Laptop has 8gb SSD built in as well as main HDD... what's the point??

Bought a used Samsung Chronos laptop (NP700Z5C-S01UB) and of course the first thing I did was wipe the HDD to reinstall Windows nice and fresh.

One thing I noticed was that this laptop has an 8gb SSD built onto the motherboard that Samsung refers to as "Express Cache".

I left the 8gb unformatted and just installed Windows on the 1tb drive but I'm left wondering... what the heck is the point of that SSD?

It's too small for a Windows install... maybe good for ReadyBoost? It's a 3rd gen i7 so I don't really think that's necessary.

Thoughts?

 

It's for caching commonly used files on the HDD. I have the same thing with a 16GB SSD, also using ExpressCache software.

 

Do I just need that software & to format that partition & it does the rest? Is it really noticeable?

I've also read that it's best to not use the ExpressCache if you install a SSD as your main drive. Is that true?

 

You need the ExpressCache software to enable SSD caching. Once you install the software, it will automatically format and partition the SSD.

It'll decrease your boot time and maybe speed up the loading of a few commonly-used small programs. The problem with 8GB is it's so small that the cache will be constantly flushing its contents if you access a lot of big programs or games, which kinda defeats the purpose of having a cache in the first place.

Best solution might be to just open an admin cmd prompt, CD to C:\Windows, and type eccmd -preload to force your cache to always contain your Windows directory. Assuming, of course, that it'll fit on it. But getting a spacious real SSD and installing your OS and commonly used programs on it is always a better solution than caching.

The SSD is not your main drive, the HDD is. The SSD is just a dynamic cache whose contents will be constantly changing with your usage habits. If you already have an SSD as your main drive, there's no point in installing ExpressCache. Format the 8GB drive in NTFS, partition it, and use it as a small data or scratch drive.

 

Ok, that last bit is what I figured! I already installed a 256gb SSD. I'll just leave the 8gb internal one unformatted so it doesn't show up and bug me

Thanks for the info!

 

Or just physically remove it.

 

For the Samsung, I believe that useless 8GB cache drive is soldered onto the motherboard. I was disappointed when I found I couldn't replace mine, but then I have the 17" NP700Z7c model.

 

It is, yes. Soldered on and not disable-able! But just leaving it unformatted makes you forget all about it haha

Or maybe a net surfing Linux dual boot? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm