Setting Up Intel SRT: Small question.

[jmacom01]

Hey there everyone. I recently made a build with an ASUS p8z68-v mobo, it should arrive by the end of the month, and I plan on using SRT. I have a 1TB HDD, and an OCX Agility 3 60GB SSD.

I followed this guide through, as well as some additional research on how to specifically set up SRT with my board and I think I have the process down, but I have one small question ...

A few websites are saying that while I set the HDD to RAID in the bios, and install my OS on that HDD, I need to have my SSD unplugged. And once I update my drivers, and download the SRT program, I then shut down, and plug in my SSD. Is this true? Plus I was told to be sure that the SDD is hooked up to a SATA6GB port on the mobo, is that necessarily true?

Just curious because they are going to come already hooked up, I can easily go in and unplug SSD if I have to, but I would rather know whether or not I actually have to do this extra step.

Thank you!

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hello,

Just wanted to point a few things out:

1) I usually tell people to install their OS on the SSD itself rather than using SRT.

Firstly - with SRT your computer has to open a few programs to get the SRT going (I believe it takes around 3-4 program openings). So you won't get the benefit of the SSD 100% of the time.

If you install the SSD as your primary OS - you will get the benefits of the SSD 100% of the time, rather than the SRT running part of the time.

2) You will definately want to connect your SSD to the SATA6Gb port to get the maximum performance out of your SSD. If you use a SATA 3Gb port - you may not get all the performance. The agility 3 reads at about 500MB/sec and Sata 3Gb tops out at 300Mb/Sec, whereas SATA 6Gb tops out at 600MB/s

Now do you really want SRT after outlining the details?

 

[inzone]

The Intel SRT with using a small SSD as a cache for a large spindle hdd is a great thing to speed up the process and a ssd of 20GB to 40GB is what is commonly used , but if you are getting a larger SSD then your benefit of having a SSD as a cache is the same as just putting the OS on the SSD and not having to setup the SRT. A SSD of 60GB is enough for the OS and even some apps and the rest can go on the hdd. You just disable hibernation and move the page file to the hdd and change the default program loading to the larger hdd.
Buying a sata3 SSD you want to connect it to the sata3 port and if you still want to use the SRT then that is of course your decision but you could have saved a few bucks and gotten a smaller SSD , usuing it as a cache you will not be using half of the SSD.

 

[jmacom01]

I got that SSD on sale, so I could have gone smaller, but it would of cost me more. Alright, I could try to fit my OS plus maybe like one game on there or something, does anyone have any idea how big the OS generally is? I suppose I could just hold off on SRT if the OS isn't too big.

 

[inzone]

It would depend on what version of Windows , 32 bit , 64 bit , Home , pro , Ultimate. Windows 7 64bit Ultimate takes up just over 20gb. Windows 32 bit Home 8-10 gb. Like I said before it's up to you as to what you want to do , if you still want to do the Intel SRT and you feel it's easier for you to go that way then do so. You said it was comong set up that way to start with. Jus tremember two things , use the sata 3 ports on the motherboard with the sata 3 data cables and set the sata controller in the bios to either raid for the SRT or AHCI for the OS on the SSD.

 

[jmacom01]

Best answer selected by jmacom01.