SRT vs SSD

thenewoc

thenewoc

thenewoc

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Hi

I noticed a while back when researching Ivy Bridge that a new version of SRT was being mentioned in late 2011. However I've not seen anything mentioned about a newer version of SRT with any of the new z77 motherboards?

e.g.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Inte...ets-to-Gain-Next-Gen-SRT-Support-228250.shtml

I'm unsure whether to go down the SRT route with something like a 64GB Crucial M4, plus SATA3 system HDD?

Would this be a disadvantage though in gaming where the files are being read from the HDD?

The advantages I can see are that it would be about £100 cheaper than a second option of not using SRT, instead using a larger SSD (system) and HDD (user data / app over spill). SRT would also seem like an easier to manage solution, not having to decide where to install something. I understand SRT only works with the system drive, so would it be preferable to store user data on a separate HDD? That would make re-imaging the system HDD easier I guess. SRT would also seem beneficial if the SSD were to fail that the HDD would not be corrupted by this occurring? Would SRT be putting a higher strain on an SSD though in terms of writes, shortening its life?

Opt 2 would favour the 180GB Intel 520 series at the moment aprox. £100 dearer than the 64GB M4.

Neither option addresses what would be best in terms of a duplicate copy of user data though? Both options as I see it involve using a second HDD but with SRT would it be best to have a larger physical system drive and partition it with the second partition used as space to hold scheduled backups of the second physical drive (user data)?

Your thoughts please...
 
My thoughts are to get the biggest SSD you can, cram the OS and whatever else you can onto it, then use a simple HDD for storage.

SRT is useful for smaller SSD's that cant fit much on, also there is a limit on the GB SRT can use (64GB, unless its been altered with this latest version of SRT?), so if you have a bigger SSD then it needs to be partitioned.
 
if your on a budget regarding ssd's then caching is the perfect solution,if budget isnt an issue then do as above
 
I think the existing SRT configuration works VERY well. Sure, you're not always going to get blistering speeds, but a cheap SSD caching 1+ TB of storage is pretty good. I have no problems with mine but then as much as I want the best performance possible from my kit, I'm still not prepared to fork out on a 256GB+ SSD. I'll take the 64Gb and a HDD for the forseeable future. From a gaming point of view, unless you are playing a lot of different games frequently, you'll find the SRT cache is pretty bloody good. If I play BF3, I'm loaded up in a map in a similar timeframe to a friend who is running purely from a 256GB SSD.

I see no reason to go pure SSD at this point in time as SRT gives me a a good balance of performance and storage without needing to have lots of seperate drives / partitions / mount points for respective data.
 
No one heard anything about a new flavour of SRT for Ivy then?

What I have thought of, as perhaps the best of both worlds, is;

Partition the SSD & HDD like so;

SSD P1 = <=64 GB for SRT
SSD P2 = what's left for apps / games you don't want SRT to dynamically manage but those you always want to be SSD fast.

HDD P1 = OS
HDD P2 = User Data

Instruct SRT to cache HDD P1, then it's caching the most popular parts of the OS and apps that you use most frequently that are installed on the OS system drive partition, but not in their entirety just the files that are used most frequently on the system drive partition.

Unless I'm missing something this makes more use of the SSD rather than filling it with parts of the OS or Apps that are rarely used.
 
SRT in theory should end up caching everything just right, it should be the best use of say a 60GB SSD if you have more than 60GB of os/apps/games. The claims Intel make about SRT have it sounding really spectacular... it should for example not contain great big sequential chains, those are fine on the mechanical drive. Reviews of it seem to carry that impression, that it is really good. Having said that I've not tried.. and OcUK just delivered a 180GB Intel 520 that was a very nice price with the cashback, so I'll never know :)

It's software though rather than hardware, so Intel may do something with the next release of RST... which might hit at the same time as Ivy Bridge?
 
thenewoc said:
Unless I'm missing something this makes more use of the SSD rather than filling it with parts of the OS or Apps that are rarely used.
Click to expand...

Correct!

The key to SSD caching is majority of data stored is not normally used.

With SSD caching only the most commonly used data is cached.

The principle is no different to the speeds of CPU cache, and main memory.

Systems could be designed so all memory is at CPU cache speed, memory costs would be order of magnitude greater and give almost little benefit as majority of memory access is in CPU cache.
 
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Nice one Halk, that is the SSD I have my on too, with the cashback offer. Was looking to partition it though and just have a small partition for SRT, as in my example.
 
My own setup is as follows:
P1 RAID1 spinning disks (accelerated with SRT, 64GB)
P2 Remaining SSD capacity (~170GB)

The programs I definitely want to be quick under all conditions can be installed manually to the SSD.
By lumping the rest of the data together with the OS on the spinning disk partition (With SRT), means the files which I use often become cached through general use. The reason I wouldn't recommend separating your general data and OS, is because sometimes you don't need your OS data caching.
Personally I do occasionally need to leave my computer on for 4 days straight, and having OS data cached rather than things I'm working on is no good.

Do what you like. Caching is fast as hell for a very reasonable price.
 
Thanks, I see your point on User Data. I think either way has its pros and cons, it's just I prefer the OS partition to be separate as it makes it easier to manage in terms of creating a drive image and restoring that partition.
 
Quick question. If my 2tb mechanical drive has two partitions one for windows and one for games (c&d drives) will srt cache both partitions or just one. ?

Cheers
 
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