Romex Software Forum

I went from free bundled ExpressCache to buying PrimoCache because ExpressCache had some weird things (cached external drives, implemented some weird idle defragmentation engine that I couldn't disable) but my problem is, once PrimoCache is full, it becomes a de-cellerator. It makes the computer slower - simple tasks result in seconds and seconds of disk thrashing. The only way to get performance back is to pause cache or rebuild it. I have repeated this twice now after the first time hoping it was something else or a one off.

I'm not sure what's going on, but ejecting old data and rewriting with new is using up way more disk than it should.

My setup is 1GB L1 cache, 24GB SSD cache, 32k block size, cache strategy RW, deferred write and prefetch off.

Help please?

What is the SSD brand and model? And your Windows OS version? Thanks for the feedback!

It's a Kingston 24 GB SSD. Windows 7.

The other thing I am noticing is that Primocache is very bad at identifying eg. streaming video files that it should not cache. After watching 4GB worth of video clips, it has written 4GB to the L2 cache, wasting that space (and potentially pushing OUT cached boot files). I know software works on a block level but if I could blacklist some folders (ie. Downloads, My Videos) it would be such a more efficient use of space.

darkfalz wrote:It's a Kingston 24 GB SSD. Windows 7.

Thanks for the information. We'll check it and try to find a solution.

darkfalz wrote:The other thing I am noticing is that Primocache is very bad at identifying eg. streaming video files that it should not cache

yes, we'll solve this issue in future versions.

The algorithm is really really poor compared to ExpressCache.

If I use computer for 2-3 days, even with quite large 24GB L2 cache, it has completely wiped all the cache useful for quick boot. It then boots slow again with cache hit rate < 5%.

It doesn't seem to have any smarts to give priority to small, random accessed files, files during boot etc. Just caches everything in a dumb fashion.

I think I will be requesting a refund and going back to ExpressCache - even with its limitations, it still worked better.

Sounds like you're having atypical results darkfalz. I find if I start copying around large files (to/from the cached drive), that it will in fact dump other (often smaller) files to cache the large one, due to recency. That's just the nature of the beast - the Windows cache does the same thing.

On the other hand, if I'm simply using the computer for browsing, email, gaming, etc and not transferring huge files, L1/L2 fill up normally and I get really high hit rates. I have yet to find another software cache as good as PrimoCache, and I've been using Primo since the old days when it was called FancyCache (even during Beta).

As Support indicated, they are working on the large/streaming files taking precedence issue. That in my mind is really the only drawback, and it can somewhat be averted by having a large enough L1/L2 setup. If your SSD has the space to spare, ramp up the size on your L2 cache.

Here's my current computer for reference:
- System Memory: 64 GiB
- C: is a large/fast SSD
- D: is my old SSD for Temp files/Paging file
- E: is my 2 old spindle drives in a Storage Space config, using ReFS (the new file system). I use it for downloads, unzipping space, etc.

And my Primocache setup:
- Cache 1: L1 only, C drive only, 4kb cluster size, 16 GiB cache size, Read/Write caching, enable-defer (120s), Prefetch on, Boot on, Intelligent writes
- Cache 2: L1/L2, E drive only, 64kb cluster size (for ReFS), 6 GiB cache size, Read/Write caching, enable-defer (60s), Prefetch on, Boot on, Intelligent writes
- L2 config: using 30 GB on a separate partition on my old SSD (D:)

I tend to get great hit rates with that setup, unless as I say I start moving large files around (like 12 GB Mp4 files). That can drop hit rate down, but generally Primo still knows well enough to keep often-used boot files in the cache.