The MQ01ABD100H 1TB hybrid drive from Toshiba has given us a similar experience as we have seen before with the standalone caching SSD from KingFast but this time the NAND flash is placed on the PCB of the drive without the need of having two separate devices. One more advantage is the fact that the caching algorithm exists in the firmware and no extra software is necessary to be installed.

In our tests we have seen how the cache functions: once the drive decides to upload certain data to the NAND, it will be accessed very quickly, which will boost loading times. Benefits like this we will see while loading the operating system and after running a specific program for more than one time. While the data will be cached to the NAND, the transfer speeds will drop a bit and we have seen speeds averaging 45-47MB/s at the time. If we do not access certain data on the drive for multiple times, the cached files won’t have any effect and the Toshiba drive will act as a regular 5400RPM product; same thing goes when the components of a program are updated (including the OS), when the drive will be a little slow till the cache will be rebuilt.

Some users which use quite a few of applications will feel the need of a larger cache than 8GB like 16GB or 32GB since the current one will fill quite quickly and some limitations will start to appear. We would recommend this drive to people which do not have the room of installing a secondary SSD as a boot drive in their laptops and at the same time would benefit from the low-noise 5400RPM drives offer along with low operating temperatures.

The MQ01ABD100H drive has been initially launched at a high price but it has dropped continuously so now we can pick it up online for about 82 Euros. In the same time we would like to mention that the MQ01ABD100 model which we have reviewed before has dropped even further to 54 Euros.

Toshiba 1TB 2.5'' SSHD (MQ01ABD100H) is Recommended for:

We would like to thank again to Toshiba Corporation for making this review possible!