Is there a benefit on an only ssd system Topic is solved

[Daniel290881]

Hi,
i have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Laptop with 16 GB RAM and a really fast NVM SSD 512 GB of Samsung. All my files and programs are on C:

Would i see a benefit anyway of using PrimoCache? Where?

Thanks
Daniel

[Daniel290881]

Hi,
is the reason that there isnt an answer while other thrads are answered that there won't be a benefit?

[Axel Mertes]

Hi Daniel,

depending on how much RAM you can spend for PrimoCache, you might see a benefit. Enabling write cache would increase write performance significantly, however I would not really recommend it, as write cache has the risk of data loss in case of a power outage or crash.

True SSD only systems will like perform pretty fast already, making the need for a software like PrimoCache a bit smaller.

Why not give it a try and install the trial version and see yourself.
You may use a tool like ATTO Disk Benchmark to measure / compare the results with and without the RAM cache for your SSD.

Be aware that in your setup the L2 cache makes no sense, as you a) have only one drive and b) the very same SSD can not be faster then the very same SSD...

Best
Axel

[Daniel290881]

Hi,
thanks for answering. Will give it a try.

[Jaga]

I just upgraded my PC with a Samsung 850 Pro SSD (pretty fast, highly reliable). I also gave it 64 gig of RAM, so that I could do both L1 disk caching, and a RAMdrive at the same time. I will always have a L1 cache for primary hard drives on any PC I use, because it will always be *much* faster than any conventional drive (spindle or nand) could be. Even if it's a small gain, I believe fully in it. Here are the numbers I get when using PrimoCache (no SSD is this fast from what I know):



Axel is also correct on the L2 cache - a SSD has no need for one (and in fact it is detrimental to even try). However - if you have a spare 2nd SSD (like an old one) they make great pagefile disks, and temporary file disks. I used my old one this way, to hold Windows temp files, browser caches, and a small page file.

[Axel Mertes]

Hi Jaga,

thats near double the numbers I see on my old server. Which CPU / RAM type is in there?
I am looking for an E5 equipped machine in near future, though...

I have high hopes for Intel/Micron 3D XPoint memory DIMMs, which should enable very very large DIMMs at at least 50% lower prices, so a lot of RAM in a server becomes feasable. Windows Server 2012 R2 Standart supports up to 4 TByte RAM... but imagine if you just had 500 GByte of L1 cache in a system...

I am also looking forward to the Intel Optane NVMe drives, which are based on 3D XPoint too and which are said to be 10 times faster than their Intel P3700 NVMe Flash SSDs (which have 2.8 GByte/s reads, 2.0 GByte/s writes), so they will fill the PCIe 4.0 bus specs closely with up to 28 GByte/s reads and 20 GBytes/s writes. No idea about the price yet, but this is going to be a hell fast L2 cache.

[Jaga]

Hi Jaga,

thats near double the numbers I see on my old server. Which CPU / RAM type is in there?

It is a gaming rig and workstation for my IT business. I built it using these components:

• MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard
• Intel Core i7 6700K (overclocked to 4.8ghz)
• 4x Crucial 16gb DDR4-2400 RAM (64gb total)
• Samsung 850 Pro 512gb SSD (C:)
• OCZ Vertex 128gb SSD (temp drive)
• Nvidia 980ti

I'm running it on sub-ambient water cooling, just over the dewpoint. That enables the higher clock rates, and gets great performance. It also has a RAMdrive setup, but I don't use it much. Between the fast SSD and Primocache, there's almost zero need for a RAMdrive anymore. Windows 10 cold boots take around 8 seconds to hit the login splash, and Primocache's prefetch is done before I can even launch it to look (even on two big L1 caches).

Right now I swear by Primocache and it's effect on a system. I saw firsthand with my old one what performance looked like when I disabled Primocache temporarily. Everything (and I mean everything) took longer to run. As long as you don't starve Primocache of enough RAM, it has an amazing effect on performance.

My old spindle drives have been repurposed to a ReFS Storage Space drive, that I use to hold downloads, larger files and unzipped folders, etc. I have a L1 for that drive too, but it has less effect since I don't use it for frequent access. For all intensive purposes, I'm 'SSD only' now, and I still wouldn't run without Primocache.