Seagate hybrid 1TB or Toshiba 1TB?

[jbachandouris]

The Seagate has 8GB SSD and 1TB HD and is $104. The Toshiba is $73 and has shock protection.

With a mid 2010 would I really notice any speed difference with the 8GB SSD?

 

[Delorean2006]

The Seagate has 8GB SSD and 1TB HD and is $104. The Toshiba is $73 and has shock protection.

With a mid 2010 would I really notice any speed difference with the 8GB SSD?

with the hybrid drive i used to have in my 2010 macbook pro, i noticed a boost in loading applications and booting up the computer, overall performance i definitely noticed a difference in performance then i ended up upgrading to an SSD recently and then bought a new macbook, hope i could help a little bit

 

[jbachandouris]

Is the speed boost noticeable enough to justify the extra $30?

 

[NewishMacGuy]

Is the speed boost noticeable enough to justify the extra $30?

Absolutely. I've found such a small difference between my Seagate hybrid and SSD equipped machines that I can't justify the upgrade. I would caveat that statement with 2 points:

1. I have the Momentus XT, which has a 7200rpm HDD and...
2. There is a significant difference when running my VM which doesn't engage the SSD portion of the hybrid, I just don't use the VM quite enough to drive me to lay out for a 500GB SSD.

>

 

[jbachandouris]

Update:
Bought the Seagate 1TB Hybrid drive. Installed Mavericks using USB stick. Used Time Capsule to restore from last back up. Went to sleep (4 hours over wifi; I know, I should have wired directly to the Time Capsule).

It's too soon to notice the speed increase, if any, as it takes time for the drive to 'learn' my habits and place frequently used processes on the 8GB SSD portion.

Only issue is that this drive is a louder than the stock Hitachi that it came with. Not desktop loud. Not defective loud. Its just that with the stock drive, I never heard any noise at all.

I am debating on what I will end up doing as one of my favorite features of this MBP is the silent operation.

 

[jbachandouris]

How long does it take for the SSD cache to notice a difference in speed?

If there's no difference, I'll just save the $32 and go with the Toshiba drive instead.