2. SRT runs in two modes, one where writes go directly to the drive or one where they are cached to flash first. I use the former since it's my boot drive and if something bad happens to the flash I don't want to be non-bootable. I'm not sure about how it works with the Seagate SSHD's.
3. A 120GB SSD and a 1TB SSHD is around the same price (give or take 20 bucks depending on sales and brands and things) . . . I guess it depends if you need more space than the SSD provides. My own work laptop I have about 45GB of data. But do I really need all my windows updates uninstalls fast, or the ISO of the Win7 install fast? How about my 2008 mail archives, how fast do they really need to go when I use them once a year. 8GB of SSHD cache would make this machine feel pretty snappy since the vast majority of the stuff I do every day is the same applications. Most of my actual work data isn't even on my laptop anyway, so accessing it over a VPN or corporate network is terribly slow anyway, no local storage will fix that. Plus, what if I want to take a few HD movies on a work trip, or someoen asks me to record a full res video of something for training purposes. Having the storage available is a huge plus in a lot of cases. Though an external drive would work you have to carry it around at all times and adds to the costs.
If you don't have most of your stuff stored via a library or other link on an NSA or server . . .
Wait a sec . . . How do you access all of your data at the NSA? do they offer a subscription service or something?
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.