AMD explains benefits of StoreMI on 400 series motherboards

[HEXUS]

Every AMD 400-series motherboard includes SSD-HDD fusing AMD StoreMI Technology.

Read more.

[azrael-]

According to German c't 15/2018 there are no real upsides to StoreMI, yet plenty of downsides. For instance, the possibility of data loss. FYI, the link leads to a pay-to-read article. Sorry about that.

[cheesemp]

I'm sure I've seen this tech before??? Agree with Azrael - doesn't sound like upsides are that great compared to risks. With Windows 10 you can move user doc folders to another drive really easily or even mount another drive as a folder. Add in that steam/twitch (and I'm sure others) make it easy to choose a second disk when installing games and it doesn't seem worth it.

[Tabbykatze]

According to German c't 15/2018 there are no real upsides to StoreMI, yet plenty of downsides. For instance, the possibility of data loss. FYI, the link leads to a pay-to-read article. Sorry about that.

Schrodingers article, it's both useful and not useful at the same time

[EN1R0PY]

I'm sure I've seen this tech before??? Agree with Azrael - doesn't sound like upsides are that great compared to risks. With Windows 10 you can move user doc folders to another drive really easily or even mount another drive as a folder. Add in that steam/twitch (and I'm sure others) make it easy to choose a second disk when installing games and it doesn't seem worth it.

I think the point being missed here is that it's managed for you on a low level, so it's only going to load the parts of a game you use frequently onto the faster drive. That's not the same as you moving the whole game to a small SSD where you have to swap out the whole game when you want to play something else, sure either way it would benchmark the same but why wouldn't it? It's not for getting faster than rated speeds it's about getting the benefits of an ssd drive with capacity of a hdd at the same time. It's not a new idea either, they've been selling hybrid ssd's for some time but now you can build one yourself. Intel's optane solution is a similar teired storage system, but their SSD cache is exactly the same as this but you HAVE to buy their SSD for no reason and the DIMM version solves the reliability issues if you're willing to sell a kidney or two for the whole setup.

[Nifl]

I prefer a decent natural intelligence (myself) over an artificial intelligence, that needs several attempts before getting it right, to decide what stuff should be on the SSD.

[DavDarkelf]

I don't see the point. Large capacity SATA SSD drives are cheap enough that you can always keep the games your playing on them. I only have a few games, music and photos on my HDD now.

I've had one SSD failure and if it was using StoreMI I'd end up in an almighty mess rather than having to just reinstall windows.

[Corky34]

I don't see the point. Large capacity SATA SSD drives are cheap enough that you can always keep the games your playing on them...

IMO its usage is rather niche, it has a point if you're strapped for cash and can only buy a tiny SSD, and if you wanted the speed of an SSD but didn't want to reinstall Windows (I'd question not reinstalling Windows on a change of MoBo but it takes all sorts), there must be other uses but i can't think of more.

[Percy1983]

Well this is good for me, currently running an SSD cache using IRST. Tiered storage doesn't worry to much for my current setup (2x2Tb HDs in raid 0 + 64gb SSD cache) As I use it mostly for steam/games, everything important is backed up and steam games can be re downloaded.

In short when ram prices come down and I finally get my hands on a ryzen board my current games drive will go straight across to storemi without hesitation.

[philehidiot]

My concern about this is that, whilst much improved, SSD cells still have a limited number of write cycles. This is going to be constantly moving data around when really, the cost of an SSD is such these days that you might as well just get a reasonably sized one and stick important stuff on it. Even a cheap SSD is going to be better than this solution, surely? I'm sure I've seen a 512GB SSD for under £100. That's enough for Windows and loads of games. This tech just seems obsolete before we even start, especially as a lot of SSDs come with software to transfer the contents of a HDD to the SSD without having to reinstall the OS.

[azrael-]

My concern about this is that, whilst much improved, SSD cells still have a limited number of write cycles. This is going to be constantly moving data around when really, the cost of an SSD is such these days that you might as well just get a reasonably sized one and stick important stuff on it. Even a cheap SSD is going to be better than this solution, surely? I'm sure I've seen a 512GB SSD for under £100. That's enough for Windows and loads of games. This tech just seems obsolete before we even start, especially as a lot of SSDs come with software to transfer the contents of a HDD to the SSD without having to reinstall the OS.

One would think you've read the article I linked or didn't link to...

[philehidiot]

One would think you've read the article I linked or didn't link to...

I tried but it was both in German and behind a paywall... If I really wanted to go down this route I'd get a hybrid drive which is surely going to be better and faster than all the data going via the mobo.

[shaithis]

I'm sure I've seen a 512GB SSD for under £100. That's enough for Windows and loads of games.

Not the ones I seem to play.... 50GB games are becoming the norm these days.

[Tabbykatze]

One would think you've read the article I linked or didn't link to...

If it was worth reading it wouldn't be behind a paywall or you would have excerpted the useful bits you have highlighted here.

[azrael-]

If it was worth reading it wouldn't be behind a paywall or you would have excerpted the useful bits you have highlighted here.

I actually was about to paste the relevant bits in the original post, but precisely because it is behind a pay wall I'm not sure of the legality of it. It is worth reading, but it all pretty much boils down to what I stated initially and what phil wrote, data loss and obsolete tech. Which apparently is also hard to get rid of in case you're not satisfied with it (the boot load gets left behind).

[philehidiot]

Not the ones I seem to play.... 50GB games are becoming the norm these days.

<Nostalgia>
Y'know when I was coding we could fit an entire OS on a floppy. Should have seen the excitement when we got our Zip drives with 100MB discs...
</old_man_syndrome>