News - SilverStone's HDDBOOST promises to boost system speed by merging your SSD and

[HEXUS]

The idea is to create "one virtual super storage solution". Confused? So are we.

Read more.

[shaithis]

Hmmmm.......it probably sounded a lot better at the concept stage....

[Tattysnuc]

So, this is a raid1 device then?

Am I understanding this right? You have an SSD and a Hard Drive, and on boot up the SSD receives a copy of the Hard drive and then subsequent read operations read from both drives, and writes go directly to the SSD, then are mirrored by the hardware back to the HD.

Why would you do this? Surely the SSD would be limited to being the same size as the HDD, making this a VERY expensive setup.... Be cheaper and faster to buy 3 hdds and have a raid 5 array....

[shaithis]

No, the SSD only copies a subset of the data from the HDD......therefore, if you want to read some data that has not been "mirrored" you need to access the HDD for it anyway.....

How it will handle the caching is anyones guess, although from the article, it really sounds way way way too basic to be anything other then a complete waste of cash. Might as well put the cash towards a larger SSD.

Now, if the caching was intelligent and it was a system-wide device (i.e. 1 SSD could cache all the hard drives connected to the same SATA controller), then it might have some value.

[daveyhue]

I actually think this could be a positive thing, I've also never known silverstone to sell tosh, so why start now?

If it can prioritise to store all the major files which are needed on bootup rather then programs we use once ina blue moon and documents we never access it could be excellent!!!

[shaithis]

Why not just buy an SSD and put the files you use most on it yourself? You get better control over it that way and you don't need to buy a gadget that sits in-between!

[scaryjim]

Why not just buy an SSD and put the files you use most on it yourself?

Perhaps you don't always know which files you use most? I certainly don't know every file that Windows uses internally, and I bet a lot of those get used far more often than the few I choose to start...

If this worked as a giant persistent cache, with some kind of reasonably intelligent algorithm about what got cached and when stuff got flushed from the cache, I can see it being very useful indeed - it would act to slowly speed up your system over a period of time as more of your frequently used files got cached on the SSD and used first. If it could then also support multiple HDs in various RAID setups, reporting itself as one logical disk to the OS, it would remove the need for end users to have to worry about which programs to install to their SSD and which to keep on the storage, as everything would be kept on the bulk storage but the most used OS files would also remain on the SSD for faster access.

It would have an advantage over just using an SSD as your system drive because you could go for a much smaller SSD - say 32GB - and it should still be enough to hold all the frequently requested files that would make a big difference to system speed: on the other hand a 32GB system drive will fill up very quickly with Windows 7 + updates and a couple of apps, and then you have to start deciding what to put on the system disk and what to put on your slower storage.

So, please tell me that's how it works? Because if it doesn't it's a huge opportunity missed...

[this_is_gav]

If this could hook into the Windows SuperFetch database and work out what to cache from there, it could be good, but I agree with most... why not just install Windows and your most commonly used programs on that small SSD and the rest on you HDD?

[Infinite]

Easiest way to find out is if someone tests it.........

[scaryjim]

Easiest way to find out is if someone tests it.........

If SIlverStone want to send me one, plus a 1TB HDD and a 32GB SSD, I'll happily write a glowing review

[miniyazz]

If this could hook into the Windows SuperFetch database and work out what to cache from there, it could be good, but I agree with most... why not just install Windows and your most commonly used programs on that small SSD and the rest on you HDD?

This!

[mikerr]

This is now at scan.co.uk for £38.75

AIUI it does a mirror copy from the HDD to SSD on bootup. The SSD is only ever written to at that stage.
Then all writes go to the HDD (not to the SSD) and the new content then read from HDD.

So if lots of writes are happening, the SSD data will get used less and less (until a reboot/refresh)?

After the initial mirroring of data is completed, SSD and HDD will have the same front -end data. HDDBOOST’s controller chip will then set data read priority to SSD to take advantage of SSD’s much faster read speed. HDDBOOST’s priority will be determined by the following rules:

1.When data is present on both drives, read from SSD.
2.When data is not present on both drives, read from HDD.
3.Data will only be written to HDD.

Every time the system starts, HDDBOOST will initiate mirror backup automatically to ensure front-end data between the two drives are the same."

It also reads that the SSD doesn't need to the the same size as the HDD, which makes it more practical as a cache.

I'll be ordering one to play with

[IceEmQuick]

*********** I have one of these and it works fantastic *********

I had a nice Windows 7 install and didn't feel like going through the hassel of a day or 2 of re-installing software on my machine which I finally have up and running completely stable and working perfectly. Honestly it was running so good I was hesitating using this thing for fear of really messing things up.

Some of you say that you should just start over, and I can see that argument, and for some that is a good argument, but sit down and look at your system and do you have and or remember every tweak, setting and driver installed, do you feel like doing it all over again?

I was skeptical, but I got a 32 gig SSD with claimed read of 230 and write of 120MB....

I hook it up and I literally DID NOT have to do a thing. There was NO software to run. You can download it if you want to to monitor or force a sync, but I leave that alone and let the unit do what it does....

The machine runs VERY VERY fast and the best part is to test it out, I can actually just open the case and pull out the SSD and restart and see how long a normal boot will take. Currently it takes 1 minute 18 seconds to get to a spot where I can confirm the last program is started. With the unit in place.... It drops to less than 25 seconds..... and this is from the moment I enter my password and press enter. The speed increase is worth it.

Total time for install. 5 minutes.... I have gained that back in 2 days and a few reboots.... Its not perfect, as it doesn't handle writes.... as it passes those off to the HDD, but I am very impressed with this.

This is nothing like you would expect with the Hybrids of a year or so back, or the new ones like the Momentenus...... this will blow them out of the water....

I don't have to worry about the SSD getting old and slowing down and TRIM support and all that stuff... I can swap out to a bigger and bigger unit until I can afford to us Acronis to clone my HDD onto an SSD, but until that day comes, I'm not going to waste another day getting my machine just right by reinstalling windows to take advantage of a 32 or 64 gig SSD, and then setup all my programs to run off my other HDD... this basically does the same thing, but without the work....

The ONLY time I would say not to use it, is if you are ALWAYS writing to the HDD like in a server environment or some other setup where you need maximum write speed.... then go with the reinstall... otherwise, this is a very wise investment...

I think after it syncs and you get that first boot, you will know you have a winner...

The ability to be able to pop in a bigger one as needed is a plus.... as the price drops you can put new ones inside in literally 30 seconds and enjoy....

No need to do the multi-drive setup.... in the end you basically end up with the same thing... windows loading off of the SSD and the rest of your stuff loading off your slower drive... so, why would you waste a day re-installing all your stuff when in the end you will see the drive at nearly full speed...

HardwareCanucks did a test and found that you get almost 95% of the rates SSD read speed... and other benefits...

for the price.... if you are considering an SSD you probably have an extra 50 laying around... try it... you may be more than shocked like I was.... so far I have shown 20 people... and 14 have installed it and love what they get......

[mikemikemi]

Sounds like the same concept as the Momentus XT.