According to Computerworld, the 64GB SSD on the HP Compaq 6005 Pro will be used to run Windows and frequently accessed applications.
The system will also have a larger conventional hard disk drive connected via SATA interface for storing data and documents. HP said it is calling the SSD lashup Rapid Drive and it will cost about US$200 more.
This means that the AMD-based 6005 Pro with Rapid Drive will set you back US$774, while without it the same machine will cost US$550.
HP promised that users would see a difference in their startup times, but given that Windows 7 is pretty quick on booting up anyway it seems hard to see how users will ascribe the speed increase to the SSD.
The Rapid Drive uses the Samsung PM800 SSD. It can read data sequentially at a maximum rate of just over 225 MB per second and can write data sequentially at 160 MB per second, HP said.
It is not the first time we have seen SSDs used this way. Samsung and Seagate have both stuck hybrid drives into their notebooks. They didn't make such a great impression because most punters put their laptops into sleep mode and hardly ever reboot them.