SSD primary Drive or Intel SRT??

CCNTrainee

So my laptop has finally arrived as well as my mSATA SSD. I was thinking of using the SSD as my OS boot drive but I also have the option to use Intel's SRT. What would be the better method for speed?? What are the advantages and disadvantages when you compare the two methods??

WafflesAndRootbeer

Just use the SSD and don't bother with the SRT stuff. The mSATA SSD you got may not even function in the slot as manufacturers often use BIOS hardware lists that will keep the laptop from recognizing an unapproved piece of hardware plugged into the mini-PCIe slots.

tpatt100

I guess it depends if your laptop is your primary machine or not. I have an SSD in my Macbook but it isn't my primary machine so only having one hard drive isn't a big deal for me. My desktop has an SSD with a SATA hard drive for storing data, applications and games are on the SSD.

I really need to read more on SRT though because back when I looked at it they were newer and the reviews were pretty average, there didn't seem to be much of an actual advantage and back then SSD was still really expensive.

About7Narwhal

I would also like to know more about SRT. Mainly if anyone has used it for a while and can provide insight into it's reliability and performance.

CCNTrainee

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Well this laptop will pretty much be taking the place of my main desktop when it comes to usage. I'll be using it to bring it to work and will be studying for my Certs as well as building up my virtual domain. I have a 1 TB HDD as well as two mSATA slots to upgrade with SSD. My main benefit is speed, since I want to install the OS, Apps, and games on the SDD, while using the Tera as my data drop point. Thou just like waffle said, may be not play at all so my original plan is what I'll be doing.

ratbuddy

I've been using SRT since May 2011. Love it.

The setup is Vista 64 Ultimate, Gigabyte Z68MX motherboard, OCZ Vertex 2 90GB SSD for an OS drive, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB spinner, and a Crucial M4 64GB SSD for SRT cache drive. I haven't had a single problem with reliability. For the first year or so, I ran the cache in enhanced mode, meaning only read caching, no write. After a while, I said to hell with it, and put the cache in maximized mode, and the system got even snappier.

The beauty of SRT is how it adapts to your use. I have 500GB in my Steam library, far too much to leave installed on pure SSD storage. With SRT, any game I've been playing lately is automatically cached, and I don't have to worry about it. Stuff that's frequently used loads nearly as quickly as if it were stored on a regular SSD. The system also doesn't care if you temporarily disable cache, like if you wanted to install a performance-sensitive VM image on the SSD. Disable caching, do your thing, re-enable caching when done, and you're good to go.

Mind you, I set this up when SSDs were quite a bit more expensive than they are today. I got my total of 154GB of SSD storage for $175, which was quite a good a couple years ago. If I were doing this today, I'd be more likely to use pure SSDs, and backup to spinners. Basically, if you can't afford enough SSDs to store everything you frequently use, SRT is a great alternative.

WafflesAndRootbeer

CCNTrainee wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Well this laptop will pretty much be taking the place of my main desktop when it comes to usage. I'll be using it to bring it to work and will be studying for my Certs as well as building up my virtual domain. I have a 1 TB HDD as well as two mSATA slots to upgrade with SSD. My main benefit is speed, since I want to install the OS, Apps, and games on the SDD, while using the Tera as my data drop point. Thou just like waffle said, may be not play at all so my original plan is what I'll be doing.

I don't know of any laptop with two mSATA slots. The most I've ever seen is a single mSATA/miniPCIe slot paired with another miniPCIe slot that is not tied into the SATA controller. You might want to double-check the hardware specs before you run off and buy components. What is the make and model of this laptop?