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Western Digital finally embraces hybrid drives

by on10 January 2013



Up to 1TB, 24GB NAND in tow


Seagate launched its first Momentus XT hybrid drives almost two years ago and it was just a matter of time before the competition picked up the challenge and came up with similar products.

It took a while, but Western Digital’s new hybrid drives seem to have been worth the wait. Dubbed WD Black SSHD, the new drives come in two flavours, as a regular 2.5-inch 7mm drive and an ultrathin 5mm unit for ultrathins and ultrabooks.

The standard 7mm version offers up to 1TB of storage, along with 24GB of NAND, so it has quite a bit more solid-state storage than Seagate’s offerings. The 5mm unit has a single 500GB platter, but it features the same amount of flash cache.

However, WD will also offer the new Black SSHD drives with 16GB to 24GB NAND cache, which should allow OEMs to shave off a few pennies from their BOM cost.

Western Digital is still not saying when the drives will become available, but a senior company rep told CNET that they should appear this year and they will be “very affordable.”

More here.


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