Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD w/ built-in 4GB SSD

What is the consensus on the XT drives from all you who've been writing about it for so long, on the subject of downloading and torrenting? Do the incomplete files tire out the SSD section of the drive, or do they skip straight to the HDD section, and if we place the downloads in another drive will we also have to make sure the temporal files aren't in the hybrid's drive by seeing to that, somehow, the temp folder associated to the torrenting isn't in the default drive_?

 

If you're using the files in a non-library situation, you won't see much benefit from an XT. As the newer generations being 5400 RPM based drives, you're probably better served with a 7200 RPM HDD or an SSD. In regards to writes done to the drive for normal files, those always go to the platters, they do not end up in the SSD portion of the drive until a particular LBA is read over a number of times. Same would go with temp files, unless temp files are read enough times to knock out other commonly read LBAs from the drive, it won't make a difference.

Now, if you have a library of files (.libs, .dlls, music, video, pix, or whatever) you use over and over and over, the XT really shines when it comes to reading those off disk.

 

Where the XT will shine as a storage device is where you have a lot of metadata loaded. Such as the file explorer constantly accessing directories and thumbnails etc. These get built to the drive and as small files are constantly being accessed as you browse the disc. The XT's will store these into NAND pretty rapidly and make the drive feel lively.

Now as a storage device just for archive the XT may not be worth it........................