Help me decide how to set this up

[trooper]

Hi,

I have no idea what would be best for my new pc.

My hardware:

32GB RAM
4 x 256 SSD
1 x 120 SSD
1 x 1TB HDD

My original intention was to use the 4 x 256 SSD in Raid 0 and use the 1TB to backup particular data using any old backup tool.

I was wondering whether I just use L1 cache with 16GB of ram or do I use L1 cache + L2 on the 120 SSD?

My brain tells me that the 120SSD is probably going to actually make it slower since the 4 raided ssd's will be quicker to write to when storing data from L1.

Anyone got an idea of how I should set this up?

My goal is for read+write, I want the speed for accessing many small files (visual studio, monodevelop etc) but also to increase load times for video games and photoshop.

[InquiringMind]

Agreed, there'd be little point in Primo's L2 cache in your case since the SSD RAID would be much faster than the 120GB SSD. You could use the 120GB SSD as L2 for the 1TB HDD, but if that is used for backups only, there'd be little point.

As an alternative, I'd suggest using that 120GB SSD for file version backups, using software that backs up files whenever they are changed such as Aphar Backup (Dutch webpage but program is in English), AutoVer, Yadis Backup (all free) and FileHamster (commercial). I use Aphar Backup myself (it's fast and lightweight and the only one that doesn't rely on .NET Framework) but you may prefer one of the others. Use this to cover files that change frequently (documents, savegames) where a weekly image backup might not be enough to prevent data loss.

That just leaves the question of how much memory to assign to L1 caching - some suggestions on that are available here.