Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by Support »

Yes, you are right. If the cache block size is larger than the filesystem cluster size, the sequence read/write performance will not be the best. If your RAM is sufficient and you prefer the best performance, you may just keep your current block size value.
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by Jaga »

datahoarder9k wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:35 pmIs there is a major performance or cache size penalty if my boot drive cluster size is 4KB, but my cache cluster size is 8KB? If so, is it easy for me to change the boot drive cluster size without reformatting it?
Not really, nope. The performance hit comes in at larger multiples I find. i.e. with 4k clusters if you use a 32k cache block, you might notice it. But not at 8k or 16k - it's pretty negligible.
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by uBlast »

Hey fellas, I would like to have some guidance and suggestions on my setup for primocache operations. Here is it as follows:

- Notebook Acer A515 41G
- CPU AMD A12 9720P
- Crucial 16GB DDR4 Memory
- Crucial 480GB SSD

Plus I have a SanDisk SSD Plus 120GB conected through a fast USB 3.1 port.

So whats could be the best usage for Primo Cache based on this scenario? Thanks in advance
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by Support »

uBlast wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:07 am So whats could be the best usage for Primo Cache based on this scenario?
Since your target drives are all SSDs, you may only use the level-1 (RAM) cache.
If your Windows OS doesn't contain any personal data and well backed-up, you may also enable Defer-Write which will increase writing performance a lot and reduce writes to SSDs.
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Recommendations for a media server

Post by Uhlmann »

Hey guys,

I am building a Media server, which will be primarily used as a Plex server and transcoding hub (Both live transcoding and trancoding the media library). There are some alternate uses, but performance is not integral to the proces for these tasks. This might be a bit overkill, but the server will be hosting roughly 6-10 concurrent users, and consumes a lot of data as the various users will skip between movies, shows, music etc. This is also one of my questions in terms of PrimoCache, I will most like be using this as read Only Cache, as write operations in my Raid setup will be mostly maxed anyway. But I am unable to verify how often Primocache will swap data into the L1+L2 Cache, because as far as I understand it waits for idle operations. Does this mean that it will not load full movies into the cache before the system idles? This might just be my limited understanding, but an essential part of my caching scenario is that data is dumped into the cache, so buffering and fast forward or searching operations are performed quickly, same thing goes for trancoding a 40GB file into a 2GB file.

The system will be set up as:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3700x
GFX: Nvidia Quadro P400
Memory: 32GB DDR4 Memory
Boot Drive: 256GB NVME SSD
Storage: 8 x 10TB HDD 7.200 RPM in Raid 5 (63TB of usable space, 24TB occupied)
L2 Cache: NVME, Size ????

First off: I would really like a recommendation on L2 Cache size, I have a really hard time figuring out whether a large cache will benefit me. Media files can be up to 10gb in size, and I want to utilize the L1+L2 cache for speeding up buffering and in-video skipping, as this can be extremely slow on regular HDD. In terms of budget Anything from 256GB-1TB is in my budget range, but I would prefer saving the 3x cost of 1 TB if it will not yield any gains.

Additionally, I have 32 GB of memory, but will not use more than 16 GB, will 16GB L1 cache be sufficient.

Lastly: Any guidance on block sizes or special tricks for a setup like this would be appreciated.
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by dslabbekoorn »

Hi BonzaiDuck and friends,

I have recently installed the newest version of PrimoCache on my computer. SSD (OS drive, 500 GB) - SSD (empty cache drive, 240GB) - Data drive (HDD, 7200rpm, 3 TB) I have 32 GB of ram installed. I would like to use 8GB of ram as L1 to cache to OS drive,and as much of the cache SSD as needed to cache the Data drive. I also game online and all the game files (Origin and Steam) are on the Data Drive due to size. Origin will not start when I have the software installed, but works fine when PrimoCache is removed. My questions for the audience are what would be the best settings for my hardware and does anyone know how to get Origin to play nice with PrimoCache. I'd like to know this works for me before I buy it.

Thanks
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by Support »

dslabbekoorn wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:45 am Origin will not start when I have the software installed
Even there is no cache task created?
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by dslabbekoorn »

Hello,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have tried 3 times to install and set up version 3.2.0 and they all ended up causing Origin to not start. Disabling the cache on the drive where the game files are did not seem to help.

In frustration I uninstalled and tried version alpha 4.0.0. And it works like a charm. Just as advertised. Haven't the faintest idea what about it my system likes better than the stable 3.2 version, but it does. System memory 12gb, caching the OS drive, and second dedicated SSD caching my HDD 3tb.

Now, how to buy a license for this version?

Signed,
Baffled in Michigan
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by dslabbekoorn »

Now I re-read your question, yes in all cases a cache task was created. But running, paused or actually deleted did not matter to Origin. Game files on HDD, some program files for Origin are on my C: drive I'm sure. All I know is the same configuration that would not run on ver. 3.2 will on ver. 4.0. Software is freaky sometimes. I see where I can license version 4.0 from within itself. A little more test driving it then I'll probably buy it.
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Re: Somthing toward a "sticky:" Suggestiion for a configuration discussion for various PC usage patterns

Post by Support »

@dslabbekoorn, thank you very much for the information. It seems a little bit weird that v4.0.0 works while v3.2.0 doesn't. We will perform a further check on this issue.
dslabbekoorn wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:40 pm Now, how to buy a license for this version?
Please see https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/pri ... chase.html. A license can apply to all versions.
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