SSD caching

[AlaskanOx]

Hey guys,

Building a new computer and haven't built one for about 10 years. Been buying them off cyberpower etc. Anyway the whole idea of Intel SRT is a bit confusing. I'm purchasing a 128gb ssd and using it with a 1tb HDD. My computer is being used primarily for gaming. Is there any reason that I would want to use the SSD caching or should I just use the entire SSD as my boot drive and HDD as storage.

Of the few things I have read it sound like you can possibly partition the SSD to cache say 30gb and use the rest as a boot drive.

What is the best use for the SSD in a gaming rig? And am I misinformed about the possibility of partitioning the drive?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

You don't need a cache if your system is on a ssd. If you turn off hibernation and system restore you'll have 100 gb of space, plenty for a few games and place your data on your 1tb drive.

 

[inzone]

The whole idea behind SSD caching is when you have the OS on a regular hdd then you can use the SSD as a cache for that hdd and bring the performance of it up to a SSD. It doesn't make much sense to use a large SSD for that purpose because you would just put the OS onto the SSD and use it as your boot drive and the regular hdd as the storage and extra games and apps. With a SSD of 120gb you have enough room to put the OS , a game or two and your most used apps.
You do have the option to partition the SSD into two drives , one small around 30gb and then the rest on the other and use the small one for the cache with everything on the main hdd and then you would have this 90gb partition to put some things onto.

 

[AlaskanOx]

Well that clears things up for me. Thanks for the quick responses guys.

 

[LordConrad]

For best performance, I would use your SSD for OS and important programs and leave the rest on your hard drives.

You can use this article to help optimize your SSD after installation:
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

Instead of disabling your pagefile as the article suggests, I would move it to your hard drive as this can prevent some Blue Screens.