On 10/23/2013 06:27 PM, Chris Knadle wrote:
On Wednesday, October 23, 2013 17:51:27 dragorn wrote:
On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 02:18:50PM -0400, Chris Knadle wrote:
On Wednesday, October 23, 2013 12:04:17 John Mort wrote:
Thanks Matthias. From the lack of response I'm guessing no one has
experience with SSHD yet. I might look at an OS SSD for linux, and a
HDD
for linux storage, and will probably just stick with a small HDD for
windows since that's only used for gaming and the games I play (FPS &
RTS)
don't load new maps or areas often enough to make it worth the expense.
In the computer I built for my Dad I used an SSD for the OS (this is my
first use of an SSD), but put the /home directory/partiton on a HDD.
Some people go through the effort of making sure that the logs go to the
HDD insted of the SSD, but for a Desktop box there aren't a lot of these
so I didn't bother; we'll see how long that lasts. [Linus Torvalds
recently had the SSD drive he was using for Linux development up and quit
completely on him, and I didn't hear if he was ever able to get any data
off that drive after the failure.]
I've never used a SSHD drive yet.
SSHD drives can apparently either be setup in a "self-optimized mode" in which
case the drive looks "just like a drive" to the OS, and does whatever
optimization using the Flash that it figures out on its own, or there's a
"host optimized mode" in which case the OS (and thus the admin) chooses how to
use the Flash for optimization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive
I found one reference article that discusses one particular SSHD drive:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-hard-drives/seagate-laptop-thin-sshd/4505-9997_7-35628720.html
The article above sounds like it likely refers to "self-optimized mode" in
which the drive tries to "learn" on its own what to keep in the Flash.
As I recall, hybrid drives require linux kernel support to move
frequently-used blocks to the hybrid partition, and perform a raid-ish
overlay on the block io system.
Realistically the above description (which I think is the "host-optimized
mode") sounds like the way any experienced person would want to use the drive.
To me this all sounds confusing. I can understand using an SSD drive or a
HDD, but I can't figure out why I'd want a SSHD drive. ?
It's playing to a price point. Slightly better performance than HDD, but
cheaper that flash. In a couple years they won't exist, as flash prices
keep dropping pretty quickly.
I no long have spinning disks as root volumes on my home systems or
laptop. The change in responsiveness with an SSD is really dramatic, as
you no longer get slow downs in the UI under heavy disk load. I started
this transition a year ago, and I'm never going back to spinning disks
on root volumes again. :)
My home server still has spinning 3 TB drives for media storage (in a
raid array) / backups, etc.
-Sean
--
Sean Dague
http://dague.net
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