My problems with SSD caching....

[Krazyhartin]

PC #1,

I built my first gaming pc in 2015. With the goal of playing GTAV on a middle ground - decent performance. It was a success. 120GB SSD for boot drive and a stupendous 4TB SSHD for games and everything else.

Years went on, some hardware upgrades here and there (cpu and gpu).

 

Then, there's the driver updates and re-installations.

I run into problems with driver updates and completion of installations. These include graphics drivers, web browsers, social media apps, and even games. I wonder is it due to the caching in my SSHD trying to jog in the same old slippers?

If I go to the trouble of uninstalling the old drivers and install new ones, this makes things worse. Where do I go from here? should I scrap the hybrid for a regular hard disc?

 

PC #2,

Linux laptop. I replaced the 500GB HDD with a 1TB SSHD. This was cool. It boot up pretty quick, I ran BOINC manager also. But whenever I updated the Linux, certain programmes including BOINC was failing to operate like it use to. Eventually, nothing would update, not even web browser. That point, I retired that operating system. I've not done anything further since.

 

So far, this is my experience with SSHDs. But I've come to conclusions, they may not suit every computer. A server, nas or other system that doesn't require regular updates on a frequent basis can benefit with speedy caching. Either I'm a noob and missing something here, or the neat caching method needs fine tuning.

[Electronics Wizardy]

With a sshd all the caching is managed by the drive, the os has no idea its a sshd, So i would be very suprised that that would be the problem.

 

I think the sshd and the issues are unrelated, or the drive is failing in other ways. A sshd shouldn't cause these issues.

[Krazyhartin]

I think the caching system in the drive is the problem. To give an example, if I uninstall a web browser. Those files (perhaps caused by the cache) will still appear in the system. They fail to remove 100%. If I click on them, they don't do anything. So they're just there, taking up space.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Krazyhartin said:

I think the caching system in the drive is the problem. To give an example, if I uninstall a web browser. Those files (perhaps caused by the cache) will still appear in the system. They fail to remove 100%. If I click on them, they don't do anything. So they're just there, taking up space.

 

The drives shoulnd't do that and don't do that in my testing.

 

Try running disk checking programs, that can test if blocks are being read correctly.

[NewMaxx]

A SSHD doesn't do caching, it does tiering. This means there's a separate "tier" of storage - using flash - for the hottest data, versus the slower HDD tier for cold data. Data is moved around on a schedule based on a heat map.