WD mixes flash-disk cocktail in Vegas, lets clients feel up models

WD is sending out samples of its 500GB and 1TB hybrid flash hard disk drives to OEM customers and showcasing them at CES in Las Vegas. According to an Engadget report WD is sampling two hybrid HDDS with its OEMs: A 500GB 2.5-inch model with a 5mm z-height and 24GB of NAND, called the WD5000M13K A 1TB 2.5-inch drive with a …

[Tezfair]

Reliability

WD need to get their act together on reliability first, we are always sending back WD drives for end users.

We won't buy / supply any more WDs, and have not done so for the last 12 months.

Only saving grace is that they have a longer warranty period than most of the other brands.

[Bob H]

Re: Reliability

We buy many thousands of 3.5in disks from WD and I can't say that we have any complaints about them.

[Fuzz]

New connector?

"The 1TB one has a 6Gbits SATA interface and the 500GB unit has a new connector."

What does "New connector" mean? Are you saying WD have defined their own non standard connector?

[Dr. Mouse]

"Hybrids may become known as SSHDs"

I hope not. It will always be secure shell daemon to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Too little to late I reckon. I'm seeing the odd deal on 256GB SSD's for around £100.

512GB SSD's are available for less than £300.

I doubt these new hybrids will be out before September...

And no doubt by this time next year the 512GB SSD's will be had for less than £200....

They'll have to price them low from the get go otherwise no one will buy them.

They should be at a point of selling 1 and 2TB 2.5" hybrids, not 500GB and 1TB.

[Luben Solev]

How about use in RAID systems?

Can Hybrid drives be used in RAID systems (such as RAID 5)? How about the newer generation SSD drives for that matter? When I built my last PC I was told that putting SSDs in a RAID array will make them fail very quickly indeed.

[Bob H]

Re: How about use in RAID systems?

If the RAID controller isn't aware of TRIM and other operating system commands for managing SSDs then they may not run in an optimised way and may even fail earlier than a non-RAIDed SSD.

I believe Linux now mostly supports TRIM in most RAID and LVM modes, but I don't know about hardware RAID controllers and Windows.

[Captain Scarlet]

Re: How about use in RAID systems?

I assume its self managed by the drive itself and actually hides the SSD like the Seagate does, so TRIM might not actually be required.

Might be a bonus for Raid but then again its a consumer drive so will have bad points which may affect its use within a RAID.

[Alan Brown]

Re: How about use in RAID systems?

Yes - but don't bother. It won't gain you much.

Yes and it will gain you quite a bit.

Failure rates are dependent on the amount of writing going on. Write amplification isn't a major issue as long as your chunk sizes are sensible.