SSD as cache + spanned HDD's?

[r4sh1d]

tldr: would adding an ssd as cache to a spanned volume accelerate access?


I have 4X4TB WD greens as spanned volume, total size 10.9TB, I do have an offline backup, running windows 10 PRO X64, 3570k, 16GB ram, crucial 256GB M4, GTX 980Ti FTW GAMING.

I have a videos & pictures folder (1.5TB) that has around 45,000 files, when I browse it in windows explorer it usually takes a few seconds to show the thumbnails of the files. I was wondering if adding an ssd as a cache for the spanned volume will help with displaying thumbnails instantly?

I have an old Intel 320 160GB & a crucial m4 256GB I can use. All I can find online is about adding an ssd to a single hdd as cache, would this work with spanned volumes as well? Or am I asking for trouble messing around with a spanned volume?

Change spanned volume to striped? Throw away the green drives and get something faster that will load thumbnails instantly? I can't justify buying 12TB worth of SSD's to replace the HDDs just for this reason. I see 2TB SSD on sale sometimes, but this folder keeps on getting bigger & bigger and will pass the 2TB mark soon I think.

Thanks!

 

[XavierMace]

With that many files, I'd be surprised if thumbnails were instant even with an SSD.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Intel SRT has option for a single SSD paired to a single HDD to "accelerate" the latter.

[Xavier is going to blow his top . . .] The caching program I use would allow you to cache multiple drives under a single SSD -- or -- RAM-cache allocation. I cannot be sure of the spanned configuration. If it were a matter of my StableBit Drivepool configuration, you would simply cache all the lettered drives that make up the virtual drive of the pool. It would also cache a RAID volume, or combinations of arrays, drives and controllers. If you at least want to investigate, go over to the Romex Software web-site, and either correspond with their tech-support or create an account to ask a question in the forums. "Support" should respond to your questions.

You could use both SSDs if you want to cache drives in two sets. What you're describing here would more likely benefit from a larger SSD, or above 250GB. But you're best to ask the Romex people. It's the only hardware-agnostic caching software alternative I know with the largest number of options -- Primo-Cache.

Get your ducks lined up first, but you can use the trial version for a period that may still be 60 days. It was once a 90-day trial. I'm pretty sure it's going to work with a drive-pool or a RAID array, but you might want to verify that, and see how it would work with spanned volumes. Maybe it will; maybe it won't.

 

[r4sh1d]

Thanks BonzaiDuck, will look into these options; or I might just grab a 4 or 8TB drive and use it exclusively for my family pictures & videos coupled with an ssd & enable intel SRT option. I just like the idea of having everything show up under one drive letter, and as much as these green drives are hated by everyone on the internet, they have been running strong for the past 4 years.

@XavierMace, I just looked and it's actually 56K files, although 20% of which needs to be removed.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Thanks BonzaiDuck, will look into these options; or I might just grab a 4 or 8TB drive and use it exclusively for my family pictures & videos coupled with an ssd & enable intel SRT option. I just like the idea of having everything show up under one drive letter, and as much as these green drives are hated by everyone on the internet, they have been running strong for the past 4 years.

@XavierMace, I just looked and it's actually 56K files, although 20% of which needs to be removed.

Well, I might think that you might try to do this or that based on the expense. If you're like me, the 4x4TB might have other uses, or you could pull one of those leaving a 3x4TB spanned volume and cache the redeployed drive. And if that is all you want to cache, you could use SRT with one or part of either SSD.

But I'm pretty sure of this: You will only be able to use 64GB of either SSD for caching with SRT on that Ivy Bridge motherboard.

If you wish to have a larger SSD cache, you can have that option for the $30 PrimoCache license. And -- you could use some of your 16GB RAM as RAM-cache as well -- in a two-tiered caching configuration.

I'm not promoting the software, but you had specific requirements, and the software offers more options than Intel's faux-proprietary caching.

 

[r4sh1d]

Pulling a 4TB drive off the pool sounds like a great idea, since currently the capacity is at %60 full. I can test the intel srt option by using the 160GB intel 320 ssd, even if it only uses 64GB max.

Thank you!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Pulling a 4TB drive off the pool sounds like a great idea, since currently the capacity is at %60 full. I can test the intel srt option by using the 160GB intel 320 ssd, even if it only uses 64GB max.

Thank you!

Make sure that you connect the SSD to one of the SATA III ports, as opposed to the SATA II.

You can connect your source HDD to an SATA II and it won't make a difference. I think most HDD's still perform under the SATA II spec, even if they are SATA III. Either way, it shouldn't make much difference in the cached configuration performance overall.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

UPDATE from the Primo-Cache Forum over at Romex: You can cache Windows Dynamic Spanned Volumes. There are procedures for creating the spanned disk volumes:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-one-large-volume-using-multiple-hard-drives-windows-10

I had never much explored this option, because I've always wanted to use just a small set of storage devices.

The only shortcoming here: you cannot include the boot-system disk in the spanned configuration. Windows won't boot from a dynamic disk volume.