840 EVO as HDD cache in Win10. Worth the trouble?

[ChrisAttebery]

Hello,

I just put a new Windows 10 Pro system together. I have a 960 EVO installed as the boot drive. I installed the 2TB HDD data disk out of my old machine. This drive only has pictures, video and music files on it.

I have a 250GB 840 EVO in the old machine that was the boot drive. Would it be worth installing it into the new machine as a HDD cache? If so, how would you recommend setting it up?

If the hardware matters I have the following installed:
i7-8700k
MSI Z370 PC Pro
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 500GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4
WD Blue 2TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache

Thanks in advance,


Chris

 

[sinisterDei]

WIth your stated purpose of the 2TB drive as just raw storage for pictures, video, and music, then I would say no, it's not worth the trouble. None of those applications really care about the latency or throughput of the storage medium.

If you're looking for a "what to do with the 840 EVO that benefits my system", then I would sell it for whatever dollars you can. Take that cash, and use it to purchase an external 2TB+ drive. Use that drive to back up the contents of your PC periodically, keeping it unplugged from the wall and PC between backups.

Having a backup has the potential to be of massive benefit. Having your music/movies/TV shows load 5% faster will not.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I'm going to try putting the most recent pictures on the 960 EVO and see if it makes any difference in LightRoom. Apparently they've made it a lot easier to move pictures recently.

I already have a 4TB external drive. I might buy another 2TB internal though and put them into a RAID 1 type configuration.

I think the 840 might get relegated to my son's laptop. After using it a couple times I realized how slow the HDD in his machine is.

 

[sinisterDei]

Sounds like a plan. I would definitely go for RAID 1 if you already have an external drive!

 

[PliotronX]

Windows 8.1 and 10 feature tiered storage spaces but they are configured by powershell. Another (easier) option is Intel SRT but limits SSD usage to 64GB. Yet another in between in difficulty is a Marvell 923x controller with a Hyperduo volume. Primocache is a third party software product that will do the same. All of these work well IME but because of the native support, I tend to dive into powershell.

Definitely going to be useful in a laptop. Oh how I hate those 5400 rpms...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Windows 8.1 and 10 feature tiered storage spaces but they are configured by powershell. Another (easier) option is Intel SRT but limits SSD usage to 64GB. Yet another in between in difficulty is a Marvell 923x controller with a Hyperduo volume. Primocache is a third party software product that will do the same. All of these work well IME but because of the native support, I tend to dive into powershell.

Definitely going to be useful in a laptop. Oh how I hate those 5400 rpms...

That's why I have no misgivings about using 2.5" 5,400RPM drives in my desktop. If there is adequate caching, and its stability and reliability never leaves any questions, it doesn't matter if the HDD storage being cached is not the fastest I can buy. The performance of the caching configuration mostly depends on the speed of the cache.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I moved all of my pictures from 2018 onto the OS SSD. It was very easy to point LR to their new location. I tried my most common tasks and it feels faster. The only LR task that is still kind of slow is exporting a large number of JPGs. I'll leave all of my music and older pictures on the HDD. I don't need fast access for them.

I got Macrium Reflect set up to do a full back up on Sunday night and a differential every night.

I think I'm done working on this system for a while. Now to enjoy using it.