Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) Revisited a few months later . . .

[BonzaiDuck]

Somewhere buried in dated pages for this motherboard forum, there is a thread on ISRT -- a feature of the Z68 chipset.

It's my personal judgment that ISRT is "here to stay," and it will be implemented in future successors to Z68. Our assessments of how well it works, caveats and frustrations with making it work, are in that thread.

Even so, I believe I've stumbled on a bug or annoyance with ISRT [by which I mean the SSD-caching/HDD-acceleration].

When running ISRT while attempting to install large software packages from optical installation discs (like MS Office Pro), I've seen the SSD being "kicked off" during the installation, subsequent malfunctions in the software installations, sudden "disappearance" of the optical [DVD-RW] drive, or "hanging" of the installation program.

In each and every case, with each and every symptom, the problem disappears by attempting the install again after unhinging the SSD-caching. I had also discovered that you can "unhinge" the RAID configuration without deleting it and starting from scratch. This is particularly nice to know if you use some part of the SSD as a formatted partition unrelated to the HDD acceleration, so you won't lose your data in that partition.

It seems to be an acceptable or minor annoyance unless you're planning to install new software every day or every week.

 

[clok1966]

This is not Z68 chipset, its the 68 chipset I think. I have the same issues with my SSD on a GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3. I bought my board originaly with the SATA (sandy bridge) issue and the problem was present with a fresh install. I got my replacement board and redid my install as so many people suggested driver issues. Same thing, I then tried a different SSD, same thing, I tried a PCI Sata card, same thing. Most installs on my system hang, they will finish if you wait 10-20 minutes. But the simple fix it just kill the install and start it again and it will smoke on through. I'm a PC tech by trade and reserching this has got me nowhere. I have actually resorted to taking my PC to other techs and paid them to figure it out, 3 tries, no fix (thankfully only one charged even when he couldnt fix it). its very frustrating and I had planned on upgrading to a Z68 board in hopes of getting rid of this issue, now i see I wont. I work on PC's all day so when i get home I play (if im inside) on mine.. and STEAM has to install direct X and VC libraries on every game install.. sucks to sit 10-30 minutes depending or Kil the install and redo it on all those game (or even apps). I havent noticed my Optical drives having issues, but 99% of my installs are vurtial drives or HD.

If you ever find a solution, plese let me know.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This is not Z68 chipset, its the 68 chipset I think. I have the same issues with my SSD on a GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3. I bought my board originaly with the SATA (sandy bridge) issue and the problem was present with a fresh install. I got my replacement board and redid my install as so many people suggested driver issues. Same thing, I then tried a different SSD, same thing, I tried a PCI Sata card, same thing. Most installs on my system hang, they will finish if you wait 10-20 minutes. But the simple fix it just kill the install and start it again and it will smoke on through. I'm a PC tech by trade and reserching this has got me nowhere. I have actually resorted to taking my PC to other techs and paid them to figure it out, 3 tries, no fix (thankfully only one charged even when he couldnt fix it). its very frustrating and I had planned on upgrading to a Z68 board in hopes of getting rid of this issue, now i see I wont. I work on PC's all day so when i get home I play (if im inside) on mine.. and STEAM has to install direct X and VC libraries on every game install.. sucks to sit 10-30 minutes depending or Kil the install and redo it on all those game (or even apps). I havent noticed my Optical drives having issues, but 99% of my installs are vurtial drives or HD.

If you ever find a solution, plese let me know.

Sure. I think there's a misunderstanding here, though. Z68 implements SSD-caching/HDD-acceleration for the first time, or so I understood. So this isn't just an SSD problem -- it's a problem for using an SSD to cache a hard disk.

I thought I had an intuitive grasp of the problem/situation. One is not only caching "reads" from the hard disk, but there is a write-back factor. So if, for instance, I wanted to install the six-disc set for "X-Plane 9" flight simulator just to choose the topo-map sectors for the Western Hemisphere from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, it means some 50 GB of files saved simultaneously to HDD and SDD under ISRT "Enhanced Mode" caching. In my case, the cache itself is only 19 GB.

Very cautiously and mostly because I saw a forum post for this motherboard where someone's system "went south" after attempting to flash a Beta version of the BIOS, I'll probably install the BIOS update for the board (no longer "Beta") -- which also includes in the download an update to the Intel ISRT software.

ISRT seems to show great promise. The benchies for my rig showed very significant performance increases over certain RAID configurations of my own experience. But like anything new, there will be some drawbacks. Even as this seems to be a technological leap, I'd look for more and more "hybrid-drive" models that show equal reliability to what we've become accustomed.

HDDs have always been the significant bottleneck in PC systems, prompting some of us to spend money on RAID controllers and additional drives -- no help for the electric bill, either. My last big computer-build of 2007 resulted in a machine I found difficult to lift into the back of my SUV. Of course -- I'm an old man, not given over to an exercise regimen.

Either way and at the moment, this is going to cost. You'll spend between $100 and $200 on an SSD, only $80 on a decent high-capacity HDD. A decent four-drive controller might run around $350, and four drives for an array might be $300. A larger capacity SSD is quite expensive to the tune of $2/GB (500GB SSD's can go for around $1,000.)

All this might change as SSDs become less expensive and the manufacturers have contented themselves to capture R&D costs from sales on a downward-sloping average-fixed-cost curve and find production efficiencies. We won't hold our breath.