Micro SSD Caching vs RAM Disk

[Flyboy2442]

I am no expert by any means, but I have seen articles rave about turning excess RAM into a RAM Disk.

I have also seen people discuss th benefits of using a micro ssd as cache to provide benefits as well.

My questions are:
1) Which one is better?
2) Can they be used in conjunction and is that combination worth it?

There are certain motherboards that support the new Haswell line of chips...and I am trying to decide on what to get. Narrowed it down to Asrock z87 extreme 9 and ASUS z87 WS. The WS has the micro SSD slot. The Asrock does not but has wifi and thunderbolt.

Trying to put the pieces together to make the best decision for a system that will support overclocking and high performance.

Thanks

 

[swifty_morgan]

I used them both. if you want to save the expense the ram works pretty good but it costs you if you want to use more than 4gigs.

the cache ssd worked pretty good to. but the cheap ones, and I will single out sandisc seem to have some kind of problems I wasn't able to figure out. made a good storage disc, that's it.

also, 32gb really isn't enough room. If you put cache ssd or an mSATA drive get a big one...................

or better yet, just forget about any of that and buy one or two SSD's.......... that way you won't have to put up with the downfalls or occasional slow ups when the "cache" gets cleaned.

I also wouldn't buy a platter drive either unless I had a specific need. They're just too slow after using an SSD.

 

[Rune Olsen]

SSD, every other choice would make your head hurt from resolving problems

 

[Flyboy2442]

SSD, every other choice would make your head hurt from resolving problems

My plan is to have two 256 GB ssds in raid 0 with two 4 tab normal drives for storage. The ssds would have programs like windows, Maya,3ds max, games, etc.

Then it has 32 GB ram that I can ram disk maybe 15 or 16 of and/or add in a 64gb micro SD for cache. So with those in mind do you all think the mssd is better?or Ram disk only with benefit of thunderbolt and ac WiFi?

 

[Rune Olsen]

Just be aware that if you Raid 0 with internal controller you'd better have some proper backup solution. I Usually work in datacentres and i trust nothing else than Raid 10 these days.. It is so majorly painful to lose data compared to just having some decent backup. At home i really don't care about raid, i just install some proper NAS disks that can be on 24/7

If you decide to go for your current Raid 0, then you'd have no need for caching at all really