Should i buy primocache?

[eidairaman1]

No

 

[Mussels]

Oh wait, i found a good use for primocache
Write caching for torrents on my NAS/HTPC, to reduce wear on SSD

Torrenting to RAM storage and then moving to SSD reduces writes, and on a mech drive reduces fragmentation (if the whole thing fit in the RAM storage)

 

[silentbogo]

Ohh this makes me want to purchase one of those T3610's off ebay for cheap and stuff it with ram.

I think it's still more financially viable to mod BIOS and just stick an NVME drive in it. With v2 xeons you get PCIe 3.0 on some slots, which means 3GB/s is totally doable.
Did it on my HP Z620, and even on v1 CPU I'm getting enough bandwidth to fully utilize a cheap-ass Goodram PX500 NVME SSD.
Plus, on T3610 you don't even need to solder anything, the entire procedure can be done in software (and ME_Unlock jumper).
Even if you are scared of flashing new firmware or modding BIOS, you can bootstrap an NVME drive just by running a bootloader off a USB flash drive or HDD.

 

[alexs20]

I was about to buy PrimoCache but then I realized that they are pure Chinese company, with physical address in China.
Since then I have another question: Should I trust to PrimoCache which is Closed-Source and runs as SYSTEM level service in my PC?

 

[CheapMeat]

Honestly some of the responses here remind me of the same type of people who outright dismiss Optane drives.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I was about to buy PrimoCache but then I realized that they are pure Chinese company, with physical address in China.
Since then I have another question: Should I trust to PrimoCache which is Closed-Source and runs as SYSTEM level service in my PC?

That's a solid question. The answer is ultimately going to be up to you. There are many things that come out of China that are perfectly safe. During the testing a few months ago, no "iffy" behaviors were exhibited, and I was paying careful attention. If you're worried, use firewall rules to block it from access to the internet.

 

[Mussels]

That's a solid question. The answer is ultimately going to be up to you. There are many things that come out of China that are perfectly safe. During the testing a few months ago, no "iffy" behaviors were exhibited, and I was paying careful attention. If you're worried, use firewall rules to block it from access to the internet.

I actually trust lex to be paranoid about that sort of thing, so his opinion has some weight there

 

[lexluthermiester]

I actually trust lex to be paranoid about that sort of thing, so his opinion has some weight there

I prefer the term "ultra cautious", but whatever.

 

[Rob_mc_1]

Hi,

I am currently in the process of upgrading my system. Current system is dual e5-2630 v1 with 64 gb ram with a 1 tb 2.5in ssd for os and apps and a 4 tb hdd for my data and profile.

The system I'm moving to will be 12700k with 64 gb ram. I do have a 2tb nvme drive to replace the os drive but I will be sticking with the 4tb hdd for storage. I was looking at primocache as an option to tier cache the old 1 tb as cache for the 4 tb data drive. I was not planning on doing ram cache. Based on the comments earlier that seems to be its focus.

I was just looking at primo being $30 while a 4 tb ssd replacement being more.

In my scenerio, would it be worth it?

 

[R0H1T]

Primocache is essentially superfetch on steroids. Short-term satisfaction is good (so as "on paper" numbers), but actual daily benefits are highly questionable, especially if you are already running an SSD.

You really don't know what you're talking about then, I've been using it on & off for over half a decade & it just works! Except for some unexpected power loss scenarios there's nothing like it out there ~ not even close

Write caching for torrents on my NAS/HTPC, to reduce wear on SSD

Use defer write for that.

 

[harm9963]

Hi,
If you fill in your system spec's everyone that post on your threads... would already know this and more

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/account/specs

Asus ROG boards come with ramcache included
I've personally never used it some buddies use it mainly for benchmarks and some use it for programs
Vulnerabilities execute through memory so it's a double edged sword feature like virtual machine/ virtualization which I always disable one less security hole.

More trouble than its worth, for so little return.
My Sabrent NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 Interface is more than enough.

 

[lexluthermiester]

In my scenerio, would it be worth it?

Honestly, it will depend on your usage scenario. The great thing is the download includes a 30day trial, so once you get your new system, you can try it out and see if it'll work for you. If it does, you buy a copy and you're off and running. If it doesn't work for you, at least you'll know.

If you need some advice or tip for getting it setup and optimized for your system, chime in here and we'll help you get things sorted out.

BTW, welcome to TPU!

 

[Mussels]

Bumping this older thread, to show that primocache does have a benefit on modern systems: reducing writes.
They had a long convoluted article about it, boils down to the cache being TRIM aware so it can "un-delete" files without a full re-write of them so certain files getting re-used over and over saves on many writes over time.

Smaller number since my system just booted, but over the last week, i've been seeing an average 20% reduction in writes on my C: drive consistently. Games and downloads drives see about a 1% reduction.

My C: is a 128GB partition containing just the OS: no documents, downloads, desktop folders, no games, no torrents. Just the OS and installed programs like web browsers.

a 20% increase of lifespan on my boot SSD? Worth it to me.

 

[lexluthermiester]

a 20% increase of lifespan on my boot SSD? Worth it to me.

Anything that can boost SSD lifespan is a good thing IMO.

 

[pavle]

I was about to buy PrimoCache but then I realized that they are pure Chinese company, with physical address in China.
Since then I have another question: Should I trust to PrimoCache which is Closed-Source and runs as SYSTEM level service in my PC?

Doesn't the latest Diskeeper have a RAM cache feature? Would be interesting to test it.

 

[Mussels]

Doesn't the latest Diskeeper have a RAM cache feature? Would be interesting to test it.

Do you mean this?

DymaxIO

DymaxIO is fast data performance software that returns 40%+ of your throughput that is lost due to I/O inefficiencies. DymaxIO fixes I/O issues at source.

condusiv.com

That's a monthly cost, while diskeeper itself is long abandoned

 

[pavle]

Do you mean this?...

Oh, yeah - I meant that - the DymaxIO, it still contains Diskeeper, I just forgot they'd combine it into a blob and made it a service, which understandably is undesirable.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
After looking at some of my oldest now 10 year old ssd's I'm not worried about wear and tear

 

[Bill_Bright]

i've been seeing an average 20% reduction in writes on my C: drive

I'm confused. Where are you seeing 20%?

Beyond that, I see in your screen shot, 870MB of writes. 870MB is nothing.

For example, if you take the budget minded Samsung 870 EVO SSD and scroll down to the section "Industry-defining reliability" and note the following fine print where it says (my bold added)

* Warrantied TBW (terabytes written) for 870 EVO: 150 TBW for 250 GB model, 300 TBW for 500 GB model, 600 TBW for 1 TB model, 1,200 TBW for 2 TB model and 2,400 TBW for 4 TB model.

If you were to write a whopping 30GB to the SSD each and every day, 365 days a year, that is still only 10.95TB per year. And note that super budget 250GB SSD is rated for 150 TBW. That means if you wrote 30GB per day, 365 days per year, it would take 13.7 years (150/10.95) to wear that drive out. You would hit the 5 year warranty long before that.

Look at the 2TB SSD. With 1,200 TBW and that same 30GB every day, it would take 40,000 days or 109 years!

How many people write 30GB to their disk in one day, let alone every day, all year long, year after year? What are the odds our hard drives will last 13 years? How about our RAM sticks, PSUs, motherboards, CPUs, you name it!

Terabytes written.

The write limit with first generation SSDs was certainly a problem for a few folks in certain scenarios. But, these days, several generations later, there just isn't the need to worry about wearing out our SSDs anymore. The odds are clearly in our favor that the rest of our computer components will die, or be replaced due to obsolescence (or the upgrade "itch) before we reach the write limits on our SSDs.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hi,
After looking at some of my oldest now 10 year old ssd's I'm not worried about wear and tear


View attachment 242437

Still, anything that can save SSD wear is of benefit, especially for QLC based drives which are(sadly) becoming more common in prebuilt OEM machines.

 

[oobymach]

I went to the website and it "accelerates" hdd's for example by writing the file to a cache first then transferring the data over a period of time, that's what I'm doing already so this is a redundancy that isn't needed imo, it's not magically making the hdd faster. I already minimize ssd writes by moving temp and download folders to an hdd.

 

[Mussels]

I'm confused. Where are you seeing 20%?

Beyond that, I see in your screen shot, 870MB of writes. 870MB is nothing.

For example, if you take the budget minded Samsung 870 EVO SSD and scroll down to the section "Industry-defining reliability" and note the following fine print where it says (my bold added)



If you were to write a whopping 30GB to the SSD each and every day, 365 days a year, that is still only 10.95TB per year. And note that super budget 250GB SSD is rated for 150 TBW. That means if you wrote 30GB per day, 365 days per year, it would take 13.7 years (150/10.95) to wear that drive out. You would hit the 5 year warranty long before that.

Look at the 2TB SSD. With 1,200 TBW and that same 30GB every day, it would take 40,000 days or 109 years!

How many people write 30GB to their disk in one day, let alone every day, all year long, year after year? What are the odds our hard drives will last 13 years? How about our RAM sticks, PSUs, motherboards, CPUs, you name it!

Terabytes written.

The write limit with first generation SSDs was certainly a problem for a few folks in certain scenarios. But, these days, several generations later, there just isn't the need to worry about wearing out our SSDs anymore. The odds are clearly in our favor that the rest of our computer components will die, or be replaced due to obsolescence (or the upgrade "itch) before we reach the write limits on our SSDs.

That screenshot was showing since last boot. The amount of data was small because the system had just rebooted, and i already stated that the drive is pure OS + browsers - it doesnt do large writes.
That's the whole point. reducing smaller writes to save the SSD.



Here it is again today, after gaming. 28.5% reduction.

That number can show values of data still in the cache to be written, but the buffer is empty here.

All i've done this reboot is Dying light + edge (TPU+email)
Heres E: (user folders like desktop, downloads etc)

and D: (Steam/games)

As i stated earlier, primocache can save on repetetive file use that deletes and creates the same files via TRIM usage (somehow) - and lighter tasks like browsing and gaming, shows some good lifespan gains.

I don't benefit from the read caching much, but the write caching is helping for sure.
My two drives and their life usage. A lot to go, but with efforts like this i can keep using them another 10 years.

 

[95Viper]

Stay on topic.
Keep your discussion on the technical aspects.
Thank You

 

[80251]

I believe GTA V wastes a LOT of time hitting the rockstar servers, so your underlying storage medium is nearly irrelevant.

 

[chrcoluk]

Having found this thread when it got linked from a newer thread.

I feel the best use of this program is making it run like the ZFS L2 cache setup.

So basically use a NAND drive to accelerate a Spindle, and in addition if you have a UPS (ideally with auto hibernate/shutdown setup on low battery in case unattended) then also enable write-defer for NAND drives.

So basically a configurable software version of the SSHD concept.