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Help me setup PrimoCache on my system please

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:42 pm
by MaXimus
I am a n00bie to PrimoCache.

Here is my setup:

Alienware 18 | i7 4810MQ @ 3.8 GHz | Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire | 32 GB Kingston HyperX 1866 MHz RAM
2x Samsung 850 PRO 256GB (RAID 0) + Samsung 840 EVO 1TB + External Buffalo 4TB HDD 5400 RPM | Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit

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Please tell me how shall I set it up?

My OS + Games + Programs are installed on the C: Partition which is the RAID 0 Array
My Documents, Pics, Music, Software installation EXEs, Drivers are located on the D: Partition which is the 1TB 840 EVO mSATA
My Videos are located on the E: Partition which is the external USB Buffalo 4TB 5400 RPM HDD

I am confused about stuff like how much RAM to allocate (it chose 14GB by default out of my 32GB) and what about block size? it chose 8KB as default..... I should just enable the cache for the C: partition right?

also I am at loss about what cache strategy and how much to setup deferred writes to or shall I leave it at the default 10 seconds

thanks

Re: Help me setup PrimoCache on my system please

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:28 am
by MaXimus
Here are the settings I've done so far...... please tell me if I did anything wrong

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Re: Help me setup PrimoCache on my system please

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:43 pm
by Davey126
Nice rig!! You are obviously looking for top performance. However, given your configuration it is questionable whether you'll see much benefit using Primocache - at least L2 cache. My suggestion is to allocate 8-16 GB of L1 for C: with 16KB block size (to lower overhead) and a 10s write delay if your system has a reliable UPS.

You could add the D: and E: partitions to the cache but I don't think you would see much benefit given the type of media on those drives and the underlying media. D: is already a relatively fast SSD; you'd only see a significant benefit if you do a lot of manipulation of docs, photos, etc. E: is mechanical but probably slow sequential reads (eg: streaming video); no need to cache.

Re: Help me setup PrimoCache on my system please

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 4:09 pm
by Bjameson
Quite a formidable rig indeed! I agree with Davey126. Given the fact that your cache has so much free space left, I think 8 GB for your C: volume is more than enough. Because free cache space is wasted and is unavailable for games or video editing. Games like lots of memory. I also would only cache C: and leave the other volumes alone. Since the Alienware 18 is a very fast laptop (the car equivalent would be a Bugatti Veyron, LOL), you already have a "free" UPS because the battery saves you from power failures. Which means that the 10 sec. write delay is safe.

Re: Help me setup PrimoCache on my system please

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 6:29 pm
by MaXimus
Bjameson wrote:Quite a formidable rig indeed! I agree with Davey126. Given the fact that your cache has so much free space left, I think 8 GB for your C: volume is more than enough. Because free cache space is wasted and is unavailable for games or video editing. Games like lots of memory. I also would only cache C: and leave the other volumes alone. Since the Alienware 18 is a very fast laptop (the car equivalent would be a Bugatti Veyron, LOL), you already have a "free" UPS because the battery saves you from power failures. Which means that the 10 sec. write delay is safe.
Thanks bro. You're right my battery is like a UPS so I'll leave the delayed right @ 10 seconds but I'll lower the Cache to 8 GB then

cheers