
Seagate also uses a 5,400rpm spindle speed hard drive. That drive comes with 8GB of flash memory from Intel on board. Seagate, the first manufacturer to produce hybrid drives, has gone through several generations of its 7mm high laptop SSHD. Data can then be archived on the hard drive portion of the disk.īy comparison, WD's Black SSHD comes with 8GB to 24GB of NAND flash memory on board, depending on laptop system manufacturer requirements. With 120GB of SSD capacity, users can store not only the OS, but a large number of applications and files that they frequently use, such as games or streaming video. As Banda said, users can control where data is stored - on the SSD or on the spinning disk.

The new WD Black Dual Drive is an industry first in terms of capacity and functionality.

Users have full control over where their data goes."Ī spokesperson said WD has no plans to discontinue its existing SSHD drive in light of the new WD Black Dual Drive. If you’re not familiar with the advantages of a solid state drive, this post will fill you in."Our SSHD didn't allow them to optimize their speed and storage," said Melyssa Banda, WD's senior director of product marketing.

And while the inclusion of an SSD does add a bit to the price, it is money well spent in my opinion. In some cases there might even be enough room on the SSD to hold your most frequently used programs as well as the O.S. The hard drive will hold the rest of your programs and all of your data files (photos, Word documents, spreadsheets, etc.).Īn alternative to a dual drive laptop would be to buy one with a larger SSD and then attach an external USB hard drive, but having to pay for the extra drive would negate much of your savings (plus you’d have to lug the hard drive around along with your laptop).īuying a laptop with both drives built in is a great solution in terms of speed, storage capacity and convenience. If so, you might be wondering if it’s worth paying extra to buy a model that has both. In my opinion, it is.Īlthough relatively small, the SSD in a dual drive laptop will hold the operating system at the very least, providing boot-up times that are up to three times faster than what you’re used to seeing, and any programs that are stored on the SSD will load at lightning speed. If you’ve been shopping around for a new laptop recently, chances are you’ve seen several models that come with both a small solid state drive (SSD) and a traditional hard drive.
