Here's A PC Question?

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

Ignoring the Why Of Not Doing It... 

 

Just For Learning Experience of the Future... 

 

Anyone know how to Cache on an M.2 NVME 

with an ASUS BIOS? 

 

I already Installed Everything, but I don't know 

how to Setup Cache on an M.2 NVME Drive... 

 

This is my 1st time owning one...

[Eigenvektor]

Cache what exactly? Are you trying to set up the NVMe as a cache for a HDD, or something else?

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

15 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Cache what exactly? Are you trying to set up the NVMe as a cache for a HDD, or something else?

I want to "M.2 NVME Cache" Gaming, to make load times faster, kinda like how the PS5 Cache to make Gaming Load Times Faster, I also want to make my PC Boot faster to my Desktop, & such, & such... STEAM isn't the only thing i'm talking about in Gaming, I do my own Games, too... That I want to Cache for Load Times, too...

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

I want to Cache Gaming, to make load times faster, I also want to make my PC Boot faster to my Desktop, & such, & such... STEAM isn't the only thing i'm talking about in Gaming, I do my own Games, too...

In that case: install Windows and your games on the NVMe. Done.

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

Ya, everyone says that, but I wanna use it for Cache, & i'm not sure how you set it up, cause 

like should I turn on Raid Mode, or turn it off? 

With M.2 NVME?

[Stormseeker9]

18 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Ya, everyone says that, but I wanna use it for Cache, & i'm not sure how you set it up, cause 

like should I turn on Raid Mode, or turn it off? 

With M.2 NVME?

Run it directly off of the nvme. Problem solved.

[Eigenvektor]

13 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Ya, everyone says that, but I wanna use it for Cache, & i'm not sure how you set it up, cause 

like should I turn on Raid Mode, or turn it off? 

With M.2 NVME?

Using it as cache for a HDD is more work and you'll not get the full speed you'd get by installing stuff on the NVMe directly. It's an imperfect solution that's only really worth it if your NVMe is too small to use for the OS and games directly.

 

To use it as cache for a HDD, you generally need to install additional software in Windows or you need a motherboard that has explicit support for it (e.g. Intel Rapid Storage tech). It's not related to RAID.

https://www.wepc.com/tips/ssd-cache/

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

17 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Using it as cache for a HDD is more work and you'll not get the full speed you'd get by installing stuff on the NVMe directly. It's an imperfect solution that's only really worth it if your NVMe is too small to use for the OS and games directly.

 

To use it as cache for a HDD, you generally need to install additional software in Windows or you need a motherboard that has explicit support for it (e.g. Intel Rapid Storage tech). It's not related to RAID.

https://www.wepc.com/tips/ssd-cache/

 

I actually do have a Motherboard

for this actually:

 

-- Rapid Storage Technology 

-- Intel Speed Step Technology 

-- Power Saving Mode 

-- ECO Mode 

-- Raid Mode 

-- M.2 Mode 

-- NVME Mode 

-- & Couple Other Technologies 

 

 

The funny thing about my M.2 is that 

using it means to have Ports 3 / 4 Disabled, 

but I already have them Disabled for

ECO Mode anyways to save Electric Money, 

sooo technically? Having it Disabled is Perfect... 

I now get Two Bonuses out of it,

 

'_- 

 

The only thing is? 

 

Does M.2 NVME Cache Setup like an SSD, 

or is it done differently? 

I didn't know if I could, or not...

[Eigenvektor]

6 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

-- Rapid Storage Technology 

-- Intel Speed Step Technology 

-- Power Saving Mode 

-- ECO Mode 

-- Raid Mode 

-- M.2 Mode 

-- NVME Mode 

-- & Couple Other Technologies 

The only technology that matter here is RST. The others have zero influence on caching.

 

6 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Does M.2 NVME Cache Setup like an SSD,

NVMe and SATA refers to the way an SSD is connected to the system (physical + protocol). You can use an SSD connected over NVMe as a cache exactly the same way you can use an SSD connected over SATA. The reason it's worth to use as a cache for a HDD is because it happens to be much faster to read/write.

 

11 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

I now get Two Bonuses out of it,

Not really. If you'd use the NVMe directly, then your HDD could turn off, saving power. If you're simply using it as a cache, then the HDD may turn off, if all of the data that you need happens to be in the cache, otherwise it'll have to spin up to provide the data that's not currently in the cache. And you need additional software in place making things more error prone.

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

Sooooo, my Setup is this? 

 

-- Windows is on SSD 

-- HDD is for my Windows Files I Don't want on SSD, because I want only Windows on SSD... 

 

All My Other Stuff has been on a

5TB USB 3.0 Portable Drive... 

 

The M.2 NVME was gonna be for Cache, 

but never had done it before, I just didn't

want to Screw it up... I read some People

have done it, & some had Results, but

never stated how they did it... 

 

The thing is? No ones actually told be 

that it would be bad to do it, cause it'll be 

more hurtful then Positive... 

 

People have only said that it just won't benefit me, but never said why other then it's just already fast enough as is to run without... 

 

Soooo? I kinda wanted to try & maybe see if I could do a Comparison Video, to see for myself... 

 

Unless? Cache on a Drive isn't Easy to Undo, 

or Shouldn't be Transfered from a Computer to Another Computer, if say I liked it, & then wanted to put it in a dif PC later? 

 

 

 

Actually, the M.2 is already Setup, & Active... 

It's just not being used for Cache, for some reason... 

 

I only have Ports 1 / 2 being used at the moment, sooo? It's something like that... 

It's whatever the Ports not being used is turned off for the M.2...

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Sooooo, my Setup is this? 

 

-- Windows is on SSD 

-- HDD is for my Windows Files I Don't want on SSD, because I want only Windows on SSD... 

Using an SSD as cache is only really worth it if you're dealing with a much slower drive (i.e. an HDD). If Windows is already on a SATA SSD, don't expect to see much, if any, benefit in terms of boot time when using an NVMe SSD as cache.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VI4_OUewNg

If you look at this video, you can see the difference in boot time between a SATA SSD and a NVMe SSD connected over M.2 is 11.8 vs 13 seconds, so not a whole lot. Not something you'd notice in day to day use. Definitely not something worth setting up an NVMe as a cache drive for.

 

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

The M.2 NVME was gonna be for Cache, but never had done it before, I just didn't want to Screw it up... I read some People have done it, & some had Results, but never stated how they did it... 

Ideally you should only need to enable it, tell it which drive to use as a cache and that's it. It'll take care of moving frequently used files to the cache drive so reading them becomes faster.

 

That's the only thing a cache does, really. It moves frequently accessed files to the faster disk, so that reading them can benefit from the faster disk's speed. If you access a file that's not on the cache drive, it'll be no faster than before.

 

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

The thing is? No ones actually told be that it would be bad to do it, cause it'll be more hurtful then Positive... 

It's not bad. But if you have a large enough NVMe to install your OS on, then it's simply additional work for something that's not going to provide much benefit.

 

If you have a very large HDD where you access only a small handful of files all the time, then using a small SSD as cache will benefit you by accelerating access to these files (since they're mirrored on the cache drive).

 

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

People have only said that it just won't benefit me, but never said why other then it's just already fast enough as is to run without... 

It'll benefit you if you use an SSD as a cache for a HDD, because SSDs are much faster and have virtually no seek time when it comes to accessing small files. It'll not benefit you in a noticeable way to use an NVMe SSD as a cache for a SATA SSD, because the speed difference is so small it'll not be noticeable.

 

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Unless? Cache on a Drive isn't Easy to Undo, 

or Shouldn't be Transfered from a Computer to Another Computer, if say I liked it, & then wanted to put it in a dif PC later? 

Moving a drive used as cache between different machines is not a typical use case. It may work if both machines use the same software for it, but in general I'd expect the software to want to re-initialize it.

 

2 hours ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Actually, the M.2 is already Setup, & Active... It's just not being used for Cache, for some reason...

To use a drive (or partition) as cache, it can't be used for anything else. The cache software will managed its contents, by moving frequently moved stuff to it to accelerate access. So most likely your M.2 can't be used as a cache drive because it is already setup and active. You'd have to format it, then tell RST to use it as a cache drive.

[Finkle Garbled Crap]

49 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Using an SSD as cache is only really worth it if you're dealing with a much slower drive (i.e. an HDD). If Windows is already on a SATA SSD, don't expect to see much, if any, benefit in terms of boot time when using an NVMe SSD as cache.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VI4_OUewNg

If you look at this video, you can see the difference in boot time between a SATA SSD and a NVMe SSD connected over M.2 is 11.8 vs 13 seconds, so not a whole lot. Not something you'd notice in day to day use. Definitely not something worth setting up an NVMe as a cache drive for.

 

Ideally you should only need to enable it, tell it which drive to use as a cache and that's it. It'll take care of moving frequently used files to the cache drive so reading them becomes faster.

 

That's the only thing a cache does, really. It moves frequently accessed files to the faster disk, so that reading them can benefit from the faster disk's speed. If you access a file that's not on the cache drive, it'll be no faster than before.

 

It's not bad. But if you have a large enough NVMe to install your OS on, then it's simply additional work for something that's not going to provide much benefit.

 

If you have a very large HDD where you access only a small handful of files all the time, then using a small SSD as cache will benefit you by accelerating access to these files (since they're mirrored on the cache drive).

 

It'll benefit you if you use an SSD as a cache for a HDD, because SSDs are much faster and have virtually no seek time when it comes to accessing small files. It'll not benefit you in a noticeable way to use an NVMe SSD as a cache for a SATA SSD, because the speed difference is so small it'll not be noticeable.

 

Moving a drive used as cache between different machines is not a typical use case. It may work if both machines use the same software for it, but in general I'd expect the software to want to re-initialize it.

 

To use a drive (or partition) as cache, it can't be used for anything else. The cache software will managed its contents, by moving frequently moved stuff to it to accelerate access. So most likely your M.2 can't be used as a cache drive because it is already setup and active. You'd have to format it, then tell RST to use it as a cache drive.

Ya, ummmm... Thnks... 

 

Seee you said:

 

The M.2  = 11 

SSD Sata = 13 

 

What I would like to do is

run a few Tests myself: 

 

ASUS Zeneth II: 64GB Threadripper CPU 

64GB DDR4 

1st) M.2 - Windows Only 

2nd) M.2 - Windows Cache & My 5TB Cache 

3rd) M.2 - Deactivated 

SSD - Used For Non-Essential Windows Files 

5TB External Portable USB 3.0 - Everything else 

Radeon VII: 16GB VRAM 

4 HDMI - at 10K Capable 

 

Four Tests: 

1.) An 8K Rendered Paint Program Image Drawn 

While Listening To a Music Playlist 

 

2.) 8K Game Design / 8K Movie Making, 

Music Editing Work Studios, & Multi-Tasking 

 

3.) Playing an 8K Game or 18048x3240 Game 

 

4.) My Windows Boot 

 

----------------------------------

 

I know light Tasks won't make any difference over this, but how about under Heavy Loads? 

 

I know 8K Requires 32GB RAM at min, 

but I figured 64 should be good, & the

Computer will be able to handle 128GB RAM, 

soo that leaves me with 64GB RAM to 

Toy with if I should ever need it... 

 

The Idea is I wanna see if I can break 

the Supposed 15 FPS Marks I keep

seeing Online... 

 

Games Chosen: Command & Conqure 3, 

or City Skylines, & Shadow Of Mordor... 

 

Movie Test: Top Gun 2 at 6K or Highest Setting

 

Drawing Full Detailed 8K Image or Animated GIF 

 

Booting Windows - With a Wallpaper Slideshow 

 

Running 8K Game Editing Software, 

with a Game, like Smash Bros, oO 

 

-----------------------------------------------

 

I'm hoping that my Results will be Promising, 

to at least get decent FPS, cause I heard that 

8K Resolution is Massively taxing on Computers...

[Eigenvektor]

22 minutes ago, Finkle Garbled Crap said:

Four Tests: 

1.) An 8K Rendered Paint Program Image Drawn 

While Listening To a Music Playlist 

2.) 8K Game Design / 8K Movie Making, 

Music Editing Work Studios, & Multi-Tasking 

3.) Playing an 8K Game or 18048x3240 Game

4.) My Windows Boot

1. Except for loading the 8K image into memory, that use case isn't bound by storage performance. So a cache isn't going to make any difference except for load times. The load time will only be improved if the file you're loading is cached (i.e. it has been loaded enough times for the cache software to determine it should be cached)
2. These use cases are bound by GPU and CPU performance more than anything. Storage performance might make a difference when loading things, but again, only if the files you're working with have actually been cached.
3. Except for loading a level, not bound by storage at all. This is down to GPU performance and to a limited degree CPU performance.
4. That's the one use case where storage performance can make a noticeable difference up to a certain point. You will definitely notice a difference going from a HDD to an SSD. You'll have a much smaller difference going from a SATA SSD to an NVMe SSD, so it's barely worth it.

You seem to have the incorrect assumption that using a cache will magically make your computer faster overall. It will not. It will only speed up tasks that are bound by storage performance, if the files in question happen to be cached already. It'll not do anything for running games at 8K except potentially reduce loading times.