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Multi-million dollar Cheyenne supercomputer auction ends with $480,085 bid — buyer walked away with 8,064 Intel Xeon Broadwell CPUs, 313TB DDR4-2400 ECC RAM, and some water leaks
MyDigitalSSD Super Cache 2
- Thread starter davide445
- Start date
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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Storage Review seems to indicate that most newer MSATA ssds would work fine.
http://www.storagereview.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x220_upgrade_guide
If you get a larger SSD, you can use it for Windows and programs and keep a normal spinning drive for storage of your files. This would give you a nice boost in performance.
You would be best to reinstall Windows the the MSATA SSD with the hard drive out then put it back after and ensure the bios is set to boot from the MSATA card. At this point it should be safe to repartition the HDD as you see fit(or even shrink its partition and make one for files then reclaim that space after if needed.).
http://www.storagereview.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x220_upgrade_guide
If you get a larger SSD, you can use it for Windows and programs and keep a normal spinning drive for storage of your files. This would give you a nice boost in performance.
You would be best to reinstall Windows the the MSATA SSD with the hard drive out then put it back after and ensure the bios is set to boot from the MSATA card. At this point it should be safe to repartition the HDD as you see fit(or even shrink its partition and make one for files then reclaim that space after if needed.).
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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Arrived now I need to configure the whole thing.
Apart from boot time and some app start time how can I benchmark the whole user experience improvements?
Storage synthetic tests will not tell the story since caching will not work on a random testing.
PCMark test suite will notice some difference?
Apart from boot time and some app start time how can I benchmark the whole user experience improvements?
Storage synthetic tests will not tell the story since caching will not work on a random testing.
PCMark test suite will notice some difference?
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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Some benchmarks will notice the difference if you run it 2 or 3 times.
The reality is how do YOU find the improvements. excessive benchmarking just wastes the SSD's write cycles for nothing.
It may take a few days for the cache software to get used to how you use the system and optimize for it.
The reality is how do YOU find the improvements. excessive benchmarking just wastes the SSD's write cycles for nothing.
It may take a few days for the cache software to get used to how you use the system and optimize for it.
Installed in the last hour and now my first comments.
I didn't install FNet caching sw since I want to first read your test
, wait for bugfix (read about some problems) and be sure the SSD itself it's working well.
I don't configure anything and still my Graphics Windows Experience Index jump up from 5.9 to 6.3. The drive anyway isn't recognized as a new drive, even if I find it under hw.
Outlook start it's much much faster and Firefox start it's also almost instantaneous. All appear to be more snappy.
All of this come from Windows SuperFetch? What's the difference with a caching sw such as FNet Hybridisk?
I didn't install FNet caching sw since I want to first read your test
, wait for bugfix (read about some problems) and be sure the SSD itself it's working well.I don't configure anything and still my Graphics Windows Experience Index jump up from 5.9 to 6.3. The drive anyway isn't recognized as a new drive, even if I find it under hw.
Outlook start it's much much faster and Firefox start it's also almost instantaneous. All appear to be more snappy.
All of this come from Windows SuperFetch? What's the difference with a caching sw such as FNet Hybridisk?
Just an update: I installed ExpressCache with a 32GB cache size in the meantime.
Got 1/3 boot time respect before and a nice speed in many operations. EC never filled 32GB, in fact normally about 20Gb are used.
I tried also to use ReadyBoost in the next 32GB, without any noticeable improvement.
Next step try FNet Hybridisk.
Got 1/3 boot time respect before and a nice speed in many operations. EC never filled 32GB, in fact normally about 20Gb are used.
I tried also to use ReadyBoost in the next 32GB, without any noticeable improvement.
Next step try FNet Hybridisk.
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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Update: I needed to uninstall the SSD.
The final configuration was: ExpressCache in one 32GB partition and 8GB pagefile in the second 32GB partition.
After a couple of weeks of nice usage I got a BSOD, I think in 2 years of usage of mine X220 I got it only a couple of times. Bad signal but I tried to go on.
Today after another week the laptop shut down abruptly from himself. Tried to restart it, only few seconds of life and next shutdown again. After some other try I got finally a full restart, worked for some minutes and next shut down again.
I uninstalled the whole SSD and returned to previous conf and now all is working fine.
I think will try again to use it without pagefile and only with FNet Hybridisk...but next week. I've work to do and no time for experiments!
The final configuration was: ExpressCache in one 32GB partition and 8GB pagefile in the second 32GB partition.
After a couple of weeks of nice usage I got a BSOD, I think in 2 years of usage of mine X220 I got it only a couple of times. Bad signal but I tried to go on.
Today after another week the laptop shut down abruptly from himself. Tried to restart it, only few seconds of life and next shutdown again. After some other try I got finally a full restart, worked for some minutes and next shut down again.
I uninstalled the whole SSD and returned to previous conf and now all is working fine.
I think will try again to use it without pagefile and only with FNet Hybridisk...but next week. I've work to do and no time for experiments!
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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You can use something like CrystalDiskInfo to check the status of the SSD as well as the hard drive to see if they are reporting any errors.
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html I recommend the Portable Edition (zip)
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html I recommend the Portable Edition (zip)
The jury is still out on reliability but this thing gave new life to my old dual core XP system. I was in the process of initializing a whole new computer to get rid of the heavy disk thrashing that had developed at boot up - 3-4 minutes of maple syrup hell, and that's after logging in.
The FNET software is a download you install after you have the SSD running. The Install went smooth and it repartitioned part of the SSD (12-15 gB IIRC) into a hidden partition, leaving me about 2/3 of a small SSD as Drive D.
After rebooting a few times FNet did its analysis in the background and now my old computer boots and quiets down about 15-20 seconds after logon.
If I'd done this first I never would have bought the new computer.
Another update: decedided to give another try and reinstalled the cache, this time with FNet Hybridisk enabled.
Just one question: for max SSD durability and wear leveling will be better to use just half of the available size or I can dedicate the whole SSD as cache and the sw itself will take care about wear leveling issues?
Just one question: for max SSD durability and wear leveling will be better to use just half of the available size or I can dedicate the whole SSD as cache and the sw itself will take care about wear leveling issues?
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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Using half a drive does increase the drives life time(as well as speed in most cases), but most drives already have some space set aside already and some drives like OCZ's cache(synapse) drives are already set to only allow half the drive to be used. So a 60 gigabyte cache drive from OCZ actually had 128 gigabytes or flash(but you can only use the 60 gigabytes).
I would guess some other companies do something similar.
To be 100% sure you would have to contact the SSD maker to see how much over provisioning the drive has.
I used a full SSD without issues since most of the caching was rear heavy and only writes to the drive cause NAND wear.
I would guess some other companies do something similar.
To be 100% sure you would have to contact the SSD maker to see how much over provisioning the drive has.
I used a full SSD without issues since most of the caching was rear heavy and only writes to the drive cause NAND wear.
Just to give the final update.
I allocated the whole 64 GB SSD to cache after asking to MyDigitalSSD.
I noticed ExpressCache was still installed and uninstalled it. Need to say with FNet Hybridisk I didn't notice so much speed improvements.
After few days at boot my system asked to do drive integrity check of my primary HDD. I do it...wondering. This never happened before.
Today the system asked me to do it again. It's clear FNet sw does create some problem even if I used it in Enhanced mode (only read caching) and not in Maximized (also write caching). I disabled FNet Hybridisk and formatted the SSD so that can be used for different things.
Now I have a 64GB SSD and I don't know how to use it. As cache failed both using Expresscache, FNet Hybridisk or also allocating Firefox cache.
I can't reinstall there office or Windows since I have it installed from my company and didn't have installation disks.
Will try using with ReadyBoost and hope is ok.
I allocated the whole 64 GB SSD to cache after asking to MyDigitalSSD.
I noticed ExpressCache was still installed and uninstalled it. Need to say with FNet Hybridisk I didn't notice so much speed improvements.
After few days at boot my system asked to do drive integrity check of my primary HDD. I do it...wondering. This never happened before.
Today the system asked me to do it again. It's clear FNet sw does create some problem even if I used it in Enhanced mode (only read caching) and not in Maximized (also write caching). I disabled FNet Hybridisk and formatted the SSD so that can be used for different things.
Now I have a 64GB SSD and I don't know how to use it. As cache failed both using Expresscache, FNet Hybridisk or also allocating Firefox cache.
I can't reinstall there office or Windows since I have it installed from my company and didn't have installation disks.
Will try using with ReadyBoost and hope is ok.
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
- 19,626
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Did you find any errors when scandisk was running?
If you do not have too much on the system, you may be able to clone Windows over to the SSD(but you should try to get windows and programs down to 40-50 gigabytes to leave some room on the SSD).
You may also be able to shrink the hard drive partition to make another one to hold your personal files(if you are like me and have lots of files taking the majority of your space.).
If you do not have too much on the system, you may be able to clone Windows over to the SSD(but you should try to get windows and programs down to 40-50 gigabytes to leave some room on the SSD).
You may also be able to shrink the hard drive partition to make another one to hold your personal files(if you are like me and have lots of files taking the majority of your space.).
Yes the scandisk discovered many errors, fixed both times.
In fact I discovered just after my last post a new version of the SSD firmware, that can maybe fix some problems.
I installed it and re-enabled FNet Hybridisk for another try. Will see and keep posted here for news that can maybe be useful to others.
In fact I discovered just after my last post a new version of the SSD firmware, that can maybe fix some problems.
I installed it and re-enabled FNet Hybridisk for another try. Will see and keep posted here for news that can maybe be useful to others.
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
- 19,626
- 6
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If you use something like CrystalDiskInfo, you may be able to see if the drive has reported any errors.
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
Some errors can be as simple as windows loosing power or crashing. It is the actual hardware errors(bad sectors or remapped) you want to worry about.
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
Some errors can be as simple as windows loosing power or crashing. It is the actual hardware errors(bad sectors or remapped) you want to worry about.
nukemaster
Titan
- Nov 23, 2004
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I think it may be a good idea to run some tests on the hard drive(just to be sure). SSDs are a bit different as tests for hard drives do not tend to work right on SSDs
I disabile finally the FNet Hybridisk caching.
I got more chdisk request that found errors.
Also when I disable the caching I got a BSOD.
Sent the mini dump and other info to Mydigitalssd for analysis, want to know if there are anything wrong.
I got more chdisk request that found errors.
Also when I disable the caching I got a BSOD.
Sent the mini dump and other info to Mydigitalssd for analysis, want to know if there are anything wrong.
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