DVA7922
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on November 04 2009
50 State Club
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Globetrotter
"Student Pilot: "Um, Your controls.""
Dallas, GA USA
384 legs, 1,292.5 hours
128 legs,
221.9 hours online
382 legs,
1,281.7 hours ACARS
18 legs,
40.6 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
September 30 2012 14:15 ET by Charles Carter
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I got bored yesterday and decided to browse the latest Jetline Systems PCs. In their performance breakdown section they had a new hard drive configuration option that seemed interesting:
Use a standard HD (such as a WD Black 7200 rpm) but with a small SSD coupled to it to act as a cache. According to their graphs, the configuration is supposed to have performance just below that of having your rig run entirely from an SSD, and better than using a Velociraptor 10,000rpm HD.
I checked out a couple of the available "cache" SSDs, and the great thing is that they are pretty cheap. As in, I got one for $69 with a $20 mail-in rebate. The idea is that you install the drive, and then install some service software that hides the drive from normal use and turns it into a cache that learns what files are the highest demand on your system and stores them on the SSD for that "near instant" access time. It only took me about 30 minutes to install the drive and software. The first boot after the software is installed is normal, but every boot after that is impressively fast.
As far as FSX is concerned, I'm definitely seeing better performance. It's hard to measure how great the boost is, but it is noticeable. Even just loading all my support apps (FSPS xTreme, AS2012, ACARS) and loading up FSX to where I'm sitting at the gate all happens much faster.
I got mine from a local retailer who had the Crucial Adrenaline and the OCZ Synapse. I got the OCZ synapse because it was cheaper and had more storage space.
Anyways, if you have the means it's worth at least checking out.
Charles CarterSenior Captain, MD-88
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA
2,305 legs, 9,284.6 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online
1,963 legs,
8,077.7 hours ACARS
75 legs,
196.3 hours event
2,341 legs, 9,419.5 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
CURRENTLY LOGGED IN
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Posted onPost created on
September 30 2012 14:40 ET by Luke Kolin
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DVA3196
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP, COMM
Joined on June 03 2006
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club
"pitchpowertrim.com"
Anderson, MO
619 legs, 1,093.4 hours
292 legs,
503.1 hours online
580 legs,
1,026.5 hours ACARS
89 legs,
191.0 hours event
236 legs dispatched, 110.1
hours
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Posted onPost created on
September 30 2012 14:52 ET by Michael Brown
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DVA7922
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on November 04 2009
50 State Club
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Globetrotter
"Student Pilot: "Um, Your controls.""
Dallas, GA USA
384 legs, 1,292.5 hours
128 legs,
221.9 hours online
382 legs,
1,281.7 hours ACARS
18 legs,
40.6 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
September 30 2012 15:26 ET by Charles Carter
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Luke Kolin wrote:
If you have a Z68 chipset, you should have this capability.
Cheers!
In my research I saw something about the Z68 chipset. I believe it might be able to provide the cache service at the motherboard/hardware level (which would make it faster), but you don't have to have the chipset (I don't). The cache drives come with software to do the work.
I guess I forgot to mention, there are some basic requirements to make this work. The biggest thing is that you have to have a slot to mount the drive and SATA capability on your motherboard. I *believe* the software might be limited to Win 7 right now too, but it seems to get regular updates.
Charles CarterSenior Captain, MD-88
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