Intel SRT

[c0mrade]

Ok so I have a 500gb hard drive and 120gb ssd
I am not sure what I should do
Should I use the SSD as a boot drive and create a partition for Intel SRT as a cache for my hard drive where I would keep my games and such?
Should I use the SSD as a boot drive and a storage device for games?
Please share with me your opinions on what would be fastest in my case.
My hard drive is a 500gb caviar blue 7200rpm
My ssd is a sandisk ultra 120gb
I have a p8z77-v
i5-3570k @ 4.3ghz
8gb of vengeance @ 1600mhz
gtx 670
thank you!

 

[c0mrade]

also what raid configuration should I use or should i use none? I already have my sata ports in raid mode.

 

[Dereck47]

Use the SD as your boot drive. Install your most frequently played games on it and keep the rest on your HDD. When you get tired of playing a particular game copy it to your HDD and then uninstall it from your SSD to recover space.

 

[c0mrade]

Use the SD as your boot drive. Install your most frequently played games on it and keep the rest on your HDD. When you get tired of playing a particular game copy it to your HDD and then uninstall it from your SSD to recover space.

will i need a raid configuration for this?

 

[nukemaster]

I also vote to use the SSD if you can live within the 120 gig space(it is recommended to leave some free space).

SRT is a good option if you NEED that extra space. I use was using it on Win7 and it worked well for my use(but i took that SSD to play with win8).

If you use SRT, the bios has to be set to RAID mode, no arrays have to be created, that all happens in windows.

If you do use the SSD,

Move all your personal folders(desktop/docs/pics/music/vids ect) to the hard drive to save space.

Another cool thing you can do is move your full profile to the hard drive to save space. Check this post from djscribbles

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/286458-32-ssds-info-please#t1937735

Another option with the games would also be to create links to the games from the SSD to the hard drive. This way the game looks to be on the SSD but in fact the data is on the hard drive.

Junction Link Magic - http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

Junction Link Magic allows you to create a link from one drive to another. I use it to keep my most used games on a SSD while windows sees them as on the HDD. Why you may ask? Because this way, I do not have to reinstall games as far as they are concerned they have not moved. This also allows me to move games i am not playing back to the hard drive to save space on the SSD. In your case, games you are not using will move to the hard drive to save SSD space

This image has Just Cause 2 as an example. Windows 7 and 8 both share this game on my SSD, but they both see it in the steam folder.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1989/junction.png

The game is only on f:

To use this
-Copy the game folder to another drive(SSD for me).
-Empty the game folder on your main drive. The folder has to be empty for this to you.
-Use Junction Link Magic to create a junction point from the game folder to the new copied game folder.

Once done, the game runs normal and and you no longer have that game taking SSD space.

To swap back it is easy, just remove the junction and copy the game folder contents back to its original location.

You can actually do this backwards as well, Install games to the HDD(Like d:\games\) and just move what you want to play or load fast to the SSD.

Some games do not load faster on SSD, so some experimentation will help you figure what to put on each drive.

If you play with Junction Link Magic, please do not mess with the junctions/links ect it windows already has. You can mess things up real bad.

 

[c0mrade]

ok so i should use the SSD as a boot drive and then use it for SRT too?
do i need to use any raid for the hard drive and ssd or should i just leave them non-raid and keep the sata ports in raid mode?

 

[c0mrade]

I also vote to use the SSD if you can live within the 120 gig space(it is recommended to leave some free space).

SRT is a good option if you NEED that extra space. I use was using it on Win7 and it worked well for my use(but i took that SSD to play with win8).

If you use SRT, the bios has to be set to RAID mode, no arrays have to be created, that all happens in windows.

If you do use the SSD,

Move all your personal folders(desktop/docs/pics/music/vids ect) to the hard drive to save space.

Another cool thing you can do is move your full profile to the hard drive to save space. Check this post from djscribbles

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/286458-32-ssds-info-please#t1937735

Another option with the games would also be to create links to the games from the SSD to the hard drive. This way the game looks to be on the SSD but in fact the data is on the hard drive.

Junction Link Magic - http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

Junction Link Magic allows you to create a link from one drive to another. I use it to keep my most used games on a SSD while windows sees them as on the HDD. Why you may ask? Because this way, I do not have to reinstall games as far as they are concerned they have not moved. This also allows me to move games i am not playing back to the hard drive to save space on the SSD. In your case, games you are not using will move to the hard drive to save SSD space

This image has Just Cause 2 as an example. Windows 7 and 8 both share this game on my SSD, but they both see it in the steam folder.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1989/junction.png

The game is only on f:

To use this
-Copy the game folder to another drive(SSD for me).
-Empty the game folder on your main drive. The folder has to be empty for this to you.
-Use Junction Link Magic to create a junction point from the game folder to the new copied game folder.

Once done, the game runs normal and and you no longer have that game taking SSD space.

To swap back it is easy, just remove the junction and copy the game folder contents back to its original location.

You can actually do this backwards as well, Install games to the HDD(Like d:\games\) and just move what you want to play or load fast to the SSD.

Some games do not load faster on SSD, so some experimentation will help you figure what to put on each drive.

If you play with Junction Link Magic, please do not mess with the junctions/links ect it windows already has. You can mess things up real bad.

i dont care about that stuff i just need to know how i should set up the ssd and hard drive in the bios and if i should use srt or not?

 

[nukemaster]

If you want to use SRT, you will have to set the SATA mode to RAID(bios setting).

It is up to you if you want to use SRT or just use the SSD it self with the hard drive for games/files.

The reason I list how to move folders to the hard dive is so you can save space on the SSD. If you do not need more then the space of the SSD then it is faster to install windows on the SSD(Set the SATA mode to AHCI in bios)

If you need the extra space(and want to use SRT), you setup as RAID and install windows to the hard drive. Once done that install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software/driver and activate the SRT acceleration.

No one will have the BEST option for all users. It all depends on how you use the computer.

Advantage to SSD for windows.
+Fast for everything you install on it. SSD's are all about speed
Disadvantage
-Limited space

Advantage to SRT
+Lots of space
+Fast of programs/games you use often.
+If not using the fastest mode, if the SSD fails, noting is lost(but if the hard drive fails, well you are still in trouble)
Disadvantages to SRT
-Only fast on files that have been cached.
-64gig limit. So it will not cache 120gigs of stuff only about 64.

So you will have to choose what to use. Both will work for different people with different needs.

All bios settings SATA mode AHCI(SSD on its own) or RAID(SRT, but will also work with the SSD on its own) should be set BEFORE you install windows.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If you have a 120GB solid state drive, then there is no reason to use Intel SRT.

Intel's SRT caching technology was designed for buyers who could not justify or afford the cost of a larger capacity solid state drive. According to Intel, the original idea was that for about $100.00 a user could purchase a small capacity ssd of about 20GB and use it as a cache to improve hard disk drive performance. The actual improvement could not compare to a stand alone ssd. Intel also tested different capacities all the way up to 512GB and concluded 64GB was the point of diminishing return. It made more sense to use a 64GB ssd as a boot drive that also contained software programs. Intel was hoping that if business clients saw an increase in performance, then they would be induced to purchase larger capacity ssd's.

Since you have a much larger capacity ssd there is no point in fooling with SRT.

BTW - $100.00 for a 20GB ssd is a clue that SRT is an "old technology". You can buy a lot more than a 20 GB ssd for $100.00. I've read two recent articles suggesting SRT is rapidly becoming obsolete.