Review: Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD (500GB)

by Parm Mann on 14 August 2013, 17:00

Tags: Seagate (NASDAQ:STX)

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Performance - Part Two

PCMark 7's trace-based simulations provide a better indication of what the Laptop Thin SSHD can do in everyday scenarios. The Starting Applications test entails loading office documents and Internet Explorer, while the Gaming test simulates a run of World of Warcraft.

In both benchmarks, Seagate's integrated solid-state cache is working as intended. In certain cases, the NAND-acceleration results in the drive delivering almost eight times the performance of a standard hard disk, and though the overall speed is some way shy of a dedicated SSD, Seagate has found a satisfactory middle ground.

For users coming from a traditional hard disk, the SSHD can offer a dramatic increase in system responsiveness - particularly in regards to Windows boot times. To give you another example, we used the Laptop Thin SSHD as a replacement for a 7,200RPM hard disk in an old, worn-down Dell laptop and saw Windows 7 load times reduced from a laborious 143 seconds to just 30 seconds flat.