HDD/SSD+Optane as Readyboost/Readyboot drive...!?

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Logic-Elliven

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Apr 29, 2017
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10,510
Theres an option being overlooked by Microsoft and by all benchmarkers: Readyboost/Readyboot:
Readyboost speeded up HDDS because USB Flash had a very low 'seek time'.

ie: A lot of the small but all important to performance 4K files could be read from the flash in the ~ 13ms seek time difference between the two.
On top of that having the hard drive not having to seek a whole lot of 4K files but concentrate on larger files at the same time as 4K info was being read from the flash drive acted as a kind of optimised RAID 0..!

Now I see the ~same advantages being possible from using an Optane drive as a readyboost drive:
~RAID 0 with the size of the files stored on each drive optimised to the drive's strengths...!?

Not only that; when Windows sees the Readyboost drive as fixed it does not reload the cache on boot but keeps it to speed up the next boot.... aka; Readyboot and a great speedup in boot times.

What's surprising is that both Intel and Microsoft haven't woken up, wiped the * out of their eyes and realised this yet.
(When they do they will claim it was their idea as usual)

Info on overriding MS's Readyboost settings, to test this:
https://hatsoffsecurity.com/2015/05/31/force-enabling-readyboost-windows-78/

For other good review ideas; contact me! :)


<Language, please.
Thanks>
 
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Logic-Elliven

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Apr 29, 2017
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Another way of looking at this:

Readyboost filters small (~4K), random, oft used files onto media with lower latency than the main drive.
The 2 drives then read/write files they are better faster handling at the same time.
ie: A sort of optimised for drive characteristics, RAID 0...

Now look at the random 4K performance of read performance versus SATA SSDs and even NVME SSDs:
https://www.google.co.za/search?q=optane+4k+random+write&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwib_bSaqNHTAhWqB8AKHdxABmcQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1536&bih=798#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=optane+4k+random+versus+sata+ssd&imgrc=_
Writes are not as impressive as random writes go into the DRAM cache on the SSDs, but:
This info can be lost in a power outage, so safer.
The low write speeds are only valid until the DRAM cache is full.
There should be an increase in SSD life as info is written to flash in 2-4 MB blocks nowadays.

I think its worth testing to see if Readyboost does a better job than Intel's RST due to this filtering/Optimised RAID 0..?
 
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Logic-Elliven

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Apr 29, 2017
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10,510
I have and do.

You must remember that flash drives aren't all created equal and some are much faster than others, and then there's USB 2, 3, 3.1
Secondly flash is read in pages and written in blocks.
IIRC a Page is 8-16 KB and the are 128-256 pages per 1024-4096 KB block.
ie a LOT of reading and rewriting to change just1 bit...
But my point is; its VERY important to properly align a flash drive if you repartition it, or you end up with write amplification and read/write speeds far below what you got with the factory partition.
An app called Bootice is about the best at this if you tick all the right boxes and choose a cluster size that matches the page size, improving read/write speed a lot!

Also; in order to get the large file size required by Readyboost, to get the optimal readyboost file size (2.5x + RAM size) it is best to use exFAT. FAT32 has a max file size of 4096KB.

Readyboost acts as a kind of RAID 0 with the flash drive and the HDD as a pair.
But the files are filtered with the small, oft used files cached on the flash drive.
As a HDD takes ~12ms just to start reading a file; a flash drive, with a seek time of 0.1ms can send a lot of small files while the HDD is still seeking...
Also the HDD is now freed up to seek and read only the large, sequential files it is good at, and at the same time as the flash is sending all the small blocks.

Now that the lesson in Readyboost theory and drive preparation is over; you have missed the point completely! :)
An Optane drive is orders of magnitude faster than a USB flash drive, but excels at reading those same small, random files.
If paired with a SATA SSD, or even and NVME SSD, which, like a faster HDD, is better at large sequential files, one should see great benefit.

I don't think/know that the fact that the code to best take advantage of Optane's strengths already exists in Readyboost has occurred to Intel..?
It certainly seems to be going right over everyone else's heads too..?
 
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thomashorst70

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Jan 28, 2018
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Inspired by your suggestion I have tried using a "32GB-Optane Memory Modul" as Readyboost cache.

First, making this thing work in my old machine (X58 Mainboard, Gulftown CPU, no NVME slot) was a bit tricky, but i got it working on one of my PCIE 2.0 Slots with an increased bus speed of 110MHz.

Second, my Windows 7 Ultimate refuses to use the cache, because of "no performance gain".
After a nightmare with these registry tweaks, I had it running until restart. Additional tweaks screw up my Windows. It won't boot anymore BSOD: "Windows cannot access the boot device ...".

So I switched to PrimoCache and the results are very satisfying.

2x MX100 SATA2 Raid0:
http://genesis-web.de/pics/2x%20MX100%20SATA2%20Raid0.jpg

2x MX100 SATA2 Raid0 - optane cached:
http://genesis-web.de/pics/2x%20MX100%20SATA2%20Raid0%20-%20optane%20cached.jpg
 
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CharlieLwallace

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May 31, 2017
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*Lots* of folks have PCs with Thunderbolt 3 ports. And you can buy external M.2 enclosures that use TB3, like the NA611TB3 made by Netstor. Seems like Optane M.2's should work externally this way, right? And TB3 should be fast enough to not get in the way, I hope. Would ReadyBoost or PrimoCache work this way? Makes this available to a lot of people!
See my other post here http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3719401/external-optane-thunderbolt-port-super-accelerate-win10-readyboost.html#21032098
 
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