Crucial Announces Adrenaline SSD Cache Drive

The Crucial Adrenaline Solid State Cache Solution comprises of a 50GB Crucial m4 SSD, a 3.5" adapter bracket, and caching software. When paired with another drive (more commonly used with a HDD), Adrenaline intelligently places, or caches, the most frequently needed files on the SSD and keeps less frequently used files on the hard drive. This allows for users to have best of both worlds: SSD-like performance with the high capacity offered by a traditional hard drive. Crucial has not released pricing or performance expectation for this drive but is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

"Many PC users are reluctant to give up their high-capacity hard drives for the performance of a solid state drive," said Robert Wheadon, worldwide senior product manager, Crucial. "Crucial Adrenaline offers these consumers an affordable bridge between hard drives and solid state drives, so they won't be forced to choose capacity over performance, or vice versa."

The Crucial Adrenaline SSD Cache drive will be backed by a limited three-year warranty and is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2012.

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hippee921 6 years ago

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!

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lahawzel 6 years ago

What...what is the point of this? Can't people just buy a 64GB Crucial M4 and cache with that?
JohnnyLucky 6 years ago

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?
digitalzom-b 6 years ago

This is odd... is the point to turn some of the pagefile into cache?
hippee921 6 years ago

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!
jessterman21 6 years ago

This is AMAZING - and saves the hassle of cloning. I'm getting one as soon as they're out!
CaedenV 6 years ago

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

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?
greenrider02 6 years ago

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...
computernerdforlife 6 years ago

You're a middleware.

But really, buy a good flash drive and forget about it. Enjoy gaming/computing this weekend folks!
Mathos 6 years ago

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.
freggo 6 years ago

Why would I not use a 60GB drive as the OS drive instead ? That should give me more boost than a 'cache' drive.
darkrydr3 6 years ago

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
damianrobertjones 6 years ago

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

?
Anonymous 6 years ago

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.
darkrydr3 6 years ago

Quote:

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. 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.

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.
a4mula 6 years ago

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.
elbert 6 years ago

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.
Delengowski 6 years ago

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?
jessterman21 6 years ago

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.
Shin-san 6 years ago

It would be good at the right price. I can see working well with a 1+ TB hard drive dedicated to gaming.
Supertrek32 6 years ago

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.

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