Romex Software Forum

I need some help in configuring my PrimoCache 3.02
My system is as follows:

HP Z400 Workstation
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3520 @ 2.67GHz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Installed Physical Memory 24GB
4 drives 1 SSD Boot/cache drive and 3x8TB HDDs
8TB HDD Data Drive (D:) user data, temp storage, torrent files
8TB HDD Backup Drive (E:) True Image Disk images and FileHistory this drive is not cached
8TB HDD Archive Drive (F:) WinRar Archives and Virtual CDs, video files

I use (D:) to download a lot with qbittorent , browse the internet, email, banking, etc. Drive i(E:) is used for backup only and is not cached. Drive (F:) is my Archive and video drive. I store downloaded video here to be watched later. Drive (D:) is the most active.

I currently have my cache configured like this:
279GB SSD 154GB(C:)Boot partition and 125GB PrimoCache l2 partition
Cache Task #1 L1 6144MB Defer Write 60sec average write mode Prefetch at boot

8TB HDD (D:) and 8TB HDD (F:) share Task #2
Cache Task #2 L1 4096MB Defer Write 60sec idle flush write mode Prefetch at boot
L2 125GB Read/Write 50/50 30sec gather

Any suggestion to improve performance would be appreciated. I wonder particularly if I should break the 125GB cache into 2 separate caches and how to appropriate them to the 2 HDDs.

Sorry for the late reply!
Here are just my thoughts about your scenario. Usually the boot partition doesn't need the "average write" mode, just native or intelligent mode. "average write" mode is designed for the scenario that the disk has heavy writing workload. Also I think the L1 cache size might be kind of big and waste for the boot partition.
I would suggest that you make an individual partition for torrent downing files and temp files, separating from your personal/important data, since you download a lot with qbittorent etc. In this partition you can increase L1 cache size and tune latency and mode to make more data can be hold by write cache and no or only few urgent-write data.
For partitions that have important data, I don't suggest the defer-write.

To break SSD cache, you need to set up two cache tasks and assign L2 size for each cache task. PrimoCache automatically break up SSD cache. In one same cache task, you cannot break L2 cache. However, you can disable L2 cache for specified volumes.

support wrote:Sorry for the late reply!
Here are just my thoughts about your scenario. Usually the boot partition doesn't need the "average write" mode, just native or intelligent mode. "average write" mode is designed for the scenario that the disk has heavy writing workload. Also I think the L1 cache size might be kind of big and waste for the boot partition.
I would suggest that you make an individual partition for torrent downing files and temp files, separating from your personal/important data, since you download a lot with qbittorent etc. In this partition you can increase L1 cache size and tune latency and mode to make more data can be hold by write cache and no or only few urgent-write data.
For partitions that have important data, I don't suggest the defer-write.

To break SSD cache, you need to set up two cache tasks and assign L2 size for each cache task. PrimoCache automatically break up SSD cache. In one same cache task, you cannot break L2 cache. However, you can disable L2 cache for specified volumes.

I used intelligent write mode with a large L1 cache (24gig) and 64kb block size, seems to do the best overall.

And I'll echo the comment about deferred writes - only if you have a UPS connected and regularly test it should you use that feature. But it *does* really help.