MSata SSD (Smart Response) Combo with SSD or Harddisk

stephanisk

Distinguished
Nov 11, 2011
33
0
18,530
Hello,


I am wondering whether it would improve system capability and speed using an mSata SSD on the Gigabyte Z68 motherboard with Smart Respone in combination with an SSD harddrive over a regular 7200 rpm Harddisk?


Secondly i am wondering whether i should appoint all 60 Gb of the mSata disk to caching for the Smart Response or use only 20GB for caching and run the other 40 GB as a harddisk. ( Or is this not possible? :non: )

I am actually installing this piece of equipment and want to know how to push for the maximum on hard disk improvement and using the Z68 motherboard as good as possible.

Thanks a lot
 
The best result would be from installing your OS on an SSD. If I read your post correctly, you are considering having both a Smart Response cache SSD and a system SSD. I believe that this would be a waste; the cache SSD would simply cache stuff that's already on an SSD!

Slowest: Really good harddrive. I have a 10K Velociraptor.
Medium: Really good harddrive, with an SSD of up to 60 GB using Smart Response.
Fastest: Bigger SSD with the OS installed on it, plus any huge data files that require massive IO access (think database or HD video editing).
Unreal: 1 TB of DDR3 RAM in a box, with battery backup, presented to your PC as a hard drive through a PCI Express x16 connection.
 

stephanisk

Distinguished
Nov 11, 2011
33
0
18,530
lol :bounce: Especially the unreal solution is worth a look at budget wise, i'll think i'll go for that.

Back to the world of dreams: :(

The fastest solution requires anyway a too costly solution, that is why i would go for the medium solution and if possible split this SSD of 60 GB up in 30 Gb for caching and 30 Gb of SSD harddrive, only i don't know if that is possible and if that would interfere with the Smart Response, this way i would have 30 Gb for most common used files (games) to be on a SSD drive and for the rest the Smart Response would be able to do what it does best.

What you think?

 

stephanisk

Distinguished
Nov 11, 2011
33
0
18,530
I think you are right, i have been googling this and indeed a complete disk seems to outrun the Smart Response.

I am gonna try to find a 30GB msata drive to fasten my original harddisks and secondly going to look for an affordable SSD harddisk of 120 or more GB.

Any idea how this would interact with an msata drive active as Smart Response tool once an SSD drive is the system disk?

Thanks a lot for your input anyhow, seems to be more like a private chat ;) but anyway works just as fine :D

 

stephanisk

Distinguished
Nov 11, 2011
33
0
18,530
I am gonna have a look for info on mixing those ssd and hdd.

Anybody else has an insight into this matter? mixed SSD and HDD with Smart response tech from intel (msata 30Gb for caching)

 
Feb 22, 2012
1
0
10,510



From my own googles, the verdict is that an SLC-Nand flash unit should be used for caching and an MLC-Nand flash unit should be used as a drive. So far all of the MSATA drives, I've seen are MLC-Nand like the SATA3 SSDs.
Also most MOBs I've seen state that if you enable mSATA by installing a drive, you disable one SATA3 port. My guess here is that both the SATA3 and mSATA take the same basic route on the motherboard so the latencies are the same.
Also there is a big difference in speed between the various SATA3 SSD products, and much of that centers around the firmware. The mSATA devices seem completely out of touch with this type of optimization.
Then there's the funky plug factor where you're stuck with a device (mSATA) that won't be plug compatible with future standard "L" plug SATA ports.
 

JJMuggs

Honorable
May 6, 2012
1
0
10,510
 

orbeavhawk

Honorable
Dec 1, 2012
5
0
10,510


My 1st 'puter build; bought a 500GB Velociraptor for main HDD; read about these "new" SSD's and how you can use a smaller one [cheaper] to work with and spped up your regular HDD etc........then found these new Intell Z77 mobos some with MSATA on board and a install place for one.............IF I bought a 60GB or smaller SSD to put on one of these mobos combined with my WD Vel. HDD,,,,,,,,how would I set it up - OR - is there a built in setup in the BIOS or something that enables them to work together happily and SPEED things as much as possible?
2) Could I still benefit just starting with my WD Vel. HDD putting my OS etc. on it and then later as I could afford it - purchase and install the mSATA SSD and still have all the best of both worlds? OR does the OS need to be on the SSD?

Thanks michael