[hlidotbe]

We have one database server with SSD (we need more speed than room) and are pretty happy with them.

On a more personal note I use a Seagate Momentus XT in my Macbook Pro and this is the single best investment I made in years! This thing cost a third of a "real" SSD of the same capacity and for what an SSD is shining (boot time, application launch, ...) it's on par. The 4GB SSD cache is really improving the experience (they should offer an 8GB version though).

I can't recommend this enough if an SSD is too expensive or not capacious enough.

[raheemm]

Just checked out anandtech's review comparing hybrid to SSD and its quite impressive - http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-revi...

[jbarham]

I can second this. I bought the 500 GB version (currently $115 on Amazon). Boot times and launch times for common applications are much faster compared to a standard drive, but you also have the capacity of a standard drive.

If you have a laptop as your primary machine and need to store music and photos, SSDs with sufficient capacity are prohibitively expensive, which is where hybrid drives are ideal.

[pasbesoin]

I was hoping there would be observations here about this line.

The one thing that's given me hesitation with regard to it, is the reliability problems Seagate was running into a while back, e.g. the "click of death" (very) premature failures on some of their 1 GB drives.

If anyone has appropriate experience/observations, has their reliability trended back towards its old, high levels?

[alecco]

Seagate Momentus XT hybrid is very cool. But people not in a hurry perhaps should wait for Seagate to do write caching in SSD too. It will probably happen in the next few months.

[jacquesm]

Which brand/model did you go with for your db server?

[hlidotbe]

We have 2 Intel X25-M 80G in RAID 1