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More Ultrabooks to adapt hybrid disk drive approach to storage

By | October 18, 2011, 4:12am PDT

Summary: Notebooks vendors trying to meet Intel’s specs and pricing guidelines for its new Ultrabook platform are running into a bit of a problem when it comes to storage. According to DigiTimes, storage parts make up between 10 and 15 percent of an Ultrabook’s cost, thanks to the higher price of solid state drives that are preferred [...]

Notebooks vendors trying to meet Intel’s specs and pricing guidelines for its new Ultrabook platform are running into a bit of a problem when it comes to storage.

According to DigiTimes, storage parts make up between 10 and 15 percent of an Ultrabook’s cost, thanks to the higher price of solid state drives that are preferred for their fast boot-up times. But that cuts into profits when Intel is asking laptop makers to keep prices below $1,000.

As a result, DigiTimes reports that more Ultrabooks will adopt the strategy Acer has used with its Aspire S3 Ultrabook: the so-called hybrid disk drive. Acer uses a small 20GB SSD to store Windows and apps for quick launching and adds a 320GB hard drive for other file storage.

While it’s more convenient to just go with a single storage solution, and other Ultrabooks (like the Asus Zenbooks and the Lenovo IdeaPad U300) have launched with just an SSD, you can expect to see subsequent models rolling out with the hybrid disk drive configuration.

Will that make an impact on whether or you would purchase an Ultrabook? Let us know in the Talkback section.

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Topics

Disk, Disk Drive, Storage, Intel Corp., Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Sean Portnoy

Sean Portnoy is a freelance technology journalist.

Disclosure

Sean Portnoy

Sean Portnoy is a freelance technology journalist; currently, all work that Sean does is on a contractural basis. Sean has also written corporate communications documents for CA.

Sean does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.

Biography

Sean Portnoy

Sean Portnoy started his tech writing career at ZDNet nearly a decade ago. He then spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. He received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.
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Hybrid Disk Drive?
markwojtasiak 18th Oct
So Ultrabooks will use an SSD & an HDD as 2 separate components? So not truly a "hybrid disk drive". I wonder if this trend will "drive" HDD makers to develop a true solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) like Seagate's Momentus XT but thinner to accommodate the Ultrabook form factor. I have to think moving to a single SSHD component would drive more cost savings. Thoughts?
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sad
Hasam1991 18th Oct
I was a bit sad when I saw the Asus ZENBOOK, it totally copied the design of the MacBook Air... whatever happened to innovation? at least make the color of the ZENBOOK red to stand out a little bit.... won't be buying a lot of Asus anymore..
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RE: More Ultrabooks to adapt hybrid disk drive approach to storage
mikec@... 18th Oct
That's what I am looking for.
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SSD or Traditional Platter I don't care
TexasJetter Updated - 18th Oct
I just want performance. Keep in mind that SSD does not equal performance. I have an Acer tablet with an SSD that is woefully slow.

So in the end as a user I don't really care what technology is used, it just needs to have a high level of performance... oh and it needs to be inexpensive as well.
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RE: More Ultrabooks to adapt hybrid disk drive approach to storage
S_Deemer Updated - 18th Oct
@TexasJetter : Not all SSDs are created equal. My first Acer netbook had a slow as molasses 16gb SSD; my second Acer came with a 160gb HDD, which I replaced with a fast (OCZ) 32gb SSD, running Ubuntu 10.04. Boot time is about 25 seconds (I define "boot time" as time from end of POST to acquisition of a usable Wi-Fi connection), shutdown is 5 seconds, and most apps launch in ~2 seconds.

IF I were to purchase an Ultrabook, I would probably rip out the HDD (assuming it has a user-accessible drive bay), in order to reduce weight and power consumption, install Linux, run everything on the SSD, and put the HDD in an external USB enclosure, if I felt I needed the added space. After 2 years, I still have 20gb of free space on my 32gb SSD.
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what was the industry doing for the last decade?
George Luca 18th Oct
I still own an old (probably 8 y.o.) Sharp Actius notebook, which was my companion in many travels. Sleek magnesium chassis, light and thin, and though it processing power is only on the level of modern tablets, it's still sufficient for browsing the web and light tasks. It was released long before Mac Air, Sonys, Acers and other ultra-portables, and funny thing that old notebook is probably still thinner and lighter than all the new ones. I can't understand, if it was possible to make a good ultra-portable like 8 years ago, by now with all new components the companies should be able to produce 1 lb notebooks with sufficient computing power to run most Windows applications. And we are told Mac Air is the best they can do!? Really?
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Quite smart
timiteh 18th Oct
and should be the basis for any so called "modern" PC.
Seriously i have a hard time to understand why PC constructors haven't already come to such design for their most recent configuration.
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Not Needed
RayInLV 18th Oct
Most content by volume is music, videos and other playable content which does not need the speed of SSD's. Computer industrie has used L1 and L2 caching for years to get speed. Using SSD as Smart Permanent Cache once boot files are isolated seems a very cost effective way of getting what you need.
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RE: More Ultrabooks to adapt hybrid disk drive approach to storage
Saber3005 18th Oct
This approach really does make the most sense. I've been doing this is both my desktop and my laptop for almost two years (since I could afford my first SSD)
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Hybrid Disk Drive?
markwojtasiak 18th Oct
So Ultrabooks will use an SSD & an HDD as 2 separate components? So not truly a "hybrid disk drive". I wonder if this trend will "drive" HDD makers to develop a true solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) like Seagate's Momentus XT but thinner to accommodate the Ultrabook form factor. I have to think moving to a single SSHD component would drive more cost savings. Thoughts?

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