Is this optimal? SSD (Boot) + HDD (programs) + MSATA SSD (Cache)

Hello all,

While I anxiously wait for my new NP8255-S to arrive I am planning out my software installation. I already purchased a Seagate 600 240 SSD to put in the 7MM slot. It will be the OS/boot drive that will dual boot both Win 7 & Win 8.1 (I want to give Win8.1 a shot). I plan to install each OS into two 120GB partitions. I have a LARGE collection of games. My Blizzard, Steam & Origin, etc. libraries are at least 200GB and I switch playing games often (not uncommon to play 4-5 different games over a week span). With Titanfall on the horizon (48GB install!), the space on the boot SSD will be precious.

I plan to store most of my games onto the 1TB 7200RPM HDD that I included in my order (where I may have to have two separate "program files" libraries for Win7 and Win8). With two currently empty mSATA slots free I was thinking of installing a 64GB or 128GB ssd and use RST to cache the 1TB drive. Has anyone had first hand experience with this specific setup? I know it can be done but was wondering if it is worth buying the extra mSATA ssd. I am guessing it would be worth it since most games are 10-20GB, so a 64GB ssd should cache 3-4 games.

Thanks!

 

Your cap will be at 64gb for the caching, so you could partition a 128gb into two 64gb partitions and have one for each OS you have installed. It'd help out with the loading of the games and loading maps as well to have that cache but won't increase your FPS any. With how often you switch games I haven't heard of an identical use as you're planning, but it should help out with those load times for most everything you have installed to the mechanical but don't think it'd be a universal improvement.

 

Why do you need to install Win 7 & 8? I am using Win 8.1 without problems, and I mostly game.

My two cents says buy the biggest SSD you can and just load the games directly on the SSD. I assume you mostly just play a few games during the same time period, so keep those on the SSD, and move the others to the HDD. So in other words you are doing manual cacheing, but you make sure 100% is cached on the SSD.

On the other hand, I game solely from my 1TB 7200 HDD, and the games load pretty fast. I just use my SSD for the OS and other stuff.

 

Not really worth accelerating the hdd for games files since that does not work well with caching.