PC Perspective has one of those new Western Digital Black2 dual drives that combines a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in a 2.5" package on the test bench today.

The intro MSRP's from WD is $299, which works out to $0.27/GB when you consider the total capacity. That's a heck of a lot closer to HDD pricing than SSD pricing. Seagate's 1TB Thin SSHD runs closer to $0.12/GB, but it doesn't come with a full blown SSD attached, and the SSHD's cache performance is nowhere near what the JMicron SSD controller is capable of pumping out.

Western Digital has certainly broken the mold here. No longer are you stuck with either an SSD or HDD. You're not stuck with a cached HDD, either. Now you can have a full blown SSD with 1TB of HDD storage, all in one package that fits into a single laptop HDD bay! The new JMicron controller may not be the best performer out there, but it is definitely competitive where it matters. The linking of SSD and HDD into a single logical device may be confusing at first, but it makes sense once you wrap your head around the concept. Overall I am extremely impressed with what Western Digital has produced here, and the Black2 Dual Drive is going to be at the top of my list of recommendations for the upcoming holiday season! Heck, I may even buy a few as gifts.