Z68 & SSD Cache drive

[Randomthom]

Has anybody tried a configuration using the Z68 motherboard & SSD as a cache drive? I've heard good things & it looks like the ideal way to get SSD performance without shelling out on a large SSD drive but I haven't seen/heard of many builds utilising this yet so I'm wary.

I'll be picking up some new hardware today so I can make this decision later but I'm wondering if it is worth doing, any thoughts anyone?

Looking forward to an i5-2500K, 8Gb, 6950 setup

Thanks!

 

[tom_gr7]

Are you having PCS build your pc? Or building it yourself?

It's certainly worth doing though.

 

[Randomthom]

Building myself, PCS built my laptop but I've always built desktops myself. Been out of the game a little while though so I thought I'd ask a few questions here where I know I'll get a good & measured answer!

 

[tom_gr7]

Building myself, PCS built my laptop but I've always built desktops myself. Been out of the game a little while though so I thought I'd ask a few questions here where I know I'll get a good & measured answer!

Well I tried to set up the caching drive on my system, tried time and time again, followed the asus manual to the letter and still couldn't get it to work. Followed pcs tech guys ideas and still it would not work every time I changed the raid the pc just got in a crashing loop until I changed it back. I eventually opted to install the OS to the SSD. Which I'm perfectly happy with.

My advice would be to get a 60gb ssd, then you can use it as a caching drive, but if like me you can't figure it out, then just install the OS on it.

Also would it not be wiser to have pcs build the pcs, for the warranty?

 

[Randomthom]

No because I already have HDDs (Samsung Spinpoint), PSU (same as yours), Optical Drive & Graphics card (2Gb 6950) that do not need replacing from my last machine...

Individual items retain their warranties still.

 

[Corfate]

You could always send the items to PCS and they'll fit it for you, and that way i think you'd still have the warranty from PCS?

 

[tom_gr7]

No because I already have HDDs (Samsung Spinpoint), PSU (same as yours), Optical Drive & Graphics card (2Gb 6950) that do not need replacing from my last machine...

Individual items retain their warranties still.

oh I didn't know you had most the components already.

Go for the ssd dude, will be a very good addition to your up coming pc.

 

[Wozza63]

you could pretty much send all those parts in and if you cant remove something completely then PCS will give a refund which cannot be chosen on site

 

[Randomthom]

I've got my system now, up & built & running...

It's nice I shelled out for the 120Gb SSD so I decided not to use it as a cache drive at all, preferring to just use it as an install drive.

i5 2500K CPU
8Gb DDR3 1600MHz RAM
ATi 6950 2Gb GFX
120Gb Corsair V3 SSD
1Tb Samsung Spinpoint HDD
750Gb Samsung Spinpoint HDD
Blu Ray ROM
CD/DVD RW
Antec 300 Case
Corsair 700W Modular PSU

Played a little bit of Rift & GTA IV last night. Rift was smooth in maxed settings including AF & AA, even in busy areas. Fraps was recording frame rates of around 40-50 fps.
GTA IV (with some pretty graphics modding) was pretty smooth too with everthing maxed (including draw distance).

Those are both running from the samsung drive too at the moment

Boot time to desktop is about 16s from power-on.

 

[briast]

Just to add something which somebody might find valuable: I changed my laptop HD for one of the new hybrid ones (a Seagate) with 4gb of SSD and 500gb of plain old normal. To say I'm very happy is to wildly understate. Boot-up time used to be close to three minutes, now it's 50secs; Photoshop is up in 7 secs; Firefox (which was really getting my goat with its slow start-up) arrives in 5 secs and I'm reading my email 10 secs later. Was thinking of getting another one of these drives for my PC but then it spectacularly died on me (five years old -an antique and due for an i7-ing...) so I'm asking PC Specialists to supply me with a new one - with similar 120gb SSD for the OS. Can't wait.