What Does Caching Drive Mean?

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Chiisu

Chiisu

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I want to have the fastest possible pc experience that my budget will allow. That being said I've heard around the interwebs a few times about a caching drive. Which I guess is a whole drive dedicated to caching. I have searched the web and have found no useful information that I can comprehend. Can someone please enlighten me to what this is, and why I should use it?

Thank you,
Chiisu
 
Solution
spawnkiller
Any hard drive have some cache (now it's generally 64mb) that cache store files list that you'll need soon or a currently loading, however 64mb isn't really fast so the HDD speed is really limited when it's sustained read (in burst it can still gor 250-300Mb/s but only for a max of 64 Mb before emptying the cache, reload other things and redo the whole process...

Having an SSD as a cache will store way more things that any HDD can, the max is 64GB as more doesn't really help more as the drive can load fast enough and write on the HDD and can still have space to work at blazing fast SSD speed, (basically it load frequently used file like windows and more used programs until about 80% of the cache is filled and then it's fast to read, if...
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J_E_D_70

J_E_D_70

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Mar 21, 2012
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It's a smaller ssd (30gb normally) that keeps a copy of the most frequently used files and loads from there with the goal of speeding app or game launches. Not as effective as a full ssd but usually faster than just a HDD.

Either need an intel chipset that supports RST or a drive that comes with software that keeps track of the files.
 
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spawnkiller

spawnkiller

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Jan 23, 2013
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Any hard drive have some cache (now it's generally 64mb) that cache store files list that you'll need soon or a currently loading, however 64mb isn't really fast so the HDD speed is really limited when it's sustained read (in burst it can still gor 250-300Mb/s but only for a max of 64 Mb before emptying the cache, reload other things and redo the whole process...

Having an SSD as a cache will store way more things that any HDD can, the max is 64GB as more doesn't really help more as the drive can load fast enough and write on the HDD and can still have space to work at blazing fast SSD speed, (basically it load frequently used file like windows and more used programs until about 80% of the cache is filled and then it's fast to read, if you need to save, the SSD will save, then retransfer to the HDD (then you'll never have to wait as it's already registered fast on the SSD)

It makes an enormous difference and you don't need to format your whole drive for it to work, i was using it before reformatting and replacing whole partition separatly (one SSD for windows, 1 for Steam games and 2 1TB in raid 1 for data) i was booting just a little slower than a real SSD alone (it was like 15 Sec Maximum and now i'm booting in about 10Sec on a Crucial M4 (i don't even see the windows logo as it's too fast and i was seeing it for 1 sec before)

PS: you need a Z77/Z87 board or a caching drive with the Dataplex software, possibly work on P68 chipset but not all board was capable of doing it...
 
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Solution
Chiisu

Chiisu

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Thanks I guess my next question would be how do I got about using this?

Specs:
Asus M5A97 R2.0
AMD 8320 CPU
(if you need more specs I'll gladly provide them)

I'm guessing I need to purchase and SSD for caching. I'm about to buy a 120GB SSD (OS), 2x WD Black 1TB (One for games, the other for video captures).
 
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spawnkiller

spawnkiller

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Yeah you can't use the Intel RST as you have an AMD rig, you would have no other choice that buy something like a Corsair Accelerator, a Crucial Adrenalyn or a OCZ synapse (i would choose the Crucial Adrenalyn due to the consumer support and firmware update as they made an awesome job VS Corsair and OCZ on this...)
 
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J_E_D_70

J_E_D_70

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"I'm about to buy a 120GB SSD (OS), 2x WD Black 1TB (One for games, the other for video captures)."

I'd get a 250GB Samsung 840 Evo instead of a 120 and 1TB HDD, plus the HDD for your captures. The cost would be close to the same cost and you wouldn't have to mess with a cache at all.
 
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Chiisu

Chiisu

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Say I pump up to the Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD would that be sufficient as well? Or does the 250GB Samsung 840 Evo (besides the 10 extra GBs) beat out the Kingston?

I'm looking for very fast (every second counts) boot times, drive efficiency and reliability.
 
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