Cache's

[calzium]

Hello!

I recently bought a new SSD (OCZ Vertex 2 120GB)

Im wondering, since iv'e read that SSD has limited write/reads, if it's necessary to put for example my browsers cache and Spotify cache to go to my other 1TB HDD instead?

Does this even help?

Lets say the actual spotify program is installed on the SSD but i set in options>cache and change the location for the cache output to my 1tb HDD, will this be of any help? will the cache still have to go "through" my SSD (since its running from there) on its way over to the HDD or will it write Directly to the HDD?

And should i really care so much about my SSD lifetime and think about those things, or should i just use it the same way as an HDD? Ive heard that the more modern SSD's has longer lifetime and that it's not really necessary for regular users to argue about.

 

[Chainzsaw]

I have the OCZ Vertex 2 120GB you listed.

What you will want to do is take off the page file from your vertex 2 and put it on your 1TB HDD. This will help limit writes to your SSD.

Basically - the less writes you can do to your SSD - the longer it should last. Reading is no problem for SSD's.

I've never used spotify - but if it has the option to move cache locations - go ahead and do it. If it doesn't - well I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Take a look here to maximize your SSD performance:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html

It's a great article - i reccomend going through it.

 

[calzium]

Thanks for the quick answer Chainzsaw!
Oh, I don't know if it matters but i forgot to mention im running in AHCI.

What you will want to do is take off the page file from your vertex 2 and put it on your 1TB HDD. This will help limit writes to your SSD.

The page file? where do i find it and how do i move it?

I've never used spotify - but if it has the option to move cache locations - go ahead and do it. If it doesn't - well I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Spotify is an online-music program which streams music to your computer, much like Grooveshark, therefore it probably transfers alot of data when downloading songs. I have an option to change the cache location in spotify. But since spotify is running from the SSD im worried it might still pass the files through the SSD first before going to the HDD cache location? I don't know much about how programs and memory works togheter.

But as you said, eitherway it's probably not a big problem, but changing that page file is something I want to try!

 

[Chainzsaw]

Ok im assuming you have windows 7 -

Go to:

The run command:

Type in :

Advanced System settings

Click on it

Click on the Advanced tab if its not already clicked - now click on "Settings" under "Performance"

Select "Advanced" Now click on "Change" under virtual memory.

I would unselect your SSD drive - and select "System managed size" for your 1TB HDD.

Also - when you install Spotify - I belive you can change the default install directory-

So when you install it - it should give you advanced options - change from your C:\ drive to your D:\ drive (if your D drive is your 1TB HDD). This should help lessen writes to your SSD.

You should be able to do the custom install on most programs/applications.

 

[calzium]

Spotify doesn't give the custom install options when you run the installer. It always installs to Appdata>Roaming>Spotify. There might be a way to change this but I have failed to find one.

If I change the virtual memory/page file as you described, will this affect how fast windows 7 runs?, what programs does the virtual memory affect?

According to windows, under the virtual memory section in the Advanced tab, virtual memory is "an area on the hard disk that Windows uses as if it were RAM."
Do I even need to have this turned on, on any drive, when I have decent "real" RAM (6gb)?

Thanks again!

 

[Chainzsaw]

The virtual memory (also known as page file and vice versa) is used to store recently used program data and OS files. It's basically used if you run out of RAM (not completely though) - or if some program requires extra data space (say for example MS Word). It's kind of like a browsers cache - except for the Operating System.

As long as you have a decent amount of RAM it shouldn't affect much at all in terms of boot up speed - BTW how much RAM do you have?

One thing you can do - try the page file on your SSD - if you like it you can keep it there, if not try the page file on the HDD.

I like to keep the pagefile off my SSD to lessen the "load" on my SSD since i have 2 drives in my laptop and have lots of ram (8GB).

And no problem for the quick answer - I still have trouble with those Quote messages so I didn't bother lol.

 

[calzium]

Ok thanks
I have 6GB ram

That answered alot of my questions. So the virtual memory is ONLY Temporary files? Important files and Drivers are not located there and so on?

Im wondering this because I had BIG trouble installing windows with AHCI turned on. When I finally got it working, maybe because of sheer luck and some Intel rapid storage drivers on a USB stick (and the 1TB HDD plugged out before installation) i noticed i had 2 partitions when i came to this part of the install:
http://www.recipester.org/images/thumb/f/f6/Setup_windows_7_in_vmware_6.gif/600px-Setup_windows_7_in_vmware_6.gif
-The screenshot was not taken by me

One was my Disk 0 unallocated space (the SSD)

and the other one was something called "System Reserved memory" - it had 75Mb out of 100Mb - My guesses are, its the AHCI drivers? (correct me if im wrong)

Maybe I have just mixed them up in my head but, even though you just put a good explanation of the virtual memory, I need to know it has nothing to do with the System Reserved memory or any other seemingly important function for my SSD to be able to work like normal?

 

[Chainzsaw]

Virtual memory has nothing to do with the system reserved memory - I believe all Windows 7 installations have this.

Also no important files or drivers are located on the virtual memory UNLESS you are doing some windows updates - then I believe there are residual files left on the Virtual memory until you restart.


As for AHCI - it is a low level interface that allows more advanced functions than previous interfaces (IDE) so it pretty much "skips" all of the OS stuff besides actually transferring the data to and from the HDD. It allows things like NCQ and other stuff.

From wikipedia (what is NCQ you ask?):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing

I might not be able to reply for a while after this post FYI.

 

[calzium]

Okey thank you once again

I understand I have been asking many questions and thank you for taking the time to answer them, I am a complete rookie on hardware and especially SSD's, so thank you for bearing with me.

If you have the time to answer, I have one single question left which I got when reading:

Also no important files or drivers are located on the virtual memory UNLESS you are doing some windows updates - then I believe there are residual files left on the Virtual memory until you restart.

If I choose to have a Virtual memory ONLY on the 1TB HDD and I decide to update through windows update, will the updates still find their way back to the SSD drive? or will they actually get installed on the same drive as the virtual memory is located on?

 

[Chainzsaw]

If I choose to have a Virtual memory ONLY on the 1TB HDD and I decide to update through windows update, will the updates still find their way back to the SSD drive? or will they actually get installed on the same drive as the virtual memory is located on?

When you use windows update - It just goes on the same drive as the one your OS is on - the virtual memory will have no bearing on where your windows updates will go. Your OS may use some virtual memory to do the actual installations (expanding the compressed files and extracting them) - but the installation will go on you OS drive (your SSD).

 

[RetiredChief]

Your SSD should have two partitions on it. A small 100 MB system partition and then the one for your Operating + programs. Leave the 100 MB sytem partition alone. The ONLY exception is if you get an error message when using windows 7 BU to create a image of your boot drive. I had to delete a file in there (not a common problem).

On page file. Your choice, but I would set the Min and the max to the Same Value. With 6 gigs of ram, try a 1 gig (1024 mb) size. If you ever get an "out of memory" error, simply increase the size.

 

[calzium]

Thank you for the replies, I think I got it all now, so no more questions

I will also check out that guide you linked on how to optimize.

 

[RetiredChief]

Two biggys on optimization.
(1) disable Hybernation.
(2) Manage the amount of restore space. A single restore point is small, but over time they can add up.

 

[calzium]

Will'do!

 

[Chainzsaw]

Thank you for the replies, I think I got it all now, so no more questions

I will also check out that guide you linked on how to optimize.

No problem - glad to have helped out. Yeah I reccomend going through the whole guide - it's great.

There are others out on the web - but this one was the easiest to find and is in a nice format (and easy to understand).

Also read retiredchief's comment - sometimes people wonder where some of their space goes to (say you lose 8GB of space out of "nowhere") - and those are partially why.