One of the more interesting things about the Z68 is Intel’s SRT which allows you to utilize a small SSD as a cache for your HDD, allowing you the speed benefits of an SSD in most applications without having to spend the money to buy an SSD large enough to hold all your favourite programs. Legit Reviews tests a 20GB Intel 311 SSD paired with a 600GB WD Velociraptor in both modes, enhanced and maximized to see which offers the greatest benefits. Check out their findings.
"The Intel SSD 311 Series 20GB ‘Larson Creek’ drive proved itself to be a great cache drive. If you have an Intel Z68 platform that can run Intel Smart Response Technology, it’s worth looking into if you have a hard drive for the primary drive and don’t want to splurge on an SSD and having to re-install your OS!"
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Intel 311 Solid State Drive Tests @ Benchmark Reviews
- Z68 SSD Caching with Corsair’s F40 SandForce SSD @ AnandTech
- OCZ Vertex 3 (240GB) @ AnandTech
- Intel Smart Response Technology and Intel 311 Larson Creek SSD @ PC Stats
- Enabling and Testing SSD TRIM Support Under Linux @ Techgage
- OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State @ Tweaktown
- Solid State Drive Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 @ HardwareBistro
- Mach Xtreme GX 16 GB USB 3.0 @ techPowerUp
- Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5 TB Portable (USB 3.0) Hard Disk @ TechARP
- Thermaltake Max 5G Active Cooling 3.5” External HDD Enclosure Review @ Madshrimps
- Patriot Supersonic 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review @ ThinkComputers
- ineo I-NA559N Pro 5-Bay NAS Server @ Tweaktown
Is it possible to use SRT to
Is it possible to use SRT to accelerate a RAID 1 array of spinning hard drives in a system with an SSD used as a system drive and a separate small SSD used as the cache drive? The benefit would be that files could be moved from the system SSD to the data array more quickly. Could you also allocate a portion of the system SSD to be used as cache so you don’t even need the second SSD.