As I mentioned once before, I installed a Seagate hybrid drive in my new laptop. This is the Momentus XT, a 500 GB, 7200 rpm drive with an integrated 4 GB SSD module. Its firmware moves frequently-accessed files into the SSD unit for faster retrieval.
Besides being much faster than the 5400 rpm drive that came with the machine, the hybrid drive appears to take no more energy to operate--battery life seems unaffected. This is probably because the head seek activity is so far reduced on the hybrid drive.
While obviously not as fast as a full SSD, it seems much faster than any other rotating disk I have seen. So far, I am very happy with it.
The downside, of course, is price. I bought the Momentus for $139 at CompUSA in Dallas (now owned by Tiger Direct, by the way).
As it happens, that is almost exactly the difference between the machine I bought, an ASUS UL30A-X5K, and the next model up which has switchable graphics because of an nVidia discrete graphics chip onboard. Mine only has the integrated Intel graphics, but since I am not a gamer I really don't miss the nVidia GPU. In my case, therefore, the faster disk is a bigger benefit to me while keeping the cost in line.
I also bought an inexpensive external USB drive case for the original drive, so I have it both for backups and as a spare in case the Momentus should fail at some point. The HP this machine has replaced was on its fourth hard disk in four years--so I long since learned the wisdom of having a spare at hand.
David
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