Advice please

FAQ, getting help, user experience about PrimoCache
meditek
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Advice please

Post by meditek »

Reading through the help it seems I should have to activate Level-2 cache to get the best out of this software. This involves a re-format. Once reformatted will my 1Tb Samsung 970 SSD still accept and work with my Win 10 Acronis backup?
Also, what 'services' supplied by SS Magician will I be able to disable and is SSD size an issue with Primocache?
Thanks,

OS Windows 10 x64
CPU intel core I5 8400
MB gigabyte Z370 HD 3P
4 SSD's 2x 1tb970, 1x0.5tb 950, 1x 0.25tb 830

PLEASE GUYS, keep it simple, I'm old and past it but still need speed so spell things out clearly and logically.
InquiringMind
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Re: Advice please

Post by InquiringMind »

Welcome to the forums Meditek,

If all your disks are SSD (which your posted specification suggests) then there is no point in using L2 caching - this is only intended to speed up HDD performance. In your case, only L1 caching is worth experimenting with, and only if you have plenty of memory to spare (your specification does not indicate memory size).
meditek
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Re: Advice please

Post by meditek »

Thanks
I have 4 SSD's, 3 are for storage,backups etc and rarely used, 15GB ram. Could I turn off Magician?
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Jaga
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Re: Advice please

Post by Jaga »

meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:47 amCould I turn off Magician?
Yes you can, I do. There's little point to having it running, and you shouldn't use it's RAPID feature anyhow when Primocache is installed/in-use.
InquiringMind
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Re: Advice please

Post by InquiringMind »

meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:47 am I have 4 SSD's, 3 are for storage,backups etc and rarely used, 15GB ram...
You may wish to consider HDDs for backups and other content where speed of access is not important (media files, downloads, etc). I would then suggest setting up the 2 tb970s as a RAID-0 array (if your motherboard supports it - if not then consider an NVMe RAID controller like a Highpoint SSD7101A-1).

RAID-0 offers no data redundancy so if any disk/SSD in the array fails, the array as a whole is lost - so ensure you have a good backup regime (including automated backups of critical data) but it does offer the best performance.

That leaves your 2 smaller SSDs - I would suggest using them as storage for automated backup using one of the utilities I've highlighted in previous posts (using an SSD as target should mean faster backup and less chance of interference with sensitive applications). Alternatively, copy a stripped-down version of your Windows setup to one of them, so you can boot up from it if problems arise with your main setup.
meditek
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Re: Advice please

Post by meditek »

Jaga wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:34 am
meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:47 amCould I turn off Magician?
Yes you can, I do. There's little point to having it running, and you shouldn't use it's RAPID feature anyhow when Primocache is installed/in-use.
Does that mean things will continue normaly without over-provisioning?
Thanks for the help.
meditek
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Re: Advice please

Post by meditek »

InquiringMind wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:55 am
meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:47 am I have 4 SSD's, 3 are for storage,backups etc and rarely used, 15GB ram...
You may wish to consider HDDs for backups and other content where speed of access is not important (media files, downloads, etc). I would then suggest setting up the 2 tb970s as a RAID-0 array (if your motherboard supports it - if not then consider an NVMe RAID controller like a Highpoint SSD7101A-1).

RAID-0 offers no data redundancy so if any disk/SSD in the array fails, the array as a whole is lost - so ensure you have a good backup regime (including automated backups of critical data) but it does offer the best performance.

That leaves your 2 smaller SSDs - I would suggest using them as storage for automated backup using one of the utilities I've highlighted in previous posts (using an SSD as target should mean faster backup and less chance of interference with sensitive applications). Alternatively, copy a stripped-down version of your Windows setup to one of them, so you can boot up from it if problems arise with your main setup.
Many thanks. I'll certainly consider it. Haven't used Raid since I set up a Novell server in the early 80's which reminds me I once had to fix it from a sun bed in Mauritius. I've a vague recollection there was a good reason I've never used it at home but no recollection why. My backup prog is Acronis 2019 which unlike 2020 and 2021 is fairly solid.
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Jaga
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Re: Advice please

Post by Jaga »

meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:05 amDoes that mean things will continue normaly without over-provisioning? Thanks for the help.
Well, over provisioning is a good idea on just about any solid state drive. It can help their lifetime significantly depending on how full the drive gets, and how often you TRIM. I usually go no less than 5%, and no more than 10%.
meditek
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Re: Advice please

Post by meditek »

Jaga wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 3:51 pm
meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:05 amDoes that mean things will continue normaly without over-provisioning? Thanks for the help.
Well, over provisioning is a good idea on just about any solid state drive. It can help their lifetime significantly depending on how full the drive gets, and how often you TRIM. I usually go no less than 5%, and no more than 10%.
You suggested I turn off Magician and hence OP. Are you saying that turning off Magician will not affect Trim and OP? How do you Trim without it?
Baffled.
InquiringMind
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Re: Advice please

Post by InquiringMind »

meditek wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:09 pm ...How do you Trim without it?
Virtually all SSDs do background processing, clearing out erased data. I've run a RAID array for several years on Windows XP (which has no TRIM support) using SSDs purchased back in 2011 (Crucial C300s and Samsung 470s) without any noticeable loss in performance.

You can still run Samsung Magician to TRIM your SSD's manually - but if you set up a RAID array, you'll have to break it up (with probable loss of data) beforehand and rebuild it afterwards.
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