How does mSATA caching work?

I just ordered a Vostro 3560 with a 750 gig and a 32gig SATA drive and would like to know how the mSATA drive works.

1. Does it show up like a regular drive?
2. What gets cached on this drive?
3. How does this cache get flushed?
4. The moment I get the laptop, I will use Acronis True 2013 to create an image of the hardrive. I will then install some server software to test out. If I were to restore the laptop to this image, what will happen to the cache now that it is "out of sync"?

Thanks for the info!

 

1) No
2) You most commonly-used programs/files. Windows for sure (so you get SSD-like boot times), and the programs that you use the most. Other stuff is relegated to HDD speeds.
3) It's automatic
4) AFAIK, the mSATA cache is hardware-controlled, so it'll still act like cache after a reinstall or installation to another OS. There's probably a way to convert it to a regular 32GB SSD, though I'm not sure how that goes.

 

Thanks for the info. I found some more info on this on the Dell site.

Re: 17R SE 7720 upgrading to +32gb msata W/intel smart response tecnology - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

 

It helps greatly with write speeds too since it works as a write cache as well. A 64GB cache drive would be ideal. However if you're going that big, you might as well just install the OS and apps on the SSD and call it a day.

SSD caching was more useful a few years back when SSD's were quite expensive. Now you can get a good 128GB SSD for ~ $100. Doesn't make much sense to spend $60-70 on a 32GB or 64GB SSD just for caching.

 

Normal SSDs are said to improve environment mapping/texture loading during game play in games like Skyrim. Does Msata do the same too?

 

mSATA is just another version of a connector with same performance as SATA. And SSD speed has little to do with gaming performance except in games like WoW with streaming textures.