Hybrid hard drives, are they worth the money?

danjm99

Honorable
Nov 13, 2012
63
0
10,630
I'm currently running Windows 7 and a few programs on a 64GB OCZ SSD and use a 500GB caviar blue as a drive for installing games, downloading files etc. I've stuck an old 128GB Samsung 2.5" drive in my computer for putting some videos etc on that I don't really watch much.

I've been thinking of swapping the 500GB WD HDD for a hybrid drive of the same (or higher) capacity for installing Steam, Origin etc and games on. I won't install them on my SSD because I always forget to change the install directory to my HDD. Windows doesn't shut down as fast as I'd like because I have apps open that are running on my HDD... Steam often causes problems.

So are hybrid drives worth the money? I don't want to go and buy expensive SSDS for large amounts of files.
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
If you play the same few games over and over then a hybrid drive might work well for you; this is the only way you can control what gets cached in the ssd part of the hybrid. Also keep in mind the ssd cache on the hybrid's are small... 4 or 8gb depending on the model.

IMO - they are only worth it as a boot drive.