1TB SSHD vs Stock HD comparison for the PS4

Pete Dodd of DoddScientifics discusses the differences when upgrading the Stock HD in the PS4 to an SSHD. Is it worth your time and money?

[SoldierX]

you should have bought a second PS4 you would of got 1TB of storage and two ps4s.

[Wildarmsjecht]

Not to mention 2 different ways to play Destiny.

I fail to see the downside of this arrangement, nice idea lol

[SuperBlur]

except he didnt , the 1tb SSD HD is what cost more then a ps4 , he got a SSHD which is a hybrid between a hd and a ssd .. its faster then a reg HD for slower then a SSD .. but the tech is relatively new , we'll know of its reliability in at least 3-5 years from now

[mixolydian_id]

Sshds aren't as good as people make out.

They have 8gb NAND flash storage. 16£ pen stick for those who don't know.
Frequently run files get stored there for quick ssd style read and writes.

Problem is, games are 50gb's.

I fail to see any advantage to these drives. 8 gig is enough to store the standard boot sequence and ui. Games will be exactly the same, unless one game is the only thing you do. What's to say the ps4 OS even accepts the drivers from the sshd?

[Locknuts]

Or an Xbox One or Wii U.

[Software_Lover]

large SSD's are a waste of money IMHO. I use a 256gb for my windows install, but my games are stored on a 3tb HDD. I just don't see the gains worth it for the dollar amount they are asking right now.

[XtraTrstrL]

The gain isn't much, because that's an SSHD. An SSD is much faster. An SSHD is actually worth it, because it's almost the same price as a regular HDD, and gives a noticeable boost, nowhere near SSD, but worth it for the slight increase in price over an HDD.

[Software_Lover]

I apologize, I completely read the title wrong.

[GameSpawn]

SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drives) still do have benefits over conventional HDDs.

What irritates me about every single SSHD vs. Stock test done is that they don't attempt multiple startups and loads. SSHDs really shine once they cache data, so starting your PS4 or games up for the 2nd or 3rd time will be faster than the time before.

SSHD's are no strangers to diminishing returns though. Eventually the cache will fill and spill over causing more cache misses and performance will bounce back to Stock levels. Erratic use doesn't help either as completely random play behavior will reduce the overall effectiveness of the cache.

At BEST SSHDs will give you ALMOST SSD performance (maybe a few extra seconds) and at the WORST you'll have slightly better than stock performance, but hopefully you'll average out on the faster side of things (again this depends on your play style and how well the cache can hold the most used data).

In the end SSHD's are not much more expensive per GB than conventional drives and are still LOADS cheaper per GB than SSDs.

When you have a choice:
1TB/8GB SSHD for about $100
or
1TB SSD for about $500
Which would you pick - money DEFINITELY being an object?

BTW - Here is a much better comparison:
http://www.tested.com/tech/...

They take into account the SSHD cache's gains on repetitive access.

[iheartSONY]

@GameSpawn If you read the article the author states that he ran each game/start-up 5 times so that the SSHD holds the appropriate files in the SSD portion. So I think his SSHD vs Stock was a good comparison.

[XtraTrstrL]

@iheartSONY,

Yeah, they usually run the tests a few times when doing SSHD comparisons. I didn't even notice he said he ran it 5 times, but I assumed it was ran a few times. Otherwise, he'd have been a complete amateur.

[Myze]

While I agree large SSDs are too costly to be worth it, there are many games that take HUGE advantage of it. 256gb is plenty big enough to put quite a few games on it (afterall, what else are you doing with the other 250+gb after Windows install?). All games don't need or won't benefit much from an SSD, but it's nice to have one for games that do (which are WAY too many to list here).

[KwietStorm_BLM]

A large SSD, yes. But I have a 1TB SSHD in my PS4, and it was only $109.

[George Sears]

A small SSD will suffer greatly with the PS4 since there is no TRIM command at all. This is why I prefer Hybrid for PS4 atm. Not to mention the difference in costs.

[XtraTrstrL]

I wouldn't get an SSD in general, too much opportunity for it to fail in a short period of time. You'd have to get the more expensive ones, just to ensure it doesn't die on you in like a year or 2. Standard HDD or SSHD is the way to go, with SSHD being in the best Goldie Lox zone. The only issue I have is that 2TB 2.5in bay SSHDs aren't standard yet, it's mainly 1-1.5TB SSHDs you'll find. I'm waiting for it to hit 2TB more broadly across the board, where I can just go to Amazon and pick a 4.5-5 star 2TB SSHD for cheap. I want atleast 4x the storage I have now if I'm upgrading.

[NobleRed]

The Toshiba Hybrid Drive is faster than the seagate.

[isarai]

All that money is not worth the 2-10sec reduced load times.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

All what money? I think 10 seconds shaved off loading times for $10-20 more is easily worth it.

[isarai]

since when does a 1TB SSD cost $10-$20?

[BlackWolf12]

SSHD are much more expensive than an equivalent HDD.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

SSHD

[isarai]

yeah, it still doesn't cost $10-$20

[SuperBlur]

I've seen a few 1tb SSHD go for the same price as the regular HD of the same size. The exact reliability is still unknown at this point since the tech is somewhat new

1tb SSHD : http://www.newegg.com/Produ...

1tb HD : http://www.newegg.com/Produ...

price difference isn't THAT much =]

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Ok you already misread the title and thought it was SSD. Read my comment again, and don't speed read. I didn't say it cost $10-20.

[Spotie]

Since we're taking hybrids, not straight SSDs.

[user5669510]

Pointless your better off getting a bigger hdd

[mochachino]

I think the most important thing to take from this article is that the PS4 "standby" mode is so bad that IT'S FASTER TO TURN THE CONSOLE OFF.

Sony promised suspend/resume, where is it?? Firmware 2.0 better have some major features (aside from what's already mentioned) or I'll be envious of the xone owners for the first time. They can already load up the game from where they stopped playing.

[SaffronCurse]

Yeah I don't get it, there's really no point in Standby at this point.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

PS4 "standby" mode is so bad that IT'S FASTER TO TURN THE CONSOLE OFF.

I don't know what you mean. Standy is just for charging and allowing updates while it's "off." How is that bad, and why are you saying it's faster to turn it off?

[mochachino]

The time it takes to be able to use the system is faster from completely off than from standby. View the article...

In other words, the boot time is slower on standby. That's ridiculous.

I love my ps4 but you'd have to be a completely blind fanboy not to want a real standby mode...as promised.

[B00M]

Hopefully getting a PS4 soon. But I find it strange that features like suspend/resume, custom themes, mp3 playback and the standby mode haven't been implemented yet. The PS3 could play mp3 and have custom themes, both which are very simple features.

[GasTankKiller]

I plan on getting a hybrid drive for my PS4. I just wish I could find one that has 16GB of solid state memory vs. the 8GB of solid state memory.

I'm going to play the hell out of Destiny and Batman: AK. From what I've been reading I should see a performance benefit using a hybrid drive with those two games because they will be frequently used.

[BlackWolf12]

I prefer size over speed.

Knowing what was coming ahead of us in this generation, I knew that a much larger drive is going to be the most important thing.

Made the mistake of thinking 60GB was enough last gen. What a joke ahahaha. That would barely fit one next-gen game.

Also, the main benefit for SSHD's is when you are using the same programs frequently, as the SS caches the most frequently used things on the drive. So booting up a game for the first time is going to be very similar load times for both SSHD and HDD, but the 5th or so time you load that game will be faster on SSHD.

[CrowbaitBob]

Going primarily digital I can't see a moderate speed increase to be worth a sacrifice in storage space. That's why I held out for a 2TB drive. Even a 1TB seems a bit small to me if you're going to be spending $100 or so to upgrade and you plan on using a lot of digital downloads.