RAM Caching?

[Alex_91]

Hey guys,

Something I came across recently is RAM Caching - (using RAM with an SSD or HDD to speed up the accessing time of your few most recently used files)... sounds awesome! Particularly according to Corsair's blog here: (http://www.corsair.com/blog/vengeance-32gb-memory-caching-performance-tests/).

Im wondering... what are peoples views on it? SSD as opposed to HDD (with the RAM Caching)?? Does it make any real world difference either way? Waste of money maybe? Either way the numbers look amazing but I reckon its like raiding SSDs... (imo its an excellent nerd feat of strength but really its just numbers with little real world use).

Any opinions etc would be awesome

Cheers!

 

[Alex_91]

I was thinking... as RAM Caching makes startup slower, would it do so even if the OS was on an SSD and the RAM Caching was for a separate HDD with general programs / games installed on?

 

[d_brennen]

You can get pretty impressive and noticeable gains using RAM drives in certain scenarios. For most average Joes, probably not. If you need to ask, you don't need

 

[Threepwood]

Looks to me like you allocate the supercache to which ever drive you want - so if you tell it to mirror the supercache onto a HDD then I say chances are it might not affect the SSD boot drive boot times.

 

[Alex_91]

Looks to me like you allocate the supercache to which ever drive you want - so if you tell it to mirror the supercache onto a HDD then I say chances are it might not affect the SSD boot drive boot times.

Cant remember where I read it but I believe because the RAM is wiped clean every restart, it makes bootup slower because theres however much memory being written to the RAM each time. Although if you only ever put your computer on sleep you will obviously not have to suffer a second or two extra on startup... What id love to know though is if it would still upset startup if the OS drive was separate to the linked RAM Cache & HDD for example

 

[wazza300]

if its a ram disc then it writes the contents to your hdd on shutdown so not to lose anything (as far as im aware)

using a ram cache did nothing for me tbh,couldnt tell any difference apart from some pretty numbers in ssd benchmarks

 

[Alex_91]

Guess i'll find out soon - got a mate who just ordered 16GB instead of 8GB in his new build solely on the fact that he is aiming to RAM Cache his SSD - although I'm pretty sure linking it to his HDD would be better? [based on the fact that my Sata II SSD which i got when SSD's were first released is still awesome imo, so his new Sata III SSD probably doesnt need to go much faster, especially when compared to a HDD in the same system for general programs / games.]