How to use a small SSD as Cache for a large HDD for a HTPC - Any Free ways to do this?

[Euphoria]

Hi everyone, I have an old Ivy Bridge (3770k) Z77 rig that I'm donating to someone as a HTPC. The boot drive is a decent enough SSD but the main bulk of the media will be spinning rust, 2x 6TB Western Digital Blues (5400rpm) which are pretty slow especially for moving 4k Blu-rays.

As I was building the rig I found my 2 old but barely used Intel 530 120GB SSDs. I figured I never had any need for this myself, so why not make their media that bit faster and achieve a new nerd badge for myself.

I started looking into it but I guess I'm either blind or being a derp because all I could find is paid for software (30-day trial) and OEM stuff.

Is there any simple and free way to set this up?

[Bad5ector]

Short answer, probably not worth it.

 

Long answer, maybe. But since I myself have never gone this route I can't really speak with any authority it will work 100% like you expect:

Understanding the cache in Storage Spaces Direct | Microsoft Docs

Storage Spaces overview | Microsoft Docs

Storage Spaces in Windows (microsoft.com)

[NewMaxx]

Windows Storage Spaces. You can customize it via PowerShell as well.

[Mark Kaine]

you could try something like this,  he uses optane but should probably work with regular ssd too. also i don't think this is "safe", he says as much,  so you should make regular backups. 

 

 

[Euphoria]

Thank you for the info and advice, learned some new stuff, and I might mess around with it just to get the nerd badge but it doesn't seem very worth it after all.