Is PrimoCache the best option for adding SSD like performance to an HDD?

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GlanePito
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Is PrimoCache the best option for adding SSD like performance to an HDD?

Post by GlanePito »

I am just wanting to know if PrimoCache is still my best option for software based caching to improve the speed of my 2 TB HDD using a 64 GB SSD as a cache, or if something better is out there. I know PrimoCache is $30 for a single license, and that is about as much as I want to spend on this.

Any other options I might want to check out?
Last edited by GlanePito on Sun May 16, 2021 9:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jaga
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Re: Is PrimoCache the best option for adding SSD like performance to an HDD?

Post by Jaga »

I've been using Primocache since it was called Fancycache (around ~7 years ago), and have yet to find anything nearly as good. Primocache is fast, stable, reliable, and well worth the marginal cost. There are other software solutions that do a similar thing, but I don't believe you'll get nearly the speed nor the flexibility you would with Primocache.

As for cache sizes: I tend to go with a 10%-20% "data coverage rate" when determining how large my L2 needs to be. In your scenario, if you wanted to cache 1TB of data on your 2TB drive, you'd want somewhere between 100GB and 200GB to get good cache hit rates (assuming you utilize most of the 1TB of data regularly). If there's less data to cache, or you don't use it all regularly, 64GB as a L2 should work just fine.
0ldman
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Re: Is PrimoCache the best option for adding SSD like performance to an HDD?

Post by 0ldman »

I've been keeping an eye on Optane, StorMi and waiting to see the new option AMD is supposed to have.

Not sure where Intel stands on Optane now as they've gotten out of their agreement with Micron which is how Optane came to exist.

Tons of reviews of both of those apps and I've used Primocache, some of the Optane/StorMi reviews have shown Primocache as the platform agnostic option and it generally matches them at worst and it is so customizable it should outperform them all given adequate hardware.

I mean I've got 16GB of DDR4 3200 and an 80GB SSD caching a 2TB 7200RPM drive and I can't really tell the difference between games loaded from the HD vs the WD Blue 1TB 3D NAND. It's hard to beat 16GB of DDR4 as a HD as far as speed goes.
Logic
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Re: Is PrimoCache the best option for adding SSD like performance to an HDD?

Post by Logic »

The driver called
64bit Intel NVMe Driver v3.0.0.1013 mod+signed by Fernando.rar
made my 800P optane ~90MB/s faster in QD! 1 Random 4K.
ie: from ~200MBV/s to ~290MB/s
ie: Just the increase in QD1 R4K, Windows does 66% of the time, was larger than what any NVME can do in total..!

It can be found here:
https://www.win-raid.com/t2852f25-Hardw ... pdate.html

NB that you have to install the certificate 1st, using the instructions here:
https://www.win-raid.com/t1300f25-Tips- ... ivers.html

Then install the driver through device manager, using the "have disk" method.
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