Hard Drive with SSD Cache: A True Game-Changer

16GB SSD cache

With the staggering upsurge in data requirements, applications are now required to access data much faster to keep-up with the data transfer speeds. Normal hard drives are not able to comply with the enhanced performance gains, which the modern processors based servers are able to generate. Hard drive with SSD cache or Intel SRT technology is an innovative solution to bridge the gap between these data requirements.

Hard drives with SSD cache are designed to improve the performance of computers which use standard hard drives. SSD works by efficiently reducing the time the hard drive takes to load the frequently used applications. As the SSDs are much faster than the traditional hard drives, it enables your computer to easily access the cached data at improved speeds as compared to reading it from the hard drive itself. One of the most important applications of the SSD cache is while booting your computers or running an application for the first time after rebooting your system. As we all know that when a computer is booted or is switched off, all the recent data from the RAM is automatically deleted from it. Thus, in such cases the SSD still stores a copy of the data to offer immediate response.

Once the SSD cache is setup and perfectly configured, the cache will start functioning as a program is run. It will automatically start storing the data in the cache for future access. It offers two modes of writing cache- maximized and enhanced. Maximized mode make the cache perform like a write-back cache, which makes the written data reach the SSD cache and then writing it again on the hard drive. Whereas, the enhanced mode make the cache perform like a write through cache, which makes every written data reach both the SSD cache and hard drive simultaneously before moving on. While the enhanced mode is considered to be the most secure, maximized mode is known to offer much better performance. But the downside of using maximized mode is that you can also lose the data completely in an event of power failure, as it makes the cached data reach simultaneously to both the SSD and hard drive.

Moving from the pros of SSD cache, here are some of the most common drawbacks of SSD cache. Hard drives with SSD cache are very expensive as compared to standard hard drives. Moreover, if you have already stored the data in the RAM, then your SSD cache is not able to improve the speed of load times, as the RAM is way too faster than the fastest of SSDs available in the market. Moreover, the SSD cache is completely dependent on the hardware and host software to deliver its maximum potential. If you have a high quality SSD with a poor quality hardware installed, then the SSD will not be able to offer considerable performance improvements. Also, due to limited space, complete data of the computer cannot be stored in a single RAM or the existing CPU cache and same is the situation with the SSD cache. Studies show that files bigger than a few MBs are unable to get stored in the SSD cache.

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The elitebytes have also added a 16GB SSD cache upload feature! To know more about there upload feature you can visit at https://www.elitebytes.com.