Would you suggest me to give it a try ?

FAQ, getting help, user experience about FancyCache
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Eusebius
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Would you suggest me to give it a try ?

Post by Eusebius »

Dear friends. Would be happy to get your help.

Just got a used IMac with Fusion Drive.
After having installed Windows I recognized the SSD was not provided to Windows at all.
Now I´m sitting here with that horrible performance due to the 7200rpm hard disk.
As you might know, opening up and installing hard drives is a pain - impossible for me.

Now I´ve been searching for an external SSD-Cache solution.
There are several USB 3.0 connectors and also thunderbolt.
They offer enough performance for external flash drives....

Currently there are 8GB RAM installed.
I also have an externa 64GB SSD in a USB 3.0 case.

Would you advise me to install FancyCache to use my external SSD as a cache ?
Would you say it could be really worth the try ?
Or would you say the risks are too high and the advantage too little ?
If yes, what might be the best configuration ?

What about Primo Ramdisk ?
Would you suggest me better to do a RAM upgrade (32GB) and use Primo Ramdisk to improve the performance?

Or could there be any other external SSD solution out there ?

Any help is appreciated !
Thanks a lot !
dustyny
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Re: Would you suggest me to give it a try ?

Post by dustyny »

So my short answer is yes but it's usefulness is relative to what you software you are using.

Since you have no SSD & this version has a leak L2 caching is out. So you really only have L1 caching to play with. Here's the thing you have a very good chance of corrupting data (I've done it numerous times now) if you use write caching (write delay) and your machine crashes, so leave it off or be prepared to restore your OS/Data from backups. So really the safe bet is just to use read caching but it won't mask any slowness associated with that drive, it will just make some parts of the experience smoother.

The real question is why aren't you using the Mac with OSX and running Windows in a VM? That's where you'll have your best experience. I have 4 macs in my house (4 PCs as well) and in my experience Apple Machines make terrible Windows machines. It wasn't always like this, the v2 of Mac Pro was the best Windows machine of it's time. Apple ties everything up behind their drivers and A LOT of 3rd party utilities get screwed up by Apple's H/W. IMO Apple has gone to great lengths to prove to OSX users that Windows is inferior and the Windows drivers are rarely ever updated (I see about 2 revisions per hardware, OSX gets 6-8 or more). Notice how the Windows font in boot camp is not aliased and the OSX one is, that's just a subtle reminder that Windows isn't as good.. Don't get me started on Linux, ugh that is an even bigger pain though drive updates are much more frequent.
Eusebius
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Re: Would you suggest me to give it a try ?

Post by Eusebius »

Hi Dustyny !

Thanks for your kind reply.

Well, the thing is, I tried and it resulted in a blue screen immediately. That´s why I gave it up - immediately... :)

Besides the lags caused by the hard drive I couldn´t find a single reason not to use the IMac as a Windows-PC. Everything worked very nicely, I had been very satisfied with the overall performance and compatibility. You don´t always have to update the hardware drivers, really. Just sometimes in special cases this is useful or even necessary.

Now I´m working on my Windows 8 / Bootcamp / Mac Mini and I am so happy with it, can´t tell you, really. There had been a very very serious problem with the graphics driver, which is a shame, but I solved it and the system is working like a charm. Can´t believe this is just a Mac Mini .... Wow !!!

Though I´m trying to get into MacOS since a half year it seems that will never happen.

Bye, bye !
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