Firefox cache turned off

ColEx · 5 Mar 2012 at 22:20

Is there any harm in turning the cache off? I am fed up with the writes it makes to my SSD every session. I am on BT infinity's fastest package, so i think my internet is 40 - 50 mbit, and that is fast enough to ignore cache writing, correct?

helmet · 5 Mar 2012 at 22:40

Cache is really only of use if your internet connection goes down, otherwise you are running something of no use to you.
This is more a legacy setting for very low bandwidth connections. Turn it off.
HIH.

ColEx · 5 Mar 2012 at 23:00

Ok that makes sense, just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

Mattus · 6 Mar 2012 at 00:15

helmet said:
Cache is really only of use if your internet connection goes down, otherwise you are running something of no use to you.

Huh? That isn't true at all. How is caching scripts, images and stylesheets so you don't have to download them again every time you visit a page not useful? Even on a fast connection you're just wasting time and bandwidth turning it off. Lots of modern sites use loads of JavaScript and style information, so pages will load much faster if it's cached.

Personally I have my browser cache on my SSD, along with my pagefile. I'm not really bothered if it wears it out a bit faster... what's the point spending the money on the SSD and then not making the best use of it? It'll probably be obsolete before it wears out anyway.

DaGooN · 6 Mar 2012 at 12:55

^ +1 That.

Pho · 6 Mar 2012 at 13:07

You could just move the cache to another drive:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.cache.disk.parent_directory

Just because you have a fast unlimited internet connection it doesn't mean the sites you visit do - leave caching on and save their bandwidth.

Duke · 6 Mar 2012 at 13:10

I did the option of having the cache sent to the RAM - http://lifehacker.com/5687850/speed-up-firefox-by-moving-your-cache-to-ram-no-ram-disk-required

ColEx · 7 Mar 2012 at 00:37

To be honest my internet is still pretty good with cache turned off, i don't really notice much difference in terms of speed with it off, it feels like its the same. As for sites i visit, i don't really visit that many, so i guess it doesn't really matter if i have it on or off. I just like the idea of it off so i don't have to worry about it writing data to my SSD.

Mattus · 7 Mar 2012 at 00:39

Rufio said:
I just like the idea of it off so i don't have to worry about it writing data to my SSD.

I bet your SSD will be long-since obsolete before it actually wears out, however many cache files you write to it.

ColEx · 7 Mar 2012 at 01:22

Mattus said:
I bet your SSD will be long-since obsolete before it actually wears out, however many cache files you write to it.

Its not really about that, it's more of the fact that its only 60gb, i just want to minimize what gets written to it.