10 replies to this topic

[Magz]

Hi All,

 

Apologies if others have already discovered these, they're not new but anyway...

 

I have a couple of 3 year old PCs with big (1TB+) hard drives in them. Like all PCs, over time they've slowed and slowed. I'd have liked to swap the drives for SSDs to boost performance but to get even half the storage is a few hundred quid.

 

I came across these in a PC we were setting up for work...

 

http://www.amazon.co...x/dp/B007C1EH3G

 

Basically, it's just a small 50GB SSD and a bit of software. The software converts the SSD into a cache drive and puts all the stuff you use a lot (EG windows files, applications etc) into the cache. Once it's worked it all out (took a few boots) I had a night and day performance boost.

 

Old PC config - Bootup to logon prompt was about 2 mins. Now about 1 min tops.

Old PC config - Open IE and create 5 tabs was about 60 seconds. Now almost immediate.

 

Anyhoo, before this turns into a total sales pitch (if it hasn't already) I'll leave it there, but worth a look if you have £70 to spare and want a big PC speed boost!

[IHartwell]

Seen these before (and more expensive) and been tempted but my case already has 2 drives running in raid and not sure if I would have space for another drive.

Now that someone recommends them I might take a second look

[Magz]

Cool, although not 100% sure they'll run against a Raided disk set - probably worth checking that first .

 

In terms of fitting it, it's pretty small, even with the bracket so it can be screwed to almost anywhere in the case (as long as you have space and power will reach...

[Bencrest]

Rather than bothering with cache drives, I'd suggest people grab a 120-128GB SSD (typically about £70 these days), or a 240-256GB SSD (typically about £100) and stick their operating system and any frequently used apps on it, games too if you have the room

[saynowt]

when mine starts to go slow i format the lot and start again from scratch i do it twice a year half a day each time and bobs yer auntie

[nails]

bencrest is right, forget the cache and just buy/use a boot drive.

 

ive got a nice 4x2tb drives but bootup with a 120gb revodrive3, some 900mb/sec., though to be honest im sure 1xssd would be just as great. coincidently, my motherboard supports intel ssd rapid response technology like yours (except this is hardware) and has an mSATA port onboard, but since the drive is some 3x faster than the actual sata port i didnt bother.

[policematrix]

for £70 you can get a  Black Edition - Quad Core AMD FX 3.6 GHz Processor 

you can also use any usb stick (has to be a certain size) and windows has a feature called boost , it asks you on inserting a relevant stick  , it boosts windows operations but does not help with stuff like games 

Edited by policematrix, 09 June 2013 - 09:23 AM.

[Magz]

If you can be bothered with all the hassle I agree that using an SSD for the main drive is obviously better. However, if re-setting up your PC is a massive pain (as it would have been for mine - about 40 custom apps installed and a complicated internal network) then having added the cache drive has had  a great result in performance terms.

 

When I finally have to replace the box in a couple of years or so, then SSD will likely be the only drives you can get but for now this option makes a lot of sense:

 

Option 1 - Install the cache drive and software. Took me about 20 mins.

Option 2 - Reinstall the whole PC from scratch, reset the internal network to recognise and correctly share all the videos etc on internal network, reinstall 40+ apps - about 2-3 days of work.

Option 3 - Buy an expensive large SSD and image off / image on the drive. About 2-3 hours (although most of that is the imaging process which can be left). Not a bad option, but I didn't want to spend the cash on the drive at this point. Especially as they're dropping in price every week...

 

Horses for courses, but I think the cache drive option is worth considering if you don't have the time / inclination to go through lengthy rebuilds.

[nails]

i think its easier really, remove all video/music and pictures from the boot drive and then image that to the SSD - job done.

[Magz]

Ah, if only it was Nails but sadly I've got a bunch of other stuff on there that's a pain to move as it's referenced elsewhere on my setup. To be honest though the performance boost I have is more than enough. I was expecting things to be sort of a bit better but if I didn't know I'd be certain I was actually running from an SSD...