Solved Hybrid inside a Tower

[Chips]

I've been looking for a suitable big Hybrid to install as the main HD in my tower system. I found one that looks just the ticket, except for one thing. IT says that it's a laptop drive. My question is would it fit a tower computer?

 

[theveterans]

Yes, but you need a 2.5" to 3.5" HDD adapter.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If you have room for two drives, you would be much better off with a separate SSD (I would suggest 128GB) and a 1 TB HDD than a hybrid. The SSD built into the hybrid serves only to cache the spinner part of the drive. It may increase OS boot times or access to data and programs but not dramatically since the SSD part is only 8GB or less. Hybrids never were populate in rigs using 3.5" drives and only caught on in some smaller laptops, notebooks, etc. (which is why you only find them in 2.5" now) because there wasn't room for two drives in them. Newer smaller laptops, etc. that do come with an SSD and an HDD only use the SSD to cache the spinner. Except for some older 750GB units still unsold, all of the hybrids still being made (as far as I can tell, only Seagate makes them) are only 5400 rpm units and don't perform much better than a 7200 rpm spinner. Also, the reviews for the hybrids have been a bit less than stellar for all but the newest 500GB hybrid (and, even then, reviewers aren't reporting much in the way of speed increases).

I've considered putting a hybrid in my notebook since it already has a 5400 rpm spinner in it and no place for a second drive but that would be the only kind of application I can think of where using a hybrid might be worthwhile.

 

[Chips]

Thanks for the info.