Crucial Announces Adrenaline SSD Cache Drive

What...what is the point of this? Can't people just buy a 64GB Crucial M4 and cache with that?

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that just about any solid state drive could be used for a cache. What makes the new Crucial ssd a cache drive? Does including a software cache application allow an ssd to be labelled as a cache drive? Is it another example of creative marketing?

This is odd... is the point to turn some of the pagefile into cache?

No you typically can't link the SSD directly to another HDD. this is stating that it becomes 1 virtual drive. you really make this in to a kickass version of a Seagate Momentus XT, but instead of a 4gig SSD Cache, you get a 50gig cache. You also dont have to worry about where and what things are being stored on one drive vs. the other. I think this is Awesome! Tom's PLEASE do a review on this when it comes out and put it up against a normal SSD, a Hybrid and standard 7200rpm!

This is AMAZING - and saves the hassle of cloning. I'm getting one as soon as they're out!

There are already ways to "cache" frequently used files onto another disk, and leave 'tracer' files on the original disk so when those files are read from disk, it'll still appear that those files are on one disk, but are actually on a different disk. Many people use this method when using Ram Disks.

But if they're packaging this with software that does this automatically on the fly, they'll have an awesome product for us.

Edit: Here's an explanation for how this works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

You could, I am assuming this (like other dedicated cache drives) has a faster IOPS rating than the standard drives. Also, the 50GB means that there will be more error recovery, and longer life span for the higher demands of caching vs regular system drive use (more reads/writes on a cache drive than a system drive).

Toms, does the inclusion of software mean that this will work with any chipset? Or is it still tied to z68 boards?

This is not any different from getting any other SSD and using free software to set it up as a cache.

So this product is for people who can't manage that terribly difficult task...

If they price it competitively, then they've effectively cut out the middleware. I'm all for that.

You're a middleware.

But really, buy a good flash drive and forget about it. Enjoy gaming/computing this weekend folks!

I think most ssd's can be used as cache drives, but they require external software to do the work of intelligent caching. This sounds more like what the Momentus XT does with built in firmware, and uses the software to make the 2 drives into 1.

Why would I not use a 60GB drive as the OS drive instead ? That should give me more boost than a 'cache' drive.

The article says that the drive includes software for caching. As far as I know, caching is only available on Z68 chipsets with Intel SRT. So I guess this would work better for mainstream users without all the custom-built PCs. Nothing wrong with more SSDs

Or... obviously... slap the OS onto an SSD and everything else on the standard hard drive.

?

Why don't manufacturers just stop charging so much for something that is made in china anyway? They make everything for next to nothing then stick it to the buyer. Yes I am exaggerating a bit but companies really do need to stop being greedy and just sell the drives for a better price. Look at the price of ddr3 memory and then look at the price of ssd drives? No excuse can just explain it all away other than greed. The military shouldn't be the only entity that can afford 2tb of ssd that is just as dumb as saying only the five richest kings in the world could afford a computer when they first came out.

Cuz u don't know what u'r talking about!

2TB of SSD would cost A LOT less than 2TB of ram, just saying...
But of course that is only if you price per GB, good thing they don't!
Remember when they used to stick RAM sticks onto a PCI adapter a few years back, you would get MAYBE 8GB of ram for hundreds of dollars. Now they have the OCZ Revo drives that are way more reliable and affordable per GB.

Because like the OCZ Synapse Cache drive that is already out, this can be used on any system. SRT is limited to only the Z68 platform. Also unlike a typical boot SSD that needs to be configured out of the gate, cache SSD can be added to already existing system without having to clone anything.

The downside is that these drives are MLC and the very nature of caching means a ton of writes back and forth which is not very healthy for nand flash. OCZ went so far as to disable half of their cache drives size for redundant shadowing. Apparently Crucial isn't as concerned about this.

You can already find reviews of the Synapse out there. It's quite impressive that a single 32GB cache can give your entire HDD SDD type performance.

Personally for me, I still think Intel's 20GB SLC + SRT is the way to go for caching, but again if you don't own Z68 or if you have an existing system and just want to add the speed of SSDs without the troubles of reinstalling or cloning these are great options.

Seems OK but does it work with PATA? Why doesn't it daisy chain to the SATA HD? Taking up 2 SATA connections isn't good. I would just go with a 4M 64GB as you give up 2 SATA either way.

If I'm already using a SSD for boot and program, and have two HDD raided in 0. Can I add one of these to the two HDD and make them even faster?

Crucial says it will work with any drive and mobo. The software converts the SSD into a cache for your HDD and the OS recognizes them as one drive.

It would be good at the right price. I can see working well with a 1+ TB hard drive dedicated to gaming.

This let's you be a bit more lazy, but I'd imagine you'll get more speed for less money by just using a 128GB SSD for a boot drive and moving your music/movies to a storage HDD. I can't say that I regularly use more programs that I could fit on a 128 drive. When you beat a game/move on to the next one, you can just uninstall, or simply move the game over to the other drive.

Is this an MLC or SLC drive? I hope it's priced better than intel's 20GB 311...

why not just sell the software to work on any ssd.

Its mystery for me, why Toms is not commenting on OCZ Synapse line /64 and 128GB/ - its out 4 months already, can be deployed on working W7 system and has speed of common Sandforce drives. I think thats pretty awesome to have 500Mb speed cached for your 1TB HDD. As many of us readers are Steam players, astronomical price for 512GB SSD is major drawback how to have superspeed Steam games loading times. Or maybe only WoW/Rift/BF3 to have on small boot SSD and rest of Steam native games on big 1 TB, or use some pre-linking software to move just actual/played games on SSD and make links into Steam directory? I solved this completly by using OCZ Synapse cache drive. Of course I was mad at sandforce problems /i do have Gigabyte Z68 board/ - experianced maybe all kind of BSOD average enthusias can handle... /10x reinstalled W7/ ...lol... but finaly I moved OCZ to Marvell 6GB port and did Secure erase on SSD and now I am happy user of this caching technology. And still no review or recommendation in Toms SSD best buys. Just asking - do you think that this technology is not reliable to recommend it ?

We did talk about the OCZ Synapse when it was released... http://www.tomshardware.com/news/O [...] 13488.html

There is already a very good program that uses any of your ssd drives as cache, maybe its worth taking a look at http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us [...] ndex.html.
I used it since 0.50 version with no problems so far.