Is SSD caching worth it? + Which SSD to get?

[rejectedwaffle]

Hi all,

I'm looking at getting a SSD to add some nice speed to my system, and the idea of setting it up to cache my HDD's sounds very nice seeing as I get the speed + the capacity.

Do you think caching is worth it? I really don't want to constantly fight for space by using a 128GB SSD as my OS drive..

And also, I'm not too sure on what SSD I would like to get, theres so many choices and I'm not really sure what's best to go with (although it would be 128 or 60GB and the maximum for Intel SRT is 60GB so a 120GB drive would be half used but still good for future use) :\

I would be buying the SSD from here - https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=210_902_909

[dchen12]

Do you have a budget? And do you have an estimate of how much space your OS and all your programs take up?

[rejectedwaffle]

ATM my OS drive is 250gb full out of 1TB with my storage 2TB drive being almost full.

I have a budget of approx $120-150 AUD

[azeotrope]

It's largely a get what you pay for type deal. you'll see a speed up with caching, particularly with regularly used applications, but the performance is less consistent than a dedicated SSD. I see that pccasegear is selling a agility 4 256 GB for $175 if you're willing to stretch. it's not as speedy as some of the higher end SSD's but with real world performance scenarios the difference isn't that large. You'll also get a more consistent experience performance wise. You could also move the less performance critical applications e.g. office onto an HDD.

[Sanguinn]

I don't see any listed on that link, but you may want to keep in mind the other option of using a software-based solution like the OCZ Synapse (or any of the other OEMs that use the Dataplex software, I suppose)

I've tried both that and SRT, and found they both made a noticeable difference - given the option though, I might actually give the edge to the software: the setup was really easy, no dealing with RAID settings, and it'll work with AMD-based machines as well.

[rejectedwaffle]

I can't see this 256GB Agility 4 that you speak of and Sanguinn, I'm perfectly open to use a software based caching system. Do you think that It's really overall worth the money? I mean all I mainly do is some gaming now and then and web browsing.. nothing like rendering or development.

Could I expect to see (with caching) speed improvements in the little things inside Windows 7 such as the speed of opening directories?

Thanks for the help, all of you

Another trustworthy site I would use: http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/default.php

[Will]

SRT makes Windows 8 AMAZING! Don't have to waste space with the massive install and don't have to bother with managing space.

[rejectedwaffle]

SRT makes Windows 8 AMAZING! Don't have to waste space with the massive install and don't have to bother with managing space.

How does it manage this space you speak of?

[Will]

SRT makes Windows 8 AMAZING! Don't have to waste space with the massive install and don't have to bother with managing space.

Well if you don't have a massive ssd it's annoying having to decide what and what does not go on the ssd with caching you don't have to.

[rejectedwaffle]

SRT makes Windows 8 AMAZING! Don't have to waste space with the massive install and don't have to bother with managing space.

Unfortunately I don't have the budget to go and buy a large SSD.. really not wanting to spend over $120 at all to be honest.

[Drethstoff]

Honestly, I'm not really enjoying the ssd caching from ocz. Its buggy for me and every time I have to power down my computer from holding the button the damn dataplex software has to recover the data. Honestly, that isn't what made me not like it. It was the fact that the computer wouldn't boot into windows randomly and to get past thing you must disable dataplex. If you disable dataplex you have to uninstall it and reinstall it. When this is done it will reset all the data that has been cached which kind of defeats the purpose imo.