Seagate Hybrid Drive ST2000DX001 2TB MLC/8GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s NCQ 3.5" Desktop SSHD

Pros: This drive combines a small 8GB SSD with a giant 2TB HDD to provide a balance of performance and capacity.

For small transfers (~150MB of photos) from a fast source (an SSD drive), the transfer was nearly instantaneous. Copy, paste, it's there. However - this was also true for traditional HDD's in my system.

For larger transfers, (1GB+ video files), there was a clear boost at the start, but then the drive settled into a more average transfer speed of around ~100MB/s - no slouch, but not the blindingly fast ~500MB/s boasted by top SSDs.

With my experiments on installing and booting Linux Mint from this drive, I did experience some pleasant speedups on subsequent boots after the first few. While I'm sticking to a dedicated SSD myself, this sort of setup would be my second choice, especially for builds on a budget.

Cons: At the end of the day, 8GB is just a hair shy of being relevant. OS + one or two large games can easily overwhelm this cache, causing the user to hit the HDD portion more often than I'd like to see.

This drive can be outclassed by a mix of a 64GB SSD and a traditional 2TB drive paired to work together (on modern intel motherboards) for a few dollars more overall.

Overall Review: Where this drive shines is for the keep-it-simple use case of those who want one big, fast-ish drive, at a reasonable price. If that's you (or your grandparent!) this drive is your best bet.

To break the rating down:
Performance: 5/5 - notable boost over traditional HDD's without compromising on capacity
Value: 3/5 - significant premium over traditional HDD's
Convenience: 5/5

Pros: [EDIT 12/27/16]
This drive has worked flawlessly for 7 months, until today. It has no power and I am unable to retrieve my files from it.
[/EDIT]

This drive is much faster than my previous Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM SATA drive. I saw the negative reviews, but this drive has worked well for me. I have only had it for a short time, but it's quiet and fast. I am very happy with this drive so far. I have Ubuntu installed on this drive and the boot speed is incredible compared to what it used to be. Within seconds I am ready to go.

Cons: Failed after 7 months.

Overall Review: [EDIT 12/27/16]
My backups were failing and I wasn't aware of it. Karma I guess!
[/EDIT]

Given the mixed reviews, I am still cautious about this drive. I always keep my data backed up, so if it fails, it won't be a huge deal for me. It might last forever... who knows. Maybe a few bad drives don't mean that all of them will be troublesome.