500GB 5400RPM SATA Hybrid Drive??

TarekElsakka

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I am in the market for a new laptop and I am clueless when it comes to hard drives and all those new storage options like SSD, flash, etc. I know that currently the slowest are 5400RPM mechanical disks, though, but what I don't get is the "SATA Hybrid Drive" thing? What I'm looking at is an 2015 Alienware 13 with QHD Touch Screen display (4K), 16GB of RAM, Intel Core i7 6500U, and GeForce 960 GPU.

I've been a Mac user for quite some time now so those specifications seem really good for me. I'm not going to be playing a lot of games since I already have and frequently use a PlayStation 4, so I'm looking for a portable devices that's powerful enough to handle any tasks I perform like using all Office applications at the same time while having many browser tabs opened, listening to music, and/or watching a video.

From my experience, those are rather simple tasks but they actually take a toll on my 2010 MacBook Pro and it starts lagging quite hard, which is why I'm afraid of buying the new Retina MacBook (intel core M 1.1, 8 gb of ram) even though I like a lot of things about it, I just fear it may perform like my older MBP does (Core i5, 4GB of RAM - 2010).

My main question is whether or not the hard disk I mentioned above is actually slow? And by that I mean both in transfer speeds as well as opening and closing applications. From what I know, flash storage is incredibly fast and has a huge edge when it comes to the speed factor, and so does SSD (if they aren't the same thing, I wouldn't know). I just don't want to dish out a lot of money on something that is slower than the other option.

I also read about the Alienware getting hot and noisy quite fast, is that true?

Thanks a lot guys.
 
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HDD and SSD tech arent remotely the same in the way that they operate. As for the hybrid drive, it's a HDD meaning that its an old school disk spinning at 5400rpm as data is either written or read with an included smaller SSD partition for quickly accessed memory. It will show faster start up times and faster performance in some areas but it will not compete with a full SSD drive. It will be faster than a plain HDD in some applications but about the same in other. The hybrid drives showed up to bridge that gap but they never really gained a lot of popularity and with SSD prices falling Id personally avoid the hybrid drives.

Edit: Speaking of that laptop Id stay really far away, I cant even fathom how they think a M960 is going to run a...

Averst450

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HDD and SSD tech arent remotely the same in the way that they operate. As for the hybrid drive, it's a HDD meaning that its an old school disk spinning at 5400rpm as data is either written or read with an included smaller SSD partition for quickly accessed memory. It will show faster start up times and faster performance in some areas but it will not compete with a full SSD drive. It will be faster than a plain HDD in some applications but about the same in other. The hybrid drives showed up to bridge that gap but they never really gained a lot of popularity and with SSD prices falling Id personally avoid the hybrid drives.

Edit: Speaking of that laptop Id stay really far away, I cant even fathom how they think a M960 is going to run a 4k screen. That just doesnt add up. A full size GTX 980ti will only run a 4k display at about an average of 40fps, and its a much faster card than what that laptop is bringing.
 
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Kevbur123

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The hard drive is good and gets better over time. Its basically got a small amount of ssd like memory and a normal hard drive and will load all the important files and regular files into this section and all your photos videos etc will go to the normal part. Very simple way to say is that it's like a hard drive with a large chunk of ram.
 

Kevbur123

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Not to put a downer as you explain it very well but 1tb hard drives are still for the most part expensive when compared to both a standard and hyrbid.
 

TarekElsakka

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Thank you for your replies, guys. I don't know how the GPU runs a 4K screen, and the laptop is sold by someone who brought it from the USA because Alienware laptops are not sold locally in Egypt, which means it has no warranty but it's also reasonably priced compared to a much weaker Retina MacBook, for example. I am in a pickle right now and I do not know which one to go for, and as for the hard drive issue, I appreciate your input and I think I have a clearer image now.

The fact that the MacBook actually has local warranty is making me lean towards it more, but the performance is a huge question mark and I won't be able to tell by just doing a test-drive at the store; I'd need at least three to four days of heavy usage in order to find out.
 

Averst450

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If he ordered it and picked the options out then he chose a screen thats to intensive to run for the card option that he selected. If you intend to game with the laptop Id avoid it because of the FPS issue. However, for editing tasks the 4k screen would work fine as FPS isnt an issue when viewing stills and processing video.