1 TB SSD for 0.4$/GB

[thezooloomaster]

I recently stumbled upon this product:

OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid PCI-Express, 1.0TB (RVDHY-FH-1T)
100GB Flash, MLC, 100GB cache, 5400 rpm, read: 910 MB/s, write: 810 MB/s • PCIe x4
On the price comparison website I use, it's listed at $440.

So what we're dealing with here is not a pure SSD, but the stats still claim it is capable of 800+MB/s speeds. So I'm wondering where's the catch? Because if there is none then this product clearly gives a bigger bang for buck than any SSD right now. Sure it's quite expensive, but we're only talking about a ~$50 difference compared to 512GB SSDs, and here you're getting twice the capacity.
So is this truly a special product that too many people have overlooked, or am I still missing something?

 

[thezooloomaster]

I recently stumbled upon this product:

OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid PCI-Express, 1.0TB (RVDHY-FH-1T)
100GB Flash, MLC, 100GB cache, 5400 rpm, read: 910 MB/s, write: 810 MB/s • PCIe x4
On the price comparison website I use, it's listed at $440.

So what we're dealing with here is not a pure SSD, but the stats still claim it is capable of 800+MB/s speeds. So I'm wondering where's the catch? Because if there is none then this product clearly gives a bigger bang for buck than any SSD right now. Sure it's quite expensive, but we're only talking about a ~$50 difference compared to 512GB SSDs, and here you're getting twice the capacity.
So is this truly a special product that too many people have overlooked, or am I still missing something?

Well I should have done this before, but I just checked the price on Newegg (I live outside of the US so I knew it could be more expensive for me) and it just reinforces my point. Newegg currently lists it at $320

 

[WyomingKnott]

Ehh, it's basically SSD caching in a single device, rather than using Intel's caching motherboards. It has the same advantages and limits: Stuff that you use a lot will probably be cached in the SSD, so you will get blazing read and write access. Anything where it falls back to the HDD because the data isn't in the SSD cache will read and write at HDD speeds.

You will only get those speeds when reading and writing in the 100 GB that's cached in the SSD. Otherwise, you will get 5400 RPM HDD speeds.

This is speculation: If the firmware is really clever, it might save some of the cache space for buffering writes. So when you write new data it writes like a demon at SSD speeds, then moves the data to the HDD when it has time. You would see faster overall write speeds than read speeds.

Some people like hybrid drives (this is just a hybrid drive with a low-speed HDD component) and some prefer manually separating what goes on the SSD and what goes on the HDD. If the thing really contains a 100 GB SSD and a hard drive and caching logic, it's a fairly good buy. If it's for a laptop, it looks like a good idea.

Re "Sure it's quite expensive, but we're only talking about a ~$50 difference compared to 512GB SSDs, and here you're getting twice the capacity" - yes, but most of that capacity is slower. I'd take the 512 GB SSD any day, even for a laptop.

 

[thezooloomaster]

Well, I guess it all boils down to how well the thing performs. I understand that the 1TB HDD component will be slow and I thought that the huge cache would be sufficient to counteract that problem. Now if only it were cheaper for me over here ;/ $100 more than on Newegg.