Using an SSD as a HDD Cache

[CubisticWings4]

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday Eve!

 

I was wondering if it is possible to use, for instance, a 120 gb SSD as a high speed cache for a 2TB HDD. My internet speed is so high that when downloading games, it backs up and has me taking up bandwidth longer.

 

Any ideas?

 

P.S. I know Intel optane is basically the same thing, but I'm afraid I'll need more than the max 32GB.

[Zando_]

Just use a 120GB SSD as the boot drive, and your downloads folder will be on it. IDK if you can set one up as a case without Optane software. 

[CubisticWings4]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

Just use a 120GB SSD as the boot drive, and your downloads folder will be on it. IDK if you can set one up as a case without Optane software. 

I have a 500GB SSD boot drive and a 2TB HDD as a games drive. The boot drive is filling up.

[LienusLateTips]

Just put the downloads folder in the new SSD. There's a option.

[CubisticWings4]

I think Linus was planning to do something similar in Petabyte Project.

[Zando_]

Just now, CubisticWings4 said:

I have a 500GB SSD boot drive and a 2TB HDD as a games drive. The boot drive is filling up.

Oh. How much space do you need? Do you edit videos, or just have a bazillion AAA games? And you could get a 120GB SSD, direct your downloads to it, then move the files to your HDD for storage. 

[CubisticWings4]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

Oh. How much space do you need? Do you edit videos, or just have a bazillion AAA games? And you could get a 120GB SSD, direct your downloads to it, then move the files to your HDD for storage. 

1. A lot.

2. Both.

3. Fair point.

[Zando_]

Just now, CubisticWings4 said:

1. A lot.

2. Both.

3. Fair point.

4. LOL

5. Just get a server mobo and fill all the PCIe slots with intel's 1.2TB PCIe SSDs. 

[CubisticWings4]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

4. LOL

5. Just get a server mobo and fill all the PCIe slots with intel's 1.2TB PCIe SSDs. 

6. Who do you think I am? Rich?

[Zando_]

Just now, CubisticWings4 said:

6. Who do you think I am? Rich?

7. IDK

8. Just impersonate Bill Gates for a bit, till you've got everything you need. 

[CubisticWings4]

 

Just now, Zando Bob said:

7. IDK

8. Just impersonate Bill Gates for a bit, till you've got everything you need. 

I'll look into getting a 120/240GB m.2 and use it as a temp download drive.

[Zando_]

Just now, CubisticWings4 said:

 

I'll look into getting a 120/240GB m.2 and use it as a temp download drive.

Good idea. And NVMe may actually be useful in this case, if you're moving massive files. 

[CubisticWings4]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

Good idea. And NVMe may actually be useful in this case, if you're moving massive files. 

I wonder if I could use the m.2 as a temp game drive as well to get REALLY fast load time.

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, CubisticWings4 said:

I wonder if I could use the m.2 as a temp game drive as well to get REALLY fast load time.

I think games are loading a ton of tiny files though, so you may not notice a difference. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, CubisticWings4 said:

I wonder if I could use the m.2 as a temp game drive as well to get REALLY fast load time.

You'd have to move the game files over there and find a way to point your apps to those directories. You can do that with symlinks, but that seems to be an intermediate topic.

 

4 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Good idea. And NVMe may actually be useful in this case, if you're moving massive files. 

Transferring files is only as useful as the slowest medium.

 

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

I think games are loading a ton of tiny files though, so you may not notice a difference. 

Games are often packed in huge files to avoid file transfer overhead. It's easier to ask the file system data from one file than the same amount of data from many files.