SSD Boot Drive + HDD still utilize SSD Caching?

[Rozerum]

Hello everybody,

I've already purchased a OCZ Vertex 3 120gb SSD, and I'm going to be keeping my old HDD as storage. Now I'm looking at what Mobo to pair with the I5 2500k I plan on buying.

Basically I'm wondering if I can use the SSD as the main drive (OS + vital apps), but dedicate say 20-30gb of the SSD to caching for the HDD, or if the HDD HAS to be the main drive to take advantage of the caching from a Z68 board.

Anybody have any insight on this? Thanks in advance!

 

[itzdanielp]

The Z68 Chipset supports HDD Caching via SSD. I would suggest Asus or Gigabyte brands.

 

[Rozerum]

Yes, however my question was more to HOW that caching can be used. Under every configuration I have read about, the HDD is still the Main source of storage, with the SSD simply used as a go-between to increase performance.

My question was if the SSD can be the main storage, and just use a small partition of it for caching the HDD as the secondary storage.

 

[itzdanielp]

You can partition the drive, and set 1 partition as a boot drive, and 1 partition as the cache.

 

[itzdanielp]

Or get a >100GB boot / program drive, and a small <32GB drive for caching.

 

[jaquith]

Hello everybody,

I've already purchased a OCZ Vertex 3 120gb SSD...Basically I'm wondering if I can use the SSD as the main drive (OS + vital apps), but dedicate say 20-30gb of the SSD to caching for the HDD, or if the HDD HAS to be the main drive to take advantage of the caching from a Z68 board.

Anybody have any insight on this? Thanks in advance!

Yes it can be done, but it's nothing I would do or recommend. Reason, SSD Caching only accelerates 'Frequently Used' data aka (repeat use) so if it's going to be 'Frequently Used' then just have it on the SSD and leave the additional space on the already >small< SSD. Further, partitioning you'll lose a few GB of storage capacity which also adds to my 'Don't do it' advice.

SSD Caching financially makes little sense and 120GB is about as small a SSD as I recommend anyway and in (1) piece.

 

[Rozerum]

Ok, thanks for the replies.

So I should probably stick to a P67 board then?

 

[jaquith]

I find the P67 is the better gaming MOBO and has faster, overall, SATA & USB.

On the cheap, the following are all very good and offer low vCore:
Z68 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
P67 ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) or P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) ; the differences are the USB 3.0 chipset

edit: see -> http://www.anandtech.com/show/4330/asus-p8z68v-review/5

 

[Rozerum]

Best answer selected by Rozerum.