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I have a new ryzen 5000 build in the works and I am deciding on the drive configuration I want. Pretty sure im going with: - 1TB NVME SSD (boot drive/windows + non-games windows applications and folders) - 500GB NVME SSD (SSD Cache for HDD via StoreMI 2.0) - 4TB HDD (games, datasets, movies, photos etc) So I will most likely have all my projects on the hard drive and I mainly develop in WSL so I am wondering if I set up StoreMI in Windows will I still benefit from the caching when I read/write to files on my HDD in WSL?

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum, I didn’t find an “introduce yourself” section, so I am firing my question here straight away: I am setting up a cheap general purpose/light gaming pc, and I am gonna use a 60gb Intenso sata3 ssd+500gb 2,5” (5400) hdd as storage, do you think it is better to install win10+basic software (browser, winrar, openoffice, gimp) on the ssd and redirect the rest (user’s folders, games, big applications) on the hdd, or install everything on the hdd and use the ssd as cache with intel rapid storage technology (or any better free alternative, if you know one)?

Hi, I have a friend using XPS 14 L421X, which has a 500GB HDD and a 32GB mSATA SSD installed. I wanted to make the SSD as a cache, but I'm not sure how. Intel RST doesn't seems to allow me to accelerate, Dell website only provide a driver (version 12 only, whereas current version is 16 I think), and the Intel Optane app in Windows store doesn't help either. Here's a summary of the system specs: Intel Core i5 3317U Intel 7 series/C216 chipset family BIOS set the SATA operation as Intel Smart Response Technology I have pretty much exhausted my knowledge, so I appreciate if someone in the community can help me. Regards, Chiyawa

I was wondering if it is possible to run raid 5 with an SSD cache on windows. I have to stick to windows. (Sorry Linux people). I have 3X Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200Rpm drives, and an 80GB storage for a cache. Would this work at all? Thanks, TheRessurection

Hi guys, I have seen in a few LTT videos where Linus was talking about his server(s) having an SSD cache.I understand the concept of cache (computer engineer), but I am wondering how they set that up? I have a Ubuntu server with an HDD FlexRaid storage pool on it. It operates as a Plex server, NAS, and general compute server. I don't have the money to get an SSD cache and I have no plans of doing it, I am just curious. How would I setup an SSD cache for this array? Can I do it in Ubuntu or would I need something like UnRAID? Thank you

I have a question about the SSD I'm going to get. It is a (ADATA Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive) I'm getting it because I'm on a budget 1. is it a good SSD for frequent gaming 2. Should it be enough memory 3. Will it boot OS and apps fast 4. On Specs it says N\A Cache... why? will it still be fast without any? 5. Should I partition it because I won't have an HDD with it

current pc: -2x 256gb Samsung 840 pro in Raid 0 (as boot drive and software) (plugged into black sata ports) -3tb hardrive (plugged into brown sata port) - 250gb kingston v300 ssd (not in pc currently) -sabertooth z77 motherboard i want to add my Kingston v300 250gb ssd as a cache drive for the hard drive (i know that max cache is 64gb). my question is it possible to do this with only having 2 intel 6gb sata ports on my motherboard. thx Taylor

edit: I want to do something like this (Drobo 5D3) on my existing Win10 machine without spending $700 TLDR: I'm trying to make a simple and cost-effective hybrid drive solution (fast and high capacity) for my mid-range gaming computer. I want to use Storage Spaces to make it work but as I understand it Win10 doesn't have support in the GUI to do this. I have 4x 2TB WD blue drives, a 250GB m.2 NVMe drives, 2 SATA SSDs (one is the system disk, the other I bought to use for caching with my onboard RAID controller) and 6 total SATA ports on my motherboard. After seeing just how bad Intel Rapid Storage Technology can be I've decided to try Storage Spaces in Windows 10. 4 disks set up with parity is already performing better than the raid controller on my motherboard. But I still want to add the SSD as a cache for the RAID. According to what I'm reading this is not supported in the GUI (link below). I may be able to use powershell to do this, but the example uses equal quantities of HDDs and SSDs to make it work. Nothing as simple as "assign 1 SSD to RAID as cache". So, can this be done with 1 SSD and 4 HDDs. Maybe I should just copy the game I want to play onto the NVMe or just buy a new Drobo with thunderbolt and be done with it.

Hello, I am trying to setup a basic strip RAID (no redundancy), and use an SSD as a cache for this RAID. The raid will consist of two HHDs. How can I set this up on Windows 10? I have the drives installed and ready to be formatted, but am unsure as to how to set up the raid and cache. I want the cache to be write-through so that data written to the raid is written onto the raid and the SSD cache to be used when retrieving data. All the help you could give would be appreciated. Thanks, Kazimir

Afternoon guys, long time lurker, first time poster. I have 4 desktop machines at home and used to use two mirrored 4tb drives on my main pc as data back up. The drives were set up in storage spaces on Win 10 and I had no real issues until I ran out of room. . I've recently purchased some more 3TB drives (to add to my unused ones) giving me 6 in total. I have put into a new build which is running server 2016. Since reading that an SSD cache cannot be added down the line I've decided to buy x2 240gb ssds to add to the build. My goal is to have the SSDs mirrored for cache with the 6 HDDs set up with parity 2 so that I have a decent amount of protection against recovery. (I've since learned windows requires 7 drives for redundancy 2 so I may have to buy another) I want two drive recovery as I had one 4tb fail in the past and it was too stressful whether the other disk would then fail too although I know logically the chance is very small. I've since tried using the Storage Spaces GUI to set up a pool including tiering before trying to set up the virtual disks but I keep running in to errors and other issues. People who I've spoken to have suggested using Powershell to achieve this but I'm not too well up on this and wondered if anyone had advise for me. I created the pool without the SSDs and the performance was really poor - I was only just getting about 15MB/s of sustained writes, is there a fix for this? Sorry for all of the Noobish questions but help would be greatly appreciated.

I am planing to setup my macOS to run on hybrid drive with HDD and SSD, when i install windows on macbook, will it benefit my windows OS?

I've been planning on making a NAS to host my media library. Primary uses: - Plex Media Server and transcoding for my PS4. - local network storage of my media library to access from Windows devices. I've done some research and decided I'd like to use unraid as my NAS software as it seems to be less reliant on RAM (correct me if I'm wrong), which gets pretty costly when looking at FreeNAS and high capacity storage. At the moment I'm not overly concerned about redundancy, I do intend to add a parity drive later on, but for the moment it's out of budget. All data stored on the NAS will have a backup on an existing external hard drive. From my research I've seen that it's recommended to run Plex off an SSD as that allows the mechanical drives to spin down when in idle, which is good for drive longevity, as well as providing responsive access to stored metadata. However, I'm a little confused about SSD caching though and what capacity drive I should actually go with - I can save $30 by dropping down to a 120GB. I was originally going to go with WD Reds, but the price difference plus current $30 rebate brings the price difference to nearly $90 for two drives. Chose the G4400 due to its low power draw and superior performance compared to my brother's i3 530 (stock) which I used for Plex transcoding testing. This should be more than sufficient for handling transcodes of large files or x265 encodes correct? I've put together two potential options, one using ECC memory and one without. Turns out the ECC cost is only a little over $100 more, I'm leaning towards this route, but I'd like some feedback whether this price difference is worth it. Only problem is that the motherboard is currently not in stock which thwarts my plans to capitalise on the free shipping going on at the moment. ECC Non-ECC TLDR: - How do the two options I have planned look? Would you recommend one or the other? i.e. ECC vs non-ECC $100~ difference - Should I drop down to a 120GB SSD for Plex and chaching and save $30 - Anything else I should know?/Anything I've missed? Thanks

I wanna decrease my game loading time, as I'm not quite satisfy with my WD Black speed. I have 1TB WD Black and a spare Vertex 3 60GB SSD (from my old computer), so I have 2 options. A: Use that Vertex 3 to Cache WD Black. Your game could load faster they said. (IF SSD Cache is good) B: Install new game to Vertex 3 60GB, once I clear the game, move it to WD Black. (IF SSD Cache is bullshit) A or B?

Currently running my Maximums IV Extreme-Z with a 1TB Samsung SSD as OS and games, while I have 4x4TB WD drives in Raid5. I also have 2x240GB Corsair Force drives free now, as they were Raid0 for I wanna say two years (fuzzy memory) as my OS before I got the 1TBSammy. So as you may of guessed it I would like to use the two drives as cache for my 4x4TB Raid5, I know its overkill but its what I got, n hey this is a LTT fourm, what's not overkill. I figured ill Raid1 the 2x240GB's for safety, but how do I begin on making them cache for the Raid5? All 6 Drives will be using the MOBO's 6 Intel ports, where my 1TB is off the Marvell Controlled port. I need this write speed to my array to be faster than 20MB/s give or take. I understand the bigger the Raid5 array the slower write speed it will get, hence why I would like to shove a cache in it's face n get fast writes too, after all it reads at a fast 350-400MB/s Thats all I think you need to know, but hey drop a question if you need to know more... Thanx Markes12344

I'm new to SSDs, first time having one, should I bother with SSD caching? I've just encountered this while surfing the net and I was thinking if I should setup mine. Will I gain something or will it affect my SSD badly?

Is it possible?

So I bought a new 128 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD to replace my 60 GB Mushkin Chronos SSD as the boot drive.I did this to have more breathing room for programs I would like to install on the SSD and not have to worry about hitting the max capacity of the drive. I now have this 60 GB SSD that I would like to use on my 2 TB Western Digital Caviar Black HDD as a cache drive so I could have the games I play most often load faster. So I am here to ask you people of this fine forum. Is it possible to setup my 60 GB SSD as a caching drive for my 2 TB WD Black? And if so how do I go about doing it?

Hi friends! Newbe here! I would like to buy an ssd but not to move or reinstall the OS ( I know, it takes nothing, but I'm too lazy int that case). I saw brands like OCZ or Sandisk that have their own ssd caching solution: they sell you an ssd and a software that works just with that ssd and the software lets you use the ssd as a huge cache for you slow hdd. Is there any software solution like the Expresscache from Sandisk, but that works with every ssd?!? Hope you have understood what I'm looking for! Thank you all in advance!

I know for a fact i want to get a 250gb samsung evo, but i want to speed up my 3tb seagate barracuda storage drive. Should i go RAID 0 and get practically double performance or get a small ssd with the evo and ssd cache? What kind of performance would i even get with an ssd cache anyway? I've tried to look for benchmarks online but can't find any good ones. any help is appriciated.

Is there a limit to how large of an SSD you can cache a hard drive? Or a limit to how much you can cache until the quality/performance becomes less noticeable? I heard that 64gb is the recommended cache size as any higher is useless is this true, as I think it shouldn't be especially if you're looking to cache games.

Hello all, I am new here. I am looking for a little help. I am building a new computer. I want to put the OS on it's own ssd. Preferablly either a single 250gb Samsung 840 pro or 2 120 gb Samsung 840 Pro's in Raid 0. Then I want around 2tb's of storage on spinners. Preferablly with 4 WD Caviar Black 1TB in Raid 0+1. Can I use a seperate ssd for cache on the 4 spinners. I want to store programs, music, videos, and a few large hd clones I store for people, on the spinners and have the OS on its own drive. I do transfer a decent amount of large files around. So I am looking for speed and redundancy. and thank you for any help you throw my way. Also I know running in raid 0 will ruin both drives if one crashes. I am looking for performance. My questions are 1)Will it be notably faster to run the OS on two ssd's in Raid 0 or is the performance not enough for the cost of a second drive? 2)Is it possible to have a 2nd ssd to use as cache for the 4 spinner drives? 3)Will having a 2nd ssd for cache increase performance of transfering files and running programs and such? 4)finally what size ssd should I use as a cache drive if it is useful to do so?

Hey, so I'm looking for some advice on what I should do. By the end of this week I'll have enough to spare to get about a 60GB - 120GB SSD, my issue is that I'd like to keep everything the way it currently is, but I have a 240GB C drive which is full. I've heard that using an SSD as cache and such is, a solution, but I'm unsure as to if I can do that with just any old SSD, or what sort of performance boost I'd get. Should I wait a month or so and get say, an 840 EVO, or is there a way I can use a smaller SSD for now for a performance boost and get a better SSD.