanks

 

[miles01110]

Most reviews report marginal speed increases, but it still has all the problems (and sometimes more) than a standard platter-based hard drive.

 

[lamboman]

Hybrid drives don't work like that. The function as a standard, single drive, and cache files that are accessed regularly.

A hybrid drive will work if you regularly the same files; eg. during startup. Otherwise, it doesn't offer any performance advantages with files that aren't accessed regularly, and as a result aren't on the NAND.

It can offer nice speed increases for basic use as a boot drive, but otherwise, not really.

I'd personally get an SSD and not fuss about varied performance.

 

[Jimbogiant]

I'll speak up in support of a hybrid drive (specifically the Momentus XT 750GB). After cloning over my OS X + Windows (via Boot Camp) installs, everything fired up and there really is a HUGE difference in boot times and application opens. It is just as quiet and vibration-free as the 5400 rpm drive it replaced.

With that being said, I would only recommend the Momentus if the following is true: You can't fit all of your data onto a 256GB or smaller SSD, and you don't want to install a separate HDD in the Optibay slot. If you can fit your stuff all on a SSD for a reasonable price (i.e. 256GB territory), do it- they are in all ways faster than platter drives. However, I couldn't justify paying more than $500 for a 512GB SSD when I could buy a 750GB hybrid drive with similar boot and app open times for $149 (at newegg right now) and not have to bother with the (admittedly easy) Optibay install process.

Hope this is helpful, if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

James

 

[BasilFawlty]

Hybrid drives don't work like that. The function as a standard, single drive, and cache files that are accessed regularly.

A hybrid drive will work if you regularly the same files; eg. during startup. Otherwise, it doesn't offer any performance advantages with files that aren't accessed regularly, and as a result aren't on the NAND.

It can offer nice speed increases for basic use as a boot drive, but otherwise, not really.

I'd personally get an SSD and not fuss about varied performance.

I just upgraded my MBP with a 500GB Seagate Hybrid. Love it. I do tend to use a lot of the same applications, so my experience may not reflect other folk's results. But for what I do, I'm very happy with it. Boot time went from 40+ to around 15 seconds. The apps that I use open almost instantly and I have all lots of storage space. It would be great to have a large SSD, but for $114 (I bought before the floods) I'm quite happy.

 

[lamboman]

I just upgraded my MBP with a 500GB Seagate Hybrid. Love it. I do tend to use a lot of the same applications, so my experience may not reflect other folk's results. But for what I do, I'm very happy with it. Boot time went from 40+ to around 15 seconds. The apps that I use open almost instantly and I have all lots of storage space. It would be great to have a large SSD, but for $114 (I bought before the floods) I'm quite happy.

At the end of the day, if you are sure on your usage, and are pretty much positive that you will take advantage of the drive, by all means go for it. In your case, it's worked nicely! Otherwise, optibay or SSD alone might be a better choice, if an SSD is required, rather than desired.

I hate you for your E-type, just a little...beautiful, beautiful things!

 

[mactechy]

Hi all
Thanks for your replies.
I have been looking at the SG Momentus XT 500GB and due to the fact that I mainly use a VM it might help. I'll wait and see how it performs as I also consider upgrading the memory to 6GB.
I do not want to spend to much for this 2008 MBP so this might have to do.
BasilFawlty; Have you also upgraded ram?
Jimbogiant: I fit in the group where the 256 SSD is to small and I do not want to get an external optical drive now.