SSD CACHE / CACHING - Thread

Neil79 · 7 Dec 2011 at 07:50

But there’s one more feature I left out of my Virtu preview: Z68 also supports SSD caching—the ability to add a small solid-state drive to a system already running a larger mechanical disk with the purpose of speeding up read performance of data cached to the SSD. The target market for this feature is probably going to be somewhat limited. However, for the folks who can’t afford 80 GB or larger SSDs and still need extra user storage, caching does work…and pretty painlessly, too.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4329/intel-z68-chipset-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching-review/2

If anyone is thinking about doing this, DO IT! I seriously recommend it

. Basically setting the bios to raid, installing windows 7 as per normal without the ssd installed then installing the Raid/SRT software. Turn system off, install the SSD then reboot to windows and use the srt software to have the ssd as a cache drive. When I first installed the system and used the drive, I really didn't notice any difference and benchmark's seem lackluster even on multiple tries. Turned out I was using an old SATA 1 cable as i thought all sata cables were the same. Plugged in the new sata 3/6GB cable and things were already improving, firefox was loading up instantly for example.

Didn't notice anything with games on first load as the info needs to be cached to the drive, but battlefield 3 for example when I loaded it again it loaded up incredibly quickly. It felt like my 1TB was an SSD drive, on multiple rounds I was the second person to join the server and I wasn't sitting about yawning waiting for it to load. Windows booting was also hugely increased.

Anyone else used their ssd drive as a cache?

robj20 · 7 Dec 2011 at 08:00

Can you run it along with a RAID 10 at the same time, say 4 x 500GB in RAID 10 and use an SSD cache drive?

Im not using SSD for my main drive again, had my second one fail on my yesterday, there rubbish for reliability.

Neil79 · 7 Dec 2011 at 08:13

robj20 said:
Can you run it along with a RAID 10 at the same time, say 4 x 500GB in RAID 10 and use an SSD cache drive?

Im not using SSD for my main drive again, had my second one fail on my yesterday, there rubbish for reliability.

Smart Response Technology works by providing SSD-like performance from a hard disk or RAID array by using an attached SSD of up to 64GB as a cache for read (and write) operations. The technology works similar to Seagate’s hybrid hard disk, but in this case the user can choose their own single hard disk or group of hard disks in a RAID array and a separate SSD to for the cache. The Z68 chipset handles the caching operations and the OS sees a single drive volume as with a dedicated hybrid hard disk.

Only a single SSD can be used for the cache, which can be used to accelerate either a single hard disk or a RAID array that has been configured in RAID level 0, 1, 5 or 10.

Doing some googling it seems you can, though maybe someone from here has first hand experience

thebeagle · 7 Dec 2011 at 08:21

I'm using my old OCZ summit on top of a 1TB drive on a Z68 board for caching. So simple to setup and nothing to it. the difference is more that noticeable. As mentioned it will only be on your 2nd attempt at using something off the drive that you notice its faster due to it being cached on the first use.

So worth it! and another recommendation here!

MoRT489 · 7 Dec 2011 at 09:10

But why not just use the SSD as the primary Windows hard drive?

boosfuk · 7 Dec 2011 at 09:16

I use 2 60GB SSDs, fast one as a standalone primary Windows drive and the other older one as a cache to my games/apps HDD. Works very well.

robj20 · 7 Dec 2011 at 09:26

creed said:
But why not just use the SSD as the primary Windows hard drive?

Its in my op why i wont, but its because i dont trust them, i have had 2 fail already.

littlepuppy · 7 Dec 2011 at 09:27

Im using it on a 3tb drive and it works great, just bought ASUS IV over the new sniper though as the sniper does not support caching where as asus does.

Surveyor · 7 Dec 2011 at 10:05

littlepuppy said:
just bought ASUS IV over the new sniper though as the sniper does not support caching where as asus does.

Are you sure about that?

The GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response utility is a simple application that allows users to quickly and easily configure their system for Intel® Smart Response Technology. In the past, enabling Intel® Smart Response meant users needed to enter the BIOS in order to configure their system for RAID mode, which then required a complete reinstall of the operating system. Once that processes was complete, users then needed to install the Intel® Rapid Storage Utility as well as configure Intel's Smart Response Technology. GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response does all of this automatically, without users having to perform a complicated install process.

G1.Sniper 2

Zarf · 7 Dec 2011 at 13:20

robj20 said:
Can you run it along with a RAID 10 at the same time, say 4 x 500GB in RAID 10 and use an SSD cache drive?

Im not using SSD for my main drive again, had my second one fail on my yesterday, there rubbish for reliability.

Depends on the make/models.

I put three of the old Samsung 90/70 drives in RAID0 on a mates comp 3 years ago, they are still going strong. My Intel Drives (2x80GB, 1x40GB, 1x160GB) are all a couple of years old and have had no issues.

In contrast the cheap 30GB OCZ Agility and 60GB OCZ Solid2 I bought this year are both showing signs of failing. I won't be buying budget SSD's again.

You should always have a sensible backup regime though, I have Acronis backing up twice a day to my file server.

robj20 · 7 Dec 2011 at 14:04

Mine were both 30gb agility drives, was thinking about a crucial m4 but its just a pain messing about if it goes again.

robj20 · 8 Dec 2011 at 19:31

Well it does work got 4x 500GB hdds set at RAID 10, then a 30gb ocz vertex set as cach, seems just as quick as an ssd except i have 1tb or reliable storage.

Zarf · 9 Dec 2011 at 19:07

Destructive flashed my 30GB Agility to 1.7 last night, took it in to work and currently using it for page file and readyboost on my work PC. It's made quite a decent improvement, not as quick as a native OS install, but it's eliminated the worst lock ups and delays.

The nice thing is that I can put it under some stress and get benefit from it with no real loss if it starts dropping off the bios again. If it does so at least I'll know i've done everything I can and send RMA it.

Threepwood · 10 Dec 2011 at 13:52

and currently using it for page file

Is that not terribad for SSD life span?

On topic, I've tried both, ssd as cache and ssd as boot drive, and I like both equally. SSD as cache to a mechanical drive/s is super none faff and works like a charm,a breath of fresh air and a great new option. SSD as boot drive can be super faffy, but gives you much greater control, and better booting speed I find. With my hardware anyway.

If I had to choose a winner, esp for someone new to computers, It would have to be SSD as Cache to a HDD. What tips the edge is total bang for buck, hell you could sling almost any old/cheap SSD into the equation and wham, dramatic quality of life improvement.

Personally I need another 120GB SSD to set up in raid because it seems silly not too because I already have one, plus 200odd GB's of 'hot' ssd worthy data is all I need, and having it sped up due to striping will be a bonus and I'll only need a 250gb mechanical to mirror it.

Blah blah blah

to anyone building a new computer who wants the easy life and seriously great bang for buck? Hell I would advise SSD caching in a heart beat.

Zarf · 10 Dec 2011 at 21:07

shadesofgrey said:
Is that not terribad for SSD life span?

Nope.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?
Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.
In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that
Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.
In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

Lifespan is not a huge concern anyway, any consumer can run all the apps they want for a decade or more (most will replace it well before then). It's only enterprise level workloads with hundreds or thousands of GB/day in writes that will wear out a drive quickly.

littlepuppy · 10 Dec 2011 at 21:59

Surveyor said:
Are you sure about that?

G1.Sniper 2

Talking about the sniper for X79, I currently have the G2 sniper - and am using smart response.