Toshiba 2.5-inch 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive Review

A Closer Look

When we take a closer look at the drive, we don’t find any big surprises. It’s a default 2.5-inch 9.5 mm high drive. At the top of the drive we find the drive label with the company logo, product number and drive revision at the top.

The manufacturing date, power information and serial numbers are mentioned below that. Under the bar code on the label, we see that this drive has 8 MB SSD Cache to boost the drive and a 1 TB capacity. We also see all of the certification logos to not to throw it in the bin, Advance Format and TüV approval, among others.

We see a default layout again when we’re taking a look at the connectors, just like it has to be on a drive like this. Ready to slide directly into your notebook or laptop that supports 9.5 mm drives. While I had the drive in my hands, I also measured it with my digital calliper. I got an exact match of 9.50 mm, the size that it should be.

Flipping the drive and having a look at the bottom is fairly unspectacular. We see the motor peaking through the PCB due to the slim size and a couple of QR codes.

When removing the PCB from the drive, it exposes the foam cushioning that is added to ensure that the PCB components aren’t damaged. We also see the motor and its connection better.

The PCB itself is the normal green colour we see so often. It has everything evenly distributed across the entire PCB. The connector to attach it to the actual drive can be seen all the way to the right in the photo below.

Taking a closer look at the chips, we see the Marvell 88i9317-RA12 controller for the mechanical part of the drive. Next to it there is a Winbond cache chip with a generous size of 32 MB. Located above the cache, is the Toshiba Link-A-Media controller that connects the SSD part of the drive with the rest.

The angled chip is the Toshiba 8 MB NAND chip that makes this drive hybrid. To the left we see a Texas Instruments chip that I couldn’t find any further information on, except prices.