I have an 8tb harddrive and 256gb sdd and I want to use them as a game drive on linux. I’m not sure what’s the best method for setting that up is or if it’s even a good idea.
yep this is a thing in zfs
Is using an ssd as a cache to speed up a harddrive still a thing?
Submitted 3 days ago by colourlesspony@pawb.social to [deleted]
Comments
hexagonwin@lemmy.today 3 days ago
mercano@lemmy.world 3 days ago
10-15 years ago, Apple had a product built around this concept, the Fusion Drive. It was one physical device containing both types of storage that appeared to the user as a single drive. The OS would decide what files when on which storage medium based on usage. Unfortunately, it’s been long enough that they went to all SSDs all of the time that Apple is removing support for it in this year’s OS release.
valkyre09@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You used to be able to DIY those yourself. Any ssd and hdd combo worked.
Here’s the guide I followed all those years ago: …jinx.de/…/2012.10.20.fusion-drive-on-older-macs-…
2012? Wow. Life really creeps up on you
CptBread@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Not just an apple thing. The general term is hybrid drive. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive
marcos@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Haven’t heard about anybody doing it for a long time. Nowadays flash drivers are big, so people just use them for the fast parts and disks for what can be slow.
I’d use flash for storing the main system, and mount the disk in a directory where you will keep the large media, probably as a subdir of your home.
tyler@programming.dev 3 days ago
It’s how any unraid system works. Your cache drive for uploads and then they get moved with the mover later. Not the same situation as OP though.
cadekat@pawb.social 3 days ago
Yes absolutely! It’s called tiered storage.
If you’re on Linux, you can set it up with LVM. It’s not exactly hard, but you do need to be able to follow a guide and have an understanding of drives. See docs.redhat.com/en/…/lvm_cache_volume_creation for example.
If you’re on Windows… Sorry, I can’t really help you there.
dihutenosa@piefed.social 3 days ago
Yep, I’m running this setup. Honestly, I haven’t measured how much better it is than a plain HDD, tho.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I think it is still a thing, but I dont know if this is the right application for it. IIRC the benefit comes when storing lots of data as the SSD acts like a buffer to quickly store data while it slowly transfers to the HDD. For gaming, you’ll still need to be reading from the HDD in real time meaning the SSD isn’t going to be helping much.
adarza@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
most consumer-grade hdd that size are smr, and that’s why they have a larger on-board cache.
lemonhead2@lemmy.world 3 days ago
new ssds (the nvme ones) can only be overwritten between 100 and 600 or so times. if u use it as a cache ur gonna burn through the drive very soon
look for the tbw rating (terabits written )
BassTurd@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Kind of true. The cheapest nvme drives can be that low. Quality drives are in the low thousands. They do wear leveling to maximize the life of the sectors. I’m reading that it would take roughly 600 times the drives capacity of writes before a sector reaching the limit on a quality drive. It’s still not the best choice for a cache drive, but enterprise grade nvme drives have significantly more cycles before failure. Unless there’s really heavy traffic, an nvme cache would last years before possible issues.
In OPs case, I’d just install the games on the SSD rather than cache them. Ideally, get a larger drive even if it’s used.
lemming741@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I have a 4tb microcenter nvme as my nvr drive. It’s wearing about 10% a year. I don’t think I’ll care in 6 years that it’s at 70% wearout. What’s the oldest component in your rig? Will it ever be your nvme?
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That basic use l is is true, but your numbers are off by several factors if magnitude. Modern drives physical blocks can be overwritten from about 3000 to 100000 times, with some drives going as high as 200000 rewrites.
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
My Synology has 2x nvme drive specific for cache. You can’t even use it as part of your pool unless you ssh in and do it manually.
I use one for cache and the other as part of my pool so my Immich thumbnails load and database fast.
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I do this with my ZFS pools
Venator@lemmy.nz 3 days ago
I believe windows 11 is kinda meant to do this automatically now, which is partly why it uses so much ram when you haven’t even launched anything yet…
It seems quite bad at it however.
This tool is meant to help diagnose issues with it, but I’ve not been able to try it, as the windows 11 machine I use is pwnd by my IT department and their antivirus blocks it from running 😅:
klankin@piefed.ca 3 days ago
Thats a ram cache, not a disk cache (linux automatically uses ram caches - much cleaner than windows too)
Venator@lemmy.nz 3 days ago
I think it saves and loads the ram cache on the disk too, or maybe I’m thinking of a different feature…
adarza@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
i have small ssd and larger hdd on debian and play a few games on it. the games are 30-50+gb ea. they stay on the hdd with the wine files (prefixes/runners). i’m not gonna move that crap around constantly just to play, and i can then use btrfs on ssd more easily. no need to worry about disabling cow on certain game directories, or making different subvols so snapshots aren’t massive.
yaroto98@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Not for gaming so much after ssds got big and cheap, but on NAS Operating Systems like Unraid and TrueNAS, (and likely others) you have a pool of hard drives that do big data storage. Like you pointed out IO is slow. So to speed things up you have an ssd setup as cache. Typically you have the programs you have running are running off that ssd cache. It does IO to the ssd and you setup a slow scheduled replication to the hdd pool.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Sure your bios supports it.
klankin@piefed.ca 3 days ago
Disk caches are usually implimented at the OS level, not bios
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 3 days ago
dell.com/…/how-to-use-intel-smart-response-techno…
It’s a raid controller setting in the bios. Software raid driver may be needed.
owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I don’t know if it would give you the speed boost you’re looking for. That being said, if you’re using something like Steam, you can move files between drives on command. So if there’s a particular game you’re playing for a while, you could move that to your SSD and then move it back to your HDD when you move on to something else.