Primocache with windows fake raid issues?

[Lord Flashheart]

Hi all
I use the Primocache software to speed things up a little.

It is very useful caching software for windows.

I am looking to maybe upgrade from a B450 to B550 motherboard for various reasons.
My present NVme is a 256 GB Adata SX 8200 Pro.
It is a dual boot setup with linux.

So for the new planned boot setup, get another SSD of the same model.
One boots linux, the other boots Windows 10.
Partitions for both swap and pagefile will be on the opposite drives.

The leftover space is the interesting part.

So maybe a very fast raid 0 for use with primocache as a cache partition.
I will need to setup a windows dynamic disk for that.

The question is will it degrade the performance when using as a cache.

There is the other option to use two cache drives.

Which will be better in performance?

Nothing has purchased yet and just looking at my options.

Useful information is definitely appreciated.

Ill informed BS not so much.

Thank you.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Buy a better ssd. Don't use software to help with drive setup or performances. Don't use raid, it's needless on consumer systems.

Raid isn't even worth it unless doing for redundancy reasons, such as raid 5 or 10.

If you raid any ssd, it will lose TRIM feature which is very bad to do.

[Lord Flashheart]

引用自 Bad 💀 Motha：

Buy a better ssd. Don't use software to help with drive setup or performances. Don't use raid, it's needless on consumer systems.

Raid isn't even worth it unless doing for redundancy reasons, such as raid 5 or 10.

If you raid any ssd, it will lose TRIM feature which is very bad to do.

It is not fake hardware raid but windows 'fake raid'' as in a dynamic striped drive using partitions from two NMVE drives.. I should have been more clear about that.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's better to maybe get 64gb of ram and use RamDrive

[Carlsberg]

As I understand primocache it gives you speeds like ssd at the risk of losing your data in the event of a system crash, and it prolongs the life of an ssd. I don't see the benefit, ssd's are relatively cheap and can last a few years and if the speed increase is nil then all your really getting is the risk of losing data. Makes the whole excercise pretty pointless imo?

not a bs answer, just an opinion from the little i know.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Raid of any kind with an ssd and the OS is fairly dumb idea. Use one ssd for OS + Apps. Use another SSD for Games

[_I_]

or get an optane drive if the board supports it
but even those are rarely worth it as random reads will still be limited by the source drive

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Optaine is just a ssd for caching. Won't be nearly as fast as RamCache. Plus Optaine isn't an option for AMD users. RAM DISK type apps can be very useful and flexable. Just need a little time to get used to using it and you will want alot of ram installed in order to make better use of it.

[Lord Flashheart]

Does anyone who actually uses Primocache have any useful information?

[xSOSxHawkens]

引用自 Mamba Bajamba：

Does anyone who actually uses Primocache have any useful information?

Primocahe user for multiple years here.

First question is are you using any mechanical HDD? That is where primocahe shines the most.

Though you *can* accelerate an SSD the impact is minimal, specialy when speaking of using an NVMe cache on an NVMe drive.

If you want to speed up access to a system thats all NVMe using primocache the answer is not to RAID the drives its to get more RAM and dedicate it as L1 cache.

But, if you have HDD in the system then yes, you woulc (probably) stripe out a pair of paritiions and then use the compbined stipe-array as the L2 cache for the HDD array.

On my secondary rig I have the HDD's backed by 14GB Ram and 58GB NVMe for a total of 72GB cache space in an L1/L2 config backing the drives.

In my third rate its just 14GB Ram with no SSD cache.

Planning to buy a third license soon as I just added a RAID-0 4TB array of 2x2TB HDD and want to back that with cache, but am on the fence as I already get better than 200MB/s write and 400MB/s reads, and already run extra risk with the RAID-0 so I am not sure if I want to add a cache on top of that, likely will be read only.

[Lord Flashheart]

引用自 xSOSxHawkens：

引用自 Mamba Bajamba：

Does anyone who actually uses Primocache have any useful information?

Primocahe user for multiple years here.

First question is are you using any mechanical HDD? That is where primocahe shines the most.

Though you *can* accelerate an SSD the impact is minimal, specialy when speaking of using an NVMe cache on an NVMe drive.

If you want to speed up access to a system thats all NVMe using primocache the answer is not to RAID the drives its to get more RAM and dedicate it as L1 cache.

But, if you have HDD in the system then yes, you woulc (probably) stripe out a pair of paritiions and then use the compbined stipe-array as the L2 cache for the HDD array.

On my secondary rig I have the HDD's backed by 14GB Ram and 58GB NVMe for a total of 72GB cache space in an L1/L2 config backing the drives.

In my third rate its just 14GB Ram with no SSD cache.

Planning to buy a third license soon as I just added a RAID-0 4TB array of 2x2TB HDD and want to back that with cache, but am on the fence as I already get better than 200MB/s write and 400MB/s reads, and already run extra risk with the RAID-0 so I am not sure if I want to add a cache on top of that, likely will be read only.

Thanks for the reply.

I have used primocache for a few years.
Previously it was sata SSDs as a cache for mechanical drives.

presently I have 4 1 TB sats SSds in windows raid 0 cached with 100GB NVme partition.
I am using it because I have the licence already and there was unused space.

I have 32GB 3200 cl 14 RAM and wish to keep that.
8GB is used by primocache for the boot partition.

Those sata SSDs may be places into another machine - specifically an older PC with freenas.
As yet I am undecided.

I think with the size of games a 100GB cache size ( as I cache games) is not quite enough.

It can make a difference in some situations.

I have 4 1TB hard drives doing nothing.
I could have my games on a 4 1TB windows striped drive. It is backed up in case of failure.

The most cost effective option would be to get another inxpensive 256GB ssd.
One to boot linux. The other to boot windows. Some space on each for swap partition & pagefile.

So there will be about have the space left on each - 2 x 128GB partitions as a single striped dynamic drive as a cache for primocache.

I want to know if windows will degrade cache performance as it uses windows fake raid striping?

If not it will be max 2400MB/s writes and max 6400MB/s reads - double the read & write speeds of each drive. I wonder how badly windows striping will hold the drive speeds back?
I am unable to tell without buying the hardware.


Thanks

[iceman1980]

Fun fact. Caches can actually slow a system down.