mSATA Caching Drive + 7200RPM HDD & Gaming (Load Times)

Hi all,

I couldn't really find much on the topic I'm about to inquire about. The search function on this website is not working for me--I don't know if anyone else is experiencing the same problem. I sifted through the first few pages of this subforum as well but could not find an answer unless I just missed it completely.

Mods feel free to close/merge this thread with another if this topic has already been covered recently.


I recently purchased an Alienware M17x (still in building phase) and was abble to "haggle" a couple things here and there to make the system end up cheaper overall compared to the XoticPC Sager NP9170 build with the primary difference between the two being:

M17x:
500GB 7200RPM + 32GB mSATA caching drive
(They don't offer a 120GB SSD for some reason)

NP9170:
120GB Intel 520 SSD

Note: System will be used solely for gaming.

Originally, I was planning on purchasing an additional Intel 520 for the Alienware system in the future; however, after reading an overview by hardwaresecrets.com, I was thinking that I may not need to buy an SSD if Intel's Smart Response Technology works as it's supposed to. Not having to buy an SSD will make the Alienware system cheaper overall, surprisingly enough. (Note: I got a 2% Student Discount + $290 in Gift Card Promotion for purchasing the Alienware, which is already factored into the price).

I understand that SSDs will always beat out the mSATA-caching option but if loading times on games improve significantly, I probably won't need to purchase the 520.

Anyway, I just wanted to see if anyone has had real-world experience using Intel's Smart Response Technology (HDD+mSATA caching) and gaming.

>>Have you experienced significant improvements in loading times for your games?


Thank you very much everyone for your input!

 

To search NBR, you need to go to Google and type in "site:forum.notebookreview.com <whatever you're looking for>".

Right off the bat, you need to know that your drive options will not affect gaming performance much at all (that's the job of the GPU). The only changes you'll likely see are slightly faster load times, depending on game.

With that said, SSD caches only work well if you have a very predictable computing pattern. Say, if you *always* run Game X after you boot, then take a break with Firefox, and then load up Game Y, then the cache will "learn" your pattern and you'll benefit from the faster boot times. However, if you have a "random" pattern and tend to use different programs and random times, then the SSD cache will not learn and thus will be useless (you'll be stuck at 7200RPM speeds).

IMO, you'd be better off changing some of your settings so that you can use that mSATA as a regular SSD instead of cache.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info! I only play 1 game primarily and sometimes alt+tab out to use the browser.

I am not too sure though if i can turn the mSATA drive into a storage though... I don't know how to change settings in BIOS or am afraid to lol.

With the specs I'm getting, I'm not worried about the game performance, only loading times.

Thanks again!

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