Why/How should I set up for Intels SRT?

[JeremyHill]

Ok so I read the reviews and such online of Intels SRT, and it seems to me that most people are saying 64gigs is not enough. but with a 128gig I could configure any ammount of memory > 64gigs for cache memory. Does that mean with a 128Gig M4 crucial, I could put the OS on the SSD permanently, while leaving the rest as cache data? and if that is possible would it really matter? Cause the OS is the most used program of all, so logical conclusion would lead me to believe it would automatically get cached to the SSD as soon as I turned SRT on.

Also here is what I had in mind for setting up my SRT, let me know your thoughts.
SSD: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=365475&sku=C19-8025
HDD: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7288041&sku=TSD-500AALX

Good deals too, $50 off the SSD and 35$ of the Caviar black.

So more or less, I want to know if this is...
A) Correct as far as my statements in the first paragraph (regarding partitioning of what is and isn't cache data)?
B) A good setup as far as the HDD and SSD components go? (Above)
C) Is it even worth-while to go SRT, or would I be better off just buying a 256gb SSD and using that as my main hard drive? (For instance, this one: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2336435&CatId=4217)

keep in mind I really only have $250 to spend on my new Z68 system.

 

[Pinhedd]

Honestly, if you have 120+GB of SSD space you should just put your OS and all of your applications on it. Move your bulk data like music, movies, tv shows, pictures, etc... onto a platter drive.

 

[Dereck47]

Pinhedd is correct. Intel SRT and cache drives are for people who can't afford a large SSD to install their O/S and most frequently used programs on.

Go for the drive you linked to if you can afford it.

 

[JeremyHill]

Alright guess ill grab the M4 256gig. So how much space is taken up on the SSD for the "instruction set" for the SSD and etc?

 

[Dereck47]

Not sure if I totally understand what you're asking but Windows will show the drive at around 238GB. Windows 7 and all of the Service Packs and updates will take around 19-20GB of space. So you will have 218GB for the rest of your programs and data

 

[JeremyHill]

Yeah I didn't know how to describe it, but when I was reading about it online they said if you buy an SSD at 256 you don't get the full 256 cause part is being taken up by the SSDs programming or something. That sucks though that it takes up so much space =/

So can I run a system off an SSD? Like i don't need a backup at all? just one 256gig SSD and there's no greater risk of system failure or anything like that? I was always under the impression that SSDs are less stable, and more prone to corruption.

 

[Dereck47]

Yeah I didn't know how to describe it, but when I was reading about it online they said if you buy an SSD at 256 you don't get the full 256 cause part is being taken up by the SSDs programming or something. That sucks though that it takes up so much space =/

That has nothing to do with the SSD. HDDs are the same way. If you buy a 1TB HDD Windows will show around 931GB.

So can I run a system off an SSD? Like i don't need a backup at all? just one 256gig SSD and there's no greater risk of system failure or anything like that? I was always under the impression that SSDs are less stable, and more prone to corruption.

You should always have a separate backup drive, whether you're using a HDD or SSD.

 

[JeremyHill]

Aye aye sensei. I guess I shall buy the Crucial m4 256Gig, and keep my old drives as a backup, Though I don't intend to ever really use them. I've never even filled the first 360gb I have up, the Second drive has never once been used in 5 years Lol. I would like to replace them, but I only have the budget of $250 at the moment, so I have to go for the best performance and that's the SSD.

 

[Pinhedd]

Yeah I didn't know how to describe it, but when I was reading about it online they said if you buy an SSD at 256 you don't get the full 256 cause part is being taken up by the SSDs programming or something. That sucks though that it takes up so much space =/

So can I run a system off an SSD? Like i don't need a backup at all? just one 256gig SSD and there's no greater risk of system failure or anything like that? I was always under the impression that SSDs are less stable, and more prone to corruption.

What you're talking about is the firmware. The controller firmware is usually quite tiny and is invisible to the system unless you're running a firmware updater (which is definitely something that you should do). The reason that Windows reports a different hard drive capacity than advertised on the box is due to a difference in measurement. Storage manufacturers consider 1 Gigabyte to be one billion bytes, expressed scientifically as 10^9 bytes . Everyone else in their right mind consider 1 Gigabyte to be 1073741824 or 2^30 bytes. One is measured in base 10 and one is measured in base 2. Accordingly, storage manufacturers consider 1 Terabyte to be 10^12 bytes but everyone else considers it to be 1099511627776 or 2^40. Working backwards we can see that 1 kilobyte is 10^3 bytes according to the manufacturers and 2^10 for everyone else and one megabyte is 10^6 bytes according to the manufacturers and 2^20 for everyone else.

By looking at the difference of the two we can see that an exactly 1 Terabyte (storage measurement) hard drive actually shows up as 1,000,000,000,000/1,099,511,627,776 = 909.49 Gigabytes (sane measurement). However, 1 Terabyte (storage measurement) is an extremely sharp number and not entirely reflective of the engineered capacity of the drive. The actual storage capacity is a multiple of a multiple of a multiple of 512 bytes. 512 bytes is the size of a sector on a hard drive and a sector is the elementary (indivisible) storage unit on a hard drive. Some new hard drives are using 4096 byte sectors but that's another topic. Thus, a 1TB drive actually has a little bit more than 1TB of space (Storage measurement) but not quite 1 TB of space (sane measurement) which is why it would appear to Windows as having a capacity of around 931GB. The exact same logic applies to SSDs in that the real capacity is just some multiple of some multiple of some multiple that can be expressed using two different bases (base 10 and base 2) and a common SI suffix to confuse customers.

 

[Dereck47]

Most Z68 boards have 4 6Gb/s ports. 2 Intel 6Gb/s ports and 2 Marvell 6Gb/s ports.

Connect your M4 to one of the Intel ports in AHCI mode for maximum performance.

 

[JeremyHill]

Most Z68 boards have 4 6Gb/s ports. 2 Intel 6Gb/s ports and 2 Marvell 6Gb/s ports.

Connect your M4 to one of the Intel ports in AHCI mode for maximum performance.

But my Mobo only has 2 x 6gb/s SATA, Does that mean 1 will be Intel, 1 Marvell? or both will be Marvell OR Intell?

heres the board I bought: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131781

 

[Dereck47]

Both are Intel so connect your M4 to either one.

 

[JeremyHill]

Both are Intel so connect your M4 to either one.

Well in an effort to rape you of your knowledge, I'm gonna continue with questions

So, what is the difference between the Intel and Marvell SATA controllers?

 

[Dereck47]

Intel 6Gb/s ports on a Intel chipset (Z68 for example) motherboard, or AMD 6Gb/s ports on a AMD chipset (AMD 990 for example) motherboard are considered "native" 6Gb/s ports.

Native 6Gb/s ports always give better performance than "3rd party" (Marvell, ASMedia, etc.) 6Gb/s ports.

 

[JeremyHill]

Oh I see, its kinda like those Nvidia nForce chipsets or whatever I read about a while back when Sandy Bridge was brand new, they used them to simmulate additional PCI-e lanes to increase performance on SLI machines because Sandy Bridge only Natively supports 16 lines or something like that.

 

[Dereck47]

Exactly

 

[JeremyHill]

So while I got your attention, Im building a new machine using a new i5-2500k, GTX 480, that ASUS board, etc. All the parts are coming as we speak, being shipped. But since I couldn't afford every little thing, I'll be using a few components from this old PC, and I was just wondering, Is there any purpose at all to the LAN card installed in this old PC? I don't think I've ever use LAN in my line, and I never intend to. And from as far as my knowledge extends, Hardwired internet connections (Ethernet to the PC directly from the Modem) are controlled by the Motherboard and not the LAN card or any other peripheral card.

At least I Assume its a LAN card, All its got is what appears to be a Lime green phone jack interface on the back of my comp.

 

[Dereck47]

Yeah, the Ethernet port on your ASUS board is more powerful than your old LAN card so you don't need to connect it to you new system.

 

[JeremyHill]

Alright well thanks for the help.

Is there any way I can contact you Via messengers? I've got everything lol, Yahoo, AIM, MSN(Windows Live), SKYPE and Steam. I'm gonna be building that PC very soon when the parts arrive so I'm gonna need some help. Plus there's a million and other other things I'm curious about but its getting late and I'm falling asleep sitting up. xD

 

[Dereck47]

No problem! Sorry but I don't have any of those services set up. You can send me a private message through this forum though and I will receive a email notification of the message and reply a.s.a.p.

Click on the 3rd tab right above your profile picture on the right-side of your browser to send private messages.

 

[JeremyHill]

Best answer selected by JeremyHill.