PrimoCache Review
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:34 am
Just wanted to give you all a headsup about using PrimoCache to accelerate a very big Workstation setup based on pure M2-SSD.
PrimoCache is beyond good. I've purchased this software some time ago but it is only now that I'm starting to use it seriously.
I have a massive PC, Ryzen 9 3950X @ 4Ghz with 128GB Corsair Dominator running at 2866, that's about the max the RAM can go because it's the max amount of RAM that the Ryzen CPUs can support.
I've setup a massive cache of 64GB for Primocache on all drives.
I have 3 Corsair MP600 for boot, apps and games.
My configuration is 12GB Read and the rest is write.
With 64GB of free memory even the C: drive is using the cache provided by PrimoCache.
The results are nothing short of amazing. If I do not use PrimoCache I'm basically having 64GB of RAM wasting space and creating heat. With Primo as cache everything is instant.
Don't get fooled that you can get a really fast PC with just M2 drivers. My drives are running at 4500MB/s because they are under PCIe 4.0 and yet, the latency, stuttering and hiccups are pretty obvious when working with several programs at once.
Games will also stutter while reading fragmented files. This does not happen anymore with PrimoCache. It's so much better than the default Windows Cache that I've disabled "Turn off Windows Write Cache buffer-flush" option. It was creating a cache over a cache and PrimoCache is better in caching content and skipping direct writes.
The trick is to never let the drive write directly, defer cache is KEY in an M2 drive, I have an UPS for this. With a 60 second buffer before flush and free mem after write options, this software is a freaking BEAST. It turned my Windows 10 PC from normal to super-fast workstation by taking advantage of all that RAM not being used properly by Windows.
I'm gonna write an article on my magazine about this, with details on how to configure the software.
https://tecnogaming.com
I will love if Romex can contact me so we can arrange a full review with their consent. I think the community will really appreciate a detailed article, not just a review, but a technical article on how to configure this wonderful piece of software.
The amount of I/O has been reduced drastically. Since M2 drives, specially running under PCIe 4.0 standard are so fast, it's best if they can write in blocks, instead of writing chaotically as they do running on Windows, specially for the root drive. Since I/O are only working when cache is filled and since write is fast enough for when it needs to write, the result is a PC that feels like it's working from a RAMDISK.
Before using PrimoCache, there was no difference between an SATA SSD and these M2 disks. Now the difference is night and day, taking advantage of the very fast writing speed these drives can achieve, they are now optimized to write big chunks of data and this made installing software, handlind drivers and executing productive software a breeze.
Honestly I'm shocked that no big hardware magazine is talking about this or that no enthusiast like me is using it. I feel like contributing to spread the word about this software.
I'm also using Primo Ramdisk, works equally good, specially for projects where you need near-instant write/read speed and don't want to waste write cycles on your SSD.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
PrimoCache is beyond good. I've purchased this software some time ago but it is only now that I'm starting to use it seriously.
I have a massive PC, Ryzen 9 3950X @ 4Ghz with 128GB Corsair Dominator running at 2866, that's about the max the RAM can go because it's the max amount of RAM that the Ryzen CPUs can support.
I've setup a massive cache of 64GB for Primocache on all drives.
I have 3 Corsair MP600 for boot, apps and games.
My configuration is 12GB Read and the rest is write.
With 64GB of free memory even the C: drive is using the cache provided by PrimoCache.
The results are nothing short of amazing. If I do not use PrimoCache I'm basically having 64GB of RAM wasting space and creating heat. With Primo as cache everything is instant.
Don't get fooled that you can get a really fast PC with just M2 drivers. My drives are running at 4500MB/s because they are under PCIe 4.0 and yet, the latency, stuttering and hiccups are pretty obvious when working with several programs at once.
Games will also stutter while reading fragmented files. This does not happen anymore with PrimoCache. It's so much better than the default Windows Cache that I've disabled "Turn off Windows Write Cache buffer-flush" option. It was creating a cache over a cache and PrimoCache is better in caching content and skipping direct writes.
The trick is to never let the drive write directly, defer cache is KEY in an M2 drive, I have an UPS for this. With a 60 second buffer before flush and free mem after write options, this software is a freaking BEAST. It turned my Windows 10 PC from normal to super-fast workstation by taking advantage of all that RAM not being used properly by Windows.
I'm gonna write an article on my magazine about this, with details on how to configure the software.
https://tecnogaming.com
I will love if Romex can contact me so we can arrange a full review with their consent. I think the community will really appreciate a detailed article, not just a review, but a technical article on how to configure this wonderful piece of software.
The amount of I/O has been reduced drastically. Since M2 drives, specially running under PCIe 4.0 standard are so fast, it's best if they can write in blocks, instead of writing chaotically as they do running on Windows, specially for the root drive. Since I/O are only working when cache is filled and since write is fast enough for when it needs to write, the result is a PC that feels like it's working from a RAMDISK.
Before using PrimoCache, there was no difference between an SATA SSD and these M2 disks. Now the difference is night and day, taking advantage of the very fast writing speed these drives can achieve, they are now optimized to write big chunks of data and this made installing software, handlind drivers and executing productive software a breeze.
Honestly I'm shocked that no big hardware magazine is talking about this or that no enthusiast like me is using it. I feel like contributing to spread the word about this software.
I'm also using Primo Ramdisk, works equally good, specially for projects where you need near-instant write/read speed and don't want to waste write cycles on your SSD.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.