Romexsoftware's Primocache Revisited: One Real World Result.

Using the image backup tool in Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) and Romexsoftware's PrimoCache RAM cache software (v1.0.1), I created a 117.7 GB image backup in 10 minutes and 35 seconds. This works out to 185,354,330.7 bytes/sec (185.3 MB/sec).

Source drive (boot/primary): Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD

Target drive (secondary): the really cr@ppy Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1 TB Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 5,400 RPM HDD (the one that maddeningly and constantly autoparks, spins down etc., every 8 seconds - I used the excellent little tool, quietHDD (build 250) to fix this annoying problem). Pathetic 8 MB built-in cache buffer. (SATA3, 6 Gbp/s). Maybe on a good day, does about 90 MBps writes.

PC: Asus R751JN-MB71 laptop
CPU: intel core i7-4700HQ
RAM: 16 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600, CL9
Primary (boot) drive: Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD (4 KB cluster size)
Secondary (storage) drive: Western Digital 1 TB Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 5,400 RPM HDD (4 KB cluster size)
GPU: nVidia GeForce 840M (2GB DDR3)

PrimoCache 1.0.1 settings:

Cache Size (in MB): 3,072 (3 GB), shared across both drives
Set to cache both reads and writes
16 KB block size
15 second write delay latency


Anyway: 185 MB/sec, sustained, using PrimoCache. I saw it with my own eyes, and I timed it very carefully. This real world, sustained write speed figure is higher than the write speed of the OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SSD.


And yes, the little green I/O blinky LED on the front of the laptop stopped blinking ~15 seconds after Windows said that the image backup completed (showing enforced deferred write latency). ; P

*WITHOUT* PrimoCache loaded, the same 117 GB backup image took 22 minutes and 21 seconds.

Take that, PrimoCache naysayers.