Intel Z68 Caching Follow-Up

I've been using the Z68 SSD cache for a while now so I think I can provide some comments on its performance. In short: spectacular. My PC at work has an SSD as its only means of local storage - all long-term storage is either in the cloud or a NAS. This means I can directly compare the responsiveness of an SSD-based system to a HDD-based system with an SSD cache provided by Intel.

In terms of absolute speed, native SSD is indeed faster and its always faster. However the drawback is the lack of storage space - I'm constantly performing due diligence to not only ensure I've got space left, but sufficient space so that the SSD's performance doesn't degrade badly. Win7 means I do get TRIM support, but since each SSD controller is different I don't think you can be too careful - especially after Anandtech managed to make a Crucial SSD (the kind in my work PC) run slower than a traditional HDD.

However, in general use I couldn't tell you whether the PC I was using had an SSD or a HDD with SSD cache provided by Intel. Intel's caching algorithm seems to be very intelligent and it has cached pretty much everything I use regularly to the point that the few apps I load from the HDD are barely noticeable as such. Think about it - how often do you open an app that accesses over 20MB of data in a short period of time? All of the big apps I use somewhat regularly, which means they're all cached. The rarely used apps tend to be small and therefore load just as fast off of the mechanical HDD anyway (although being small they tend to stay resident in the SSD anyway).

The caching algorithm is also clever in that it caches blocks, not files. This means if you're playing a game with massive resource files on the HDD (looking at you Steam...), then only the blocks you actually use are cached. This means you've got more cache space free for other regularly used blocks elsewhere.

But let's be a little more specific - how has the SSD made a big difference? Well big stuff like Office, games, Visual Studio etc. open almost instantly - even directly after bootup. I am consistently the first person to spawn in Battlefield 3 after a map change. Firefox opens instantly after logging in to Windows.

This is the difference you get with an SSD. While with the cache you may not get quite the speed of a native SSD - you just can't tell the difference. About 90% of the time I'm using my computer it's (subjectively) no slower than a native SSD. Bargain!