Intel Z68 SSD Caching

MOOGLEYS said:
I'm wondering if you can run two ssd's in the system and have one as a boot and system drive and the other to cache a larger drive for games etc.
I have two 60GB ssd's and thinking I might try and set it up like this but not sure if it's possible. Anyone any ideas ?
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Exactly what I do, works very well and easy to set up.
 
Darkman said:
So I could use my trusty old Samsung SLC 32Gb drives in Raid 0 as the cache then and use newer faster MLC drives for the OS and more critical apps?
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I'm not sure you can RAID0 disks to turn into cache. The issue you might have with that is what happens when one fails, it'll upset all sorts of parts of the cache. Also I don't know if the cache is an assigned physical disk or logical.
 
I use 1 128GB M4 with 20GB as my cache for a 1TB mechanical drive and the rest as my OS / important Apps volume.

Works great, my OS and key apps are lightning fast and my games on the mech drive benefit massively from the cache too.
 
gord said:
I use 1 128GB M4 with 20GB as my cache for a 1TB mechanical drive and the rest as my OS / important Apps volume.

Works great, my OS and key apps are lightning fast and my games on the mech drive benefit massively from the cache too.
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That sounds interesting, and is something I would quite like to try, as I have a similar two drive (one SSD and one HDD) setup.

Can I ask how I would initially go about setting it up on a new system?

Presumably I would have to install Windows first... on the SSD?... but what do I have to do to make sure that 20GB is used for the cache?

Presumably something has to be done on the mechanical drive also... or is there an easier way? :confused:
 
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Considering going to:

SSD boot
an SSD cached 2x f3's raid 0 for games
my hardware raid 5 for the bulk/media storage (and a backup of the games + boot drives)

Opinions? Overkill?

I'd probably drop my raid 5 down to 3 drives so i'd only need to purchase 1x F3 1TB, 1x SSD for the setup.
Could consider going to "green" drives for the raid 5 too and sell a couple of F3's to cover it.
 
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2zrewyc.jpg


Here's my new setup :cool: I say new but I've had the 2 Vertex SSD's for a while now..

2x 64GB M4 SSD's RAID 0 have my OS installed with space left over for CS5 and a few rendering apps. Maybe a few games too :)

1x 40GB OCZ Vertex 2 Split in half - 19GB cache for 500GB drive and 19GB of storage.

1x 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 for games.

The cache has already made a noticeable difference to the HDD. I no longer need to wait for the disk to spin up to be able to browse the drive! weee :D
 
OK, so I've got 2 120GB SSDs and 2 x 1TB HDDs. I've got 1 SSD as my boot drive which I'm happy with, I'm just wondering if I could use the 120GB SSD to cache the other 2 HDDs?
The 2 HDDs aren't RAIDed.
Could I partition the 2nd SSD in to 2 60GB partitions and then use one partition for each HDD?
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
OK, so I've got 2 120GB SSDs and 2 x 1TB HDDs. I've got 1 SSD as my boot drive which I'm happy with, I'm just wondering if I could use the 120GB SSD to cache the other 2 HDDs?
The 2 HDDs aren't RAIDed.
Could I partition the 2nd SSD in to 2 60GB partitions and then use one partition for each HDD?
Click to expand...

It might be possible if you set up the first drive and then format the 60GB data partition and re-run IRST. I found it helpful to have disk management open at the same time, helps to keep an eye on whats going on. Your best bet would be to put the two 1TB's in RAID 0 or 1 and give full capacity of the SSD to the RAID. In RAID 1 you could use 60GB as a cache and the other 60GB for games or whatever :)
 
Does SSD Caching provide its "own" SATA connector ?

Or would I have to suffer one of the intel ports ? (that I strongly need for some raid)
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
The Intel SRT SSD Caching needs to use an Intel port.

You could look at the OCZ Synapse if you really can't spare an Intel port.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help !

I will also consider some extra controller for HDD Raid-0 right away, Z68
quickly comes short when the x2 SATA 6GB/s is already reserved for 2 x
M4 in Raid-0, (video realtime workspace), and at least one more Raid-0
with HDD´s is wanted,.. (dont realy trust the build-in Marvell stuff)
 
I have a Z68 based Shuttle comming tomorrow that has an msata (up to 3gbs) slot in it.
i'm considering getting a 30GB or 60GB OCZ Nocti drive to go with my 2TB Samusng F4

I will be using a 240GB Vertex 3 as the main OS drive.

Is this going to be complete overkill do you think?

The mSata drive is a little more expensive than normal SATA at £60 for the 30GB and £90 for the 60GB and only SATA II so 280/260 speeds as I understand, but I have read that the mSata is a more direct kind of access and therefore quicker in real time than via a normal SATA header.

Assuming its worth doing, should I bother with the 60GB, would the 30GB do the job?
Will be used for Games mainly.

Cant resist the need to try out new things, so i just know i will have to do it anyway LOL
 
I asked a question about this not that long ago, have decided to build my first pc and have ordered my parts, back in november I got a 1tb seagate as a bday present and originally planned to use this as my sole drive, but have since gotten the itch to go for an ssd, only thing is what has been mentioned is the "data shuffling" the balancing of making sure everything is installed on the right drive etc, I can see this getting very tedious, so I was looking into getting a reliable 64gb ssd and cacheing it, but then theres the fast that if your taking the plunge into ssd land why not get the 120 gb drive....im just not 100% sure lol
 
SimonMaltby said:
That makes good sense, although no fun as I don't get to try mSata :(
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I thought the Intel caching solution only worked if you didn't use AHCI.
If your existing setup was
1. SSD for windows
2. HD for apps etc

and you added a msata cache drive, would you need to switch of AHCI, and could you exclude the SSD from the msata caching?
 
I don't want to get too technical here... and partly I don't fully understand what's involved anyway, but I was always under the impression that you shouldn't really attempt to 'defrag' an SSD, but rely on 'TRIM' which is taken care of by Windows, to keep it 'working' at its most efficient.

Now, presumably this will only 'work' if Windows is actually installed on the SSD in the first place... or isn't that actually the case?

Just a thought anyway! :)
 
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