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The recent reviews that have appeared on the Z68 chipset have had me thinking about drive caching, and specifically (since I don't have a Z68 mobo), software/OS implementations of it.
Readyboost came to mine.
Now, I haven't given it much thought in the past, as I have SSDs in my system. In an implementation that I'm sure is pretty common, I have a modest size SSD for my system drive (90gb for OS and key applications), and a much larger HDD spinner for my media files and games (Steam library is, like, 300gb in size). I'd long seen advice that "Windows 7 disables Readyboost if you have an SSD in your box".
Except I've noticed two things, recently:
1) Windows 7 *doesn't* disable Readyboost outright just because an SSD is present
2) I noticed a more specific quote, that "Windows 7 disables ReadyBoost when reading from an SSD drive" (emphasis mine)
Does this mean that if I had, say, a pair of 2gb Readyboost-able USB drives in the system, that Windows WOULD actually use it, but would essentially use it only for caching data on the spinning platter drive?
Further - curiously - I've noted since putting a few smaller SSDs in the system, that Windows 7 actually asks if you want to use these non-system SSD drives as Readyboost drives. Reading up on that, Microsoft appears to support that use case, although will only use up to 4gb of any drive...so it's kinda a waste. But...a thought.
The long and short of it is - I *have* my OS on an SSD already. I have a spinning platter drive for stuff too big for the SSD, but I'd like to optimize the load times of the small portion of that drive that represents 'whatever my interests are at the moment', without having to manually manage copying stuff to the SSD and setting up path links or virtual directories. Having something else manage the caching of this (like the Z68 does) seems like it'd be a pretty ideal solution, even if the performance gain wouldn't be as GREAT.
Readyboost came to mine.
Now, I haven't given it much thought in the past, as I have SSDs in my system. In an implementation that I'm sure is pretty common, I have a modest size SSD for my system drive (90gb for OS and key applications), and a much larger HDD spinner for my media files and games (Steam library is, like, 300gb in size). I'd long seen advice that "Windows 7 disables Readyboost if you have an SSD in your box".
Except I've noticed two things, recently:
1) Windows 7 *doesn't* disable Readyboost outright just because an SSD is present
2) I noticed a more specific quote, that "Windows 7 disables ReadyBoost when reading from an SSD drive" (emphasis mine)
Does this mean that if I had, say, a pair of 2gb Readyboost-able USB drives in the system, that Windows WOULD actually use it, but would essentially use it only for caching data on the spinning platter drive?
Further - curiously - I've noted since putting a few smaller SSDs in the system, that Windows 7 actually asks if you want to use these non-system SSD drives as Readyboost drives. Reading up on that, Microsoft appears to support that use case, although will only use up to 4gb of any drive...so it's kinda a waste. But...a thought.
The long and short of it is - I *have* my OS on an SSD already. I have a spinning platter drive for stuff too big for the SSD, but I'd like to optimize the load times of the small portion of that drive that represents 'whatever my interests are at the moment', without having to manually manage copying stuff to the SSD and setting up path links or virtual directories. Having something else manage the caching of this (like the Z68 does) seems like it'd be a pretty ideal solution, even if the performance gain wouldn't be as GREAT.