Which is better: Hybrid drive or SSD

New hybrid hard drive won all the popularity over traditional hard drives very quickly. As its name reflects, a Hybrid hard drive is a combination of an SSD and a traditional hard drive. It proclaims features of both the technologies.

This drive contributes the maximum to enhance system performance without being uneasy with your pocket. You can see the price difference between an SSD and Hybrid drive:

2 GB SSD cost-­-­-­- $450

750 GB hybrid drive (with 32 GB SSD) -­-­-­- $120

Lets us take an example: By combining a fast 7200 rpm Sata hard disk with a 32 GB Solid State Drive, you will get a great increase in the performance of your Mac.

In 2007, both Samsung and Seagate began production of hybrid drives but can't did so well in selling these drive until its price drops.

If we compare performance of hybrid and SSD then it is very easy to see the difference in their speed. Hybrid drives enhance your Mac performance but not as efficient and fast as SSD. 

These drives are of both 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch formats. Leading manufacturers of hard drives like Seagate and Western Digital are producing numerous hybrid hard drive models. Recently Seagate drives have been found more advantageous in both price and performance than western digital.

Performance can be judged on the basis of size and rpm factor. An SSD is rated on the basis of size whereas an HDD is rated on its revolutions per minute (rpm). Both these features are attributed in hybrid drives.

I did a test and compared my Macbook Pro (with an SSD of 500 GB) with my friend's Sony laptop with 7200 rpm traditional drive and found that the boot times and daily activities were noticeably faster in my friends laptop. So, if one can't afford an SSD, he can happily boost his machine with Hybrid drive.

Both these systems were about 2 years old but after upgrading both with hybrid hard drive their performance boost up that made them like a brand new. It’s important to clone your old drive using some cloning application before doing any upgradation. It is recommended to create bootable clone of your old drive. 

In my knowledge, Stellar Drive Clone is one such great cloning application that can create bootable clone of your Mac drive smoothly and quickly. It also gives support to SSD or Hybrid drives. So, by considering above described points, right now I can say Hybrid drives could be best deal for you.

As per my experience, I would say that upgrading drive is the best approach to enhance performance for older machines and laptops.