HDDBoost - mating an SSD to a HDD

[WalkinTarget]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/04/s...-ssd-hard-dri/

So what do we think ?? Gimmicky kludge or worthwhile setup ??

I can't imagine how it could intelligently cache what you need when you need it. It resembles ReadyBoost in its caching, but again, its meant for a user with small SSD, something along the lines of 32/40gb to be paired with a 500gb or 1tb drive.

[juneau]

Gimmick that'll never take off. Trust me.

[WalkinTarget]

Juneau, you know I am a sucker for gimmicky stuff !!!

I need to pop up a few pics of my workbench rig .. I finished converting all cables inside to EL and added two more CCL tubes to go with the existing two. It lights up like a Christmas tree ! I am hogging out the existing side panel window this weekend, adding a larger etched one to show off the interior.

[juneau]

Juneau, you know I am a sucker for gimmicky stuff !!!

I need to pop up a few pics of my workbench rig .. I finished converting all cables inside to EL and added two more CCL tubes to go with the existing two. It lights up like a Christmas tree ! I am hogging out the existing side panel window this weekend, adding a larger etched one to show off the interior.

Pics asap! It's not like you can go outside.

[WalkinTarget]

No excuses .. I gotta lotta free time now, so I've been walking around with my dig. camera, just snapping away:

Picture of the workbench rig:



This is the PC I use to look up issues with customer PCs. It sits on the right side of the bench and the customer PC goes on the left side. A KVM allows me to toggle between the two depending on what I need to work on.

Link to the old thread on that build with details on the hardware:

http://www.cainslair.com/showthread.php?t=1921

I added two more CCL tubes, a 12" on the bottom and a 6" by the PSU, plus UV green SATA cables and a modded IDE cable wrapped in green EL wire. This pretty much finished off the interior, but I now have the side panel off. I am hogging out the small window in it and making it a bit larger and adding another etched plexi panel to replace the older, smaller non-etched window.

All lit up with flash off this time:



Obligatory pic of the workbench hardware:



Not content with typical PC speakers, I re-purposed a bookshelf 60 disc changer I had with a 50w powerd subwoofer. The WHS MediaSmart Server to the right handles all of my backup work, making a daily backup of every networked PC on my network. To the right of that is a Belkin 1200 UPS that keeps things working during any momentary power blips.

[rusty99]

Um Walkin, I really like your setup, but you might consider switching the locations of the server and the backup power... I'd have to wonder what kind of magnetic fields your network backup is experiencing from that subwoofer (seeing as there is a fairly large permanent magnet in there).

[WalkinTarget]

Um Walkin, I really like your setup, but you might consider switching the locations of the server and the backup power... I'd have to wonder what kind of magnetic fields your network backup is experiencing from that subwoofer (seeing as there is a fairly large permanent magnet in there).

Hey, I never thought of that ! From what I've seen of the magnetic fields and their affects on drives, they have to be closer than that, but I will take your advice into consideration.

[juneau]

Surely that speaker will be magnetically sheilded? pretty much all speakers have been for the past who knows how long.

Btw WT the PC looks so badass in the 2nd pic. It's like it's hulking up or something.

[mapes]

Hey all

Back on topic here. Just plugging in a SSD and a HD is BS and a gimmick. Unless of course there was some type of driver or hardware support for the file system. For example the Linux file system ext3 has journaling support (I believe NTFS has it too). Basically when ever a change is made to the FS the OS writes that change into the journal which could then be used for searching, faster access and data recovery. If you located that journal object on the SSD then there would be a performance boost.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/04/s...-ssd-hard-dri/

So what do we think ?? Gimmicky kludge or worthwhile setup ??

I can't imagine how it could intelligently cache what you need when you need it. It resembles ReadyBoost in its caching, but again, its meant for a user with small SSD, something along the lines of 32/40gb to be paired with a 500gb or 1tb drive.

[WalkinTarget]

Point to be made is the performance increase should indeed be minimal, but we're around talking $40 retail for said device. I've seen these small 'scratch' 30/40gb SSD drives selling for WELL under $100, so for under $150 you can see a speed increase using the best of both technologies.

My big concern is the type of controller used - Jmicron ?? Blechhh ...
I myself am holding off at least a year until I go SSD. We will talk again at the end of this year to see where we are on the subject.