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INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

laptop thin sshda

   A few days ago we reviewed the first serious attempt by Seagate to enter the consumer SSD market with their 600 SSD model which was surprisingly good for a first attempt especially since together they also launched two extra SSD models the 600 Pro SSD and 1200 SSD both of which are considered as enterprise-class solutions. However in order to cover pretty much every user out there Seagate did not stop there and so they also released their 3rd Generation of 2.5" Hybrid drives they like to refer to as SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drives) which much like their Momentus XT predecessor are mostly aimed towards laptop owners who want to have the best of both worlds meaning the low cost and high capacity ratio of HDDs coupled with the superior performance of SSDs. Currently Seagate has two SSHD models in the market the 1TB Laptop SSHD and the 500GB Laptop Thin SSHD which we have on our test bench today.

 

   Founded in 1979, Seagate is the leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions. From the videos, music and documents we share with friends and family on social networks, to servers that form the backbone of enterprise data centers and cloud-based computing, to desktop and notebook computers that fuel our personal productivity, Seagate products help more people store, share and protect their valuable digital content. Seagate offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of hard disk drives, solid-state drives and solid-state hybrid drives. In addition, the company offers an extensive line of retail storage products for consumers and small businesses, along with data-recovery services for any brand of hard drive and digital media type. Seagate employs more than 50,000 people around the world.

 

   Unlike normal HDDs the new SSHDs (just like the Momentus XT) feature NAND flash to store frequently accessed data and thus simulate SSD performance. The only two downsides to that is that for starters you will not see any performance gains as soon as you install the drive since the adaptive memory technology algorithms (AMT) need time to spot and cache your frequently accessed data and also that the NAND flash used is just 8GB in size which pretty much means that it will be unable to accelerate everything (although plans for 32GB models are underway I really hope the day comes when we will see SSHDs over 3TB in size with at least 256GB of onboard NAND flash). Anyways as already mentioned Seagate launched two different SSHD models the Laptop SSHD which is 1TB in capacity and 9.5mm thick (due to the two platters used) and the Laptop Thin SSHD which has 500GB of capacity and is 7mm thick. Both drives have a rotational speed of 5400RPM a decision which Seagate had to take because as clearly stated from their name these models are aimed for laptop use and thus power constraints are an issue (3.5" SSHD drives will be available soon at 7200RPM). Now although to make up for that "reduction" in speed Seagate has placed 64MB DRAM cache (from the 32MB found in the Momentus XT) at the same time they used MLC instead of SLC NAND Flash to cut down the cost and although we're long past the time when SLC would massively outperform MLC still we don't know how much this will affect performance. Ok then let's put the latest Laptop Thin SSHD through our tests and see just how good it is compared to regular 2.5" drives and of course other "caching" solutions including its predecessor.

 


 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

featspecs

 


 

THE LAPTOP THIN SSHD 500GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

laptop thin sshd 01t

Ok once again we received our sample inside an anti-static plastic bag (bulk) but Seagate should also have it available in retail package.

 

 

laptop thin sshd 02t

The Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB is a 5400RPM 2.5" SATA III (6Gb/s) drive featuring 8GB of MLC NAND Flash and 64MB of DRAM cache.

 

 

laptop thin sshd 03t

As you can see the sticker on our sample is not the retail one but still it has information printed on it such as the units serial number, part number, barcode, electrical specifications, factory roll out date (3/3/2013) and much more.

 

 

laptop thin sshd 04t

The NAND flash modules along with the DRAM cache modules are placed on the interior of the blue PCB.

 

 

laptop thin sshd 05t

At the rear we see the typical SATA data and power connectors along with 4 pins (probably used for hardware firmware updates).

 

 

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The Laptop Thin SSHD is just 7mm thick just like the recently released 600 SSD again by Seagate.

 

 

laptop thin sshd 07t

Removing the PCB is not hard so right behind it we see an ASIC chip for NAND management, LSI controller, Samsung 8GB MLC NAND flash module and a 64MB DRAM module (this time by Nanya).

 


 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cpuz i7-3930ksystem

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

     Thoroughly testing hard disk drives may require time and patience but that's just about it. Of course that doesn't mean that one must take it lightly, at least not when people base their decision on your results. True many choose to only use 2 or 3 benchmarking suits in order to measure the performance of a drive or drives since quite honestly most benchmarking suites do tend to agree with each other (so it's not really wrong) but we always like to take things a step further not because we have to but because we want to be almost 100% certain of the results we get and post in our charts (one can never be 100% certain about anything).

 

     So in this kind of reviews we will use a total of 6 different benchmarking suites in an effort to bring you the most accurate results across the board. Now the only reason why i say effort is because real-world usage is not always on par with what results one gets by running several benchmarks on a drive and that's mainly because there are many variables at work from ambient temperatures to hardware configurations and even firmware versions. The benchmarking applications we use are the AIDA64 suite (former Everest Pro), HD Tune Professional, HD Tach RW, ATTO, Sisoftware Sandra Pro and the Crystal Disk Mark 64bit. These benchmarking tools are the best in what they do and as you will also see later on their results more or less agree. Each test is performed a total of 6 times and then the average is recorded into the charts. Temperatures are recorded using Hard Disk Sentinel and after 45 minutes of continuous testing in a 23 degrees Celsius temperature controlled room. The operating system as usual is a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 with every update installed up until the 8th of August 2013.

 

   From this review and forward we will also be using PCMARK 7 with our 2.5" reviews (we already used it to benchmark the drives we have here) since although not very popular amongst reviewers it's one of the very few benchmarking applications that can actually simulate real-world usage and thus produce results that can point out the pros of hybrid drives (and since we will be seeing many 2.5" hybrid drives in the future it does make sense).

 


 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

aida64atto

 


 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hdtachrwhdtunepro

 


 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sandraprocrystal

 


 

TEST RESULTS - PCMARK 7 / TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pcmark7temps

 


 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

laptop thin sshdb

   Initially the Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB was to be tested with our usual benchmark suites just like every drive in the past but since as you can all see it didn't really do well we decided to also use PCMark 7 mainly because it simulates real-world usage and thus it's more "appropriate" to test hybrid drives with. That being said we also did some boot up tests and the Laptop Thin SSHD did make a difference, not as much as an SSD but quite faster than normal HDDs. So is it better or worse than the top performing 2.5" HDDs in the market currently? Well in the end it really depends on the kind of use you want it for. For example if you want to install your OS on it and wish for quick boot up times and application responsiveness I’d say yes since the adaptive memory technology will make certain that the files mostly used by you are moved in the MLC NAND flash section of the drive to accelerate them, however if you want it for storage needs (copy/move/delete files) only then the obvious answer is no since the read/write speeds of the drive are not exactly stellar.

 

   So it's very easy for someone to decide whether or not the Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB by Seagate is the right tool for the job but there's one last thing that matters a lot and thus we need to check, the price tag. Seagate knows this is the decisive factor for many people and so thanks to them cutting corners whenever they could (for example using MLC instead of SLC NAND Flash) the Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB currently retails for just USD79.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 75Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Personally although i really think that hybrid technology is far from perfect at the same time i can't deny that it is currently the next best thing to SSDs and since the Laptop Think SSHD is the ideal primary OS drive it grabs our Golden Award.

goldPROS

- Build Quality
- Ideal For OS Use (SSD-Like Performance For Cached Files)
- Size Factor (2.5"/7mm)
- Temperatures
- Power Consumption (2.5W At Load)
- 3 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some)
 

 

 

CONS

- Mid-End Overall Performance (Un-Cached)