can someone explain....

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 18:59

using an SSD for a cache drive please.
i understand with the Z68 mobo you can use a normal HDD with an SSD for caching. what exactly does this do?
reason i ask is, i want to get the Silver Arrow cooler, but i want DPD delivery (but dont want to pay) so need to bulk my order up a bit. i did think steering wheel, but the cheap ones apparently will ruin my experience rather than make me want to buy a better one later. so i kinda want to know what to get. there is a 30GB SSD (slightly over budget but might be able to swing it) so thought this might be the way. if not, any ideas what to get for around the £35-£40 mark?

Redmint · 17 Jul 2011 at 19:11

Keeps recently used programs on your SSD for quicker loading.

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 19:13

Redmint said:
Keeps recently used programs on your SSD for quicker loading.

is it easy to setup, and is it a noticable speed increase?
what i suppose i mean, is it worth £48 over waiting and saving £100 for a 60GB+ that will also run windows?

Redmint · 17 Jul 2011 at 19:15

Well you can fit windows on a 30GB SSD, I can't speak from experience on the Z68 caching but have a read of this review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4337/z68-ssd-caching-with-corsairs-f40-sandforce-ssd/1 and maybe some other members on his will be able to comment further.

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 19:23

Redmint said:
Well you can fit windows on a 30GB SSD, I can't speak from experience on the Z68 caching but have a read of this review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4337/z68-ssd-caching-with-corsairs-f40-sandforce-ssd/1 and maybe some other members on his will be able to comment further.

i was under the impression windows 7 with all the updates struggles to fit on such a small drive?

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 20:12

from what i can see with the £47-£50 SSD drives, their read/write speeds seem to be lower than my Raid0 setup :confused:

or are there other figures i should be looking at?

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 21:56

anyone? are there major/noticable increases?

Redmint · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:35

The read speeds on the old Agility drive isn't amazing however the random read/write will be a lot faster than your raid setup.

Also it's fairly easy to squeeze a Windows 7 install with SP1 into less than 10GB.

Venares · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:41

Read/Write speeds aside the biggest gain from an SSD is the access times.
Typical Hard Drive is usualy around the 13ms mark.
Access time on an SSD would be 0.1ms, essentialy none.
That is a HUGE differnce when you are talking about calls to hundreds of small files.

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:48

so are you saying an SSD for cache is a good increase? or would the money be better spent?

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:03

Redmint said:
The read speeds on the old Agility drive isn't amazing however the random read/write will be a lot faster than your raid setup.

Also it's fairly easy to squeeze a Windows 7 install with SP1 into less than 10GB.

how? my current windows folder alone is 20GB :confused:

panyan · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:37

paradisiac said:
how? my current windows folder alone is 20GB

turning off system restore, paging files, etc etc

paradisiac · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:41

panyan said:
turning off system restore, paging files, etc etc

hmm ok kool, does that affect stability or anything (dont use hibernate or system restore so disabling them seems to make sense, but the pagefile? is that not needed?). tried adding one to the basket and still wont get DPD delivery

is the OCZ Agility Series 30GB any good? i know its older technology, but will it still do the job with relative ease?

Captain Chaos · 18 Jul 2011 at 07:56

id pay the extra for an agility 3 drive and use it as standard boot disk,

paradisiac · 18 Jul 2011 at 07:57

my budget isnt that high

unless OCUK want to stick some on a 'today only' deal for £50

paradisiac · 18 Jul 2011 at 08:11

looking around at reviews the drive seems to get good ones, and most claim to get win 7 on between 10GB and 16GB which would leave me room for some games (although most of my games are steam, so can you split it over 2 drives). my biggest concern is, being older tech, will it be reliable?

kristmace · 18 Jul 2011 at 08:16

paradisiac said:
how? my current windows folder alone is 20GB

1) Reduced system restore size
2) turn off hibernation
3) Turn off/uninstall windows features you don't use

paradisiac · 18 Jul 2011 at 08:19

kristmace said:
1) Reduced system restore size
2) turn off hibernation
3) Turn off/uninstall windows features you don't use

how small, realistically can you get win 7 with sp1 and all the other updates though? and what happens if there isnt enough room for the updates, does windows spaz out or just stop downloading them?

Admiral Huddy · 18 Jul 2011 at 08:33

I was under the impression that the cache utility wasn't necessary where the whole OS is loaded onto a larger SSD and that the cache is used to store commonly used/accessed routines where otherwise slower access to a standard HDD is needed?

paradisiac · 18 Jul 2011 at 08:34

Admiral Huddy said:
I was under the impression that the cache utility wasn't necessary where the whole OS is loaded onto a larger SSD and that the cache is used to store commonly used/accessed routines where otherwise slower access to a standard HDD is needed?

so the cache feature would be good with a mechanical drive being the OS drive?