SanDisk ReadyCache SSD - Your Hard Disk's Little Helper

The Era of Flash

There is no running away from SSDs' obvious performance benefits when compared to traditional mechanical hard disks. In terms of outright performance, even a mainstream SSD with slower asynchronous memory would leave the fastest 10,000rpm hard disk for dead. Unfortunately, SSDs still cost considerably more than traditional hard disks, and do not yet come in the same capacities that traditional hard disks offer. Presently, the largest capacity SSDs are generally only 512GB, whereas 3TB mechanical hard disks have already been available for quite some time and 4TB models are the latest variety.



Therefore, many users have resorted to using an SSD and mechanical hard disk combo for their system. In such a combo, the OS and frequently used applications are loaded onto the SSD, while data such as the music library, photo collections, videos and documents are kept on the hard disk.



However, such an approach requires a certain amount of upkeep and maintenance. Depending on the size of your SSD, you would need to regularly prune and maintain the applications on it to ensure you do not use up the limited storage capacity. Furthermore, for users who do not wish to build a system from scratch, adopting such an approach would require you to manually migrate your OS and application files to the SSD. This can be a tedious and daunting task, especially for the less tech-savvy, or those who're strapped for time.



To this end, SanDisk recently introduced their ReadyCache SSD with 32GB capacity to speed up your system's performance using a regular hard drive. Borrowing on the concept of Intel’s Smart Response Technology, the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD takes things one step further by making it easy to setup.

While we found Intel SRT technology to be effective, getting it setup for the first time is a bit of a hassle as it requires the system to be configured for RAID. Since the casual user would have most probably configured the SATA chipset mode to be in AHCI, changing it to RAID would require either a series of rather tedious edits to the registry or a complete OS reinstall. There are also further limitations to Intel's SRT technology, including the need for a particular chipset support.



The SanDisk ReadyCache SSD does away with all of the above mentioned and works straight out of the box. All you need to do is to hook it up to your system, run the installation program, and it will do the rest. Working behind the scenes here is a special software developed by both SanDisk and Condusiv Technologies, which automatically caches crucial system files as well as frequently-used application files without any user intervention. SanDisk claims the ReadyCache SSD can improve boot up times by up to 4 times while application response times can be improved by as much as 12 times. We’ll be putting these claims to the test, but first, a look at the drive itself.

Test Setup

For this review, we will be testing the SanDisk ReadyCache using our storage testbed, but with a few tweaks. Here’s the specifications of our testbed:

• Intel Core i5-2400 (3.1GHz)
• MSI Z68A-GD80 (Intel Z68 chipset)
• 2 x 4GB DDR3-1600 memory
• MSI GeForce 8600 GTS
• Windows 7

To test how effective the SanDisk ReadyCache is, we’ll be using a few variations. First, we’ll obtain a baseline score using our storage testbed and an ordinary Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB HDD. We will then use this along with the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD to see how much of a performance gain we can get. Next, we’ll see how this setup performs with Intel's Larson Creek kit. Larson Creek is Intel's own kit that took advantage of its Smart Response Technology and was released earlier with the Z68 chipset.

Additionally, to see how a traditional hard disk and SanDisk ReadyCache combo matches up against a pure SSD solution, we’ll mate our testbed with a 240GB Intel SSD 520 Series SSD - one of the finest enthusiast-grade consumer SSDs in the market today. Finally, as a sort of a wild card entry, we also paired the Intel SSD 520 Series with the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD. It’ll be interesting to see if this setup can net any performance gains.

To summarize, here are the different setups we will be testing:

• HDD (baseline)
• HDD + Intel Larson Creek
• HDD + SanDisk ReadyCache SSD
• SSD
• SSD + SanDisk ReadyCache SSD

To test the performance of our various setups, we will be using a combination of benchmarks and timing tests. We will benchmark the setups using PC Mark 7. We will also time the system’s boot up and restart times, and the time it takes to open Adobe Photoshop CS6. Finally, the last test we would conduct is to time how long it takes for the system to load the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat benchmark.

While testing the setups that were boosted by the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD and Larson Creek, we made sure to run them at least twice to ensure they are "cached" before taking their results.

As mentioned, here's the list of benchmarks and tests we will be using and conducting:

• Futuremark PC Mark 7
• Cold start timing
• Reboot timing
• Adobe Photoshop CS6 start-up time
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat start-up time

SanDisk ReadyCache Setup

The SanDisk ReadyCache SSD prides itself on its ease of use and setup. And indeed, the drive was dead easy to install and get up and running.

Included with the drive is an installation bracket that holds the drive in place in typical 3.5-inch hard drive bays. SanDisk has also provided a SATA data cable, which is a thoughtful touch. Once the drive is installed, boot your system up and the drive should be automatically detected. Next, download and install the ExpressCache software from SanDisk.

After installation, you will be greeted by the ExpressCache control panel. To begin, activate the drive by entering the activation code that is provided with the drive. Following that, click on Activate to begin caching and that is all. At this point, the ExpressCache software will automatically determine which files are worth caching and copying them to the SSD. Thereafter, the software will pick up on your usage patterns and habits and start caching files that you frequently access.

The ExpressCache control panel also lets you monitor the usage of the drive by displaying how much of the 32GB capacity is left. And there’s also an added option of clearing the cache. This is useful if you have deleted applications that you once used frequently and want the drive to relearn your usage habits.

The software doesn’t specify exactly what files are being copied into the system and there’s no option anywhere to do so. While advanced users might be miffed, this, we think, is the beauty of the software and of the drive. It does everything on its own in the background and requires no input from you.

However, does it really work? Time to take a look at the benchmark results on the next page.

PCMark 7 Results

PCMark 7 is the latest benchmarking suite from FutureMark that evaluates the performance of Windows 7 machines. It tests a wide range workloads and aspects of the system ranging from computation, image and video manipulation and storage.

And looking at the results here, our testbed with just the hard disk alone set a baseline score of 2822 3DMarks. With the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD, our setup’s performance improved considerably as it scored 3639 PCMarks. This translates to an improvement of around 28%, which is definitely a significant boost to performance.

When coupled with Intel’s Larson Creek kit, we managed 3807 PCMarks - 4% better than the score we achieved with SanDisk’s ReadyCache SSD. Looking at the score breakdown, we can see that with the Larson Creek kit, the system managed marginally better scores in almost all individual workloads when compared to the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD.

However, all this pales in comparison with a pure SSD setup, which garnered 4130 PCMarks. We also tried mating the SSD with the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD and that gave us 4077 PCMarks, which was slightly lower than what we achieved with a lone SSD. However, the difference is just a mere 2% so we can probably attribute this to random error.

Time-based Test Results
 

Looking at the timing results, it wasn’t surprising to find that the pure HDD setup scored the poorest timings. After installing the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD, we found that the timings took a significant dip. Cold start timings dropped a remarkable 14 seconds and it took only half the time needed for Adobe Photoshop CS6 to start. The time taken to load the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat benchmark was also reduced dramatically. With the Larson Creek kit, the timings for our tests also dropped significantly too, and were quite comparable to the the timings achieved by the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD, if a little slower.

However, a pure SSD setup trumps all here. Booting from a cold start, a pure SSD setup recorded just under 40 seconds, a good two seconds faster than a hard disk and SanDisk ReadyCache SSD combo. Reboot timings were faster by over four seconds and a pure SSD setup took nearly just half the time (3.8 seconds) to get Adobe Photoshop CS6 up and running.

Looking at the results of the SSD and SanDisk ReadyCache SSD combo, we can see that the addition of the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD had no positive impact, in fact, it seemed to have slowed our system down a little. Apart from running the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat benchmark, the SSD and SanDisk combo recorded marginally higher timings for most of our tests, showing that for the best performance, a pure SSD setup is the way to go.

Your HDD's Capable Little Assistant

As the numbers show, the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD does provide a significant and measurable boost to your system’s performance.

Compared with our baseline setup which consisted of a lone HDD, complementing it with the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD netted an impressive 28% increase in performance on PC Mark 7. Furthermore, we also saw significant decreases in system boot up and restart times. Additionally, application startup times saw considerable improvements too.

All things considered, it offered just about the same level of improvement as the older Intel Larson Creek kit. Although the kit is no longer readily available for sale, it’s worth noting that at the time of its release, it retailed at a not inconsiderable US$110 (S$135). Therefore at just S$78, the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD represents pretty good value for money and is well worth the investment if your system is feeling the affects of age. At this point of time, we would like to point out that you can get 60GB SSD drives for about the same cost, but you lose the hassle-free 'setup and forget' procedure of the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD.

As we mentioned, value aside, the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD was also remarkably easy to setup. It doesn’t require a specific SATA mode to operate, which makes it much easier to install and get up and running. It is also not tied to any computing platform and is practically platform-agnostic. Furthermore, the ExpressCache control panel is simple, straightforward and works well. Lastly, we like how it works silently in the background - it automatically determines what’s worth caching and what is not, and does not require any input or intervention from the user as it learns the user's access patterns.

In closing, there’s a lot to like about the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD. It works as advertised and offers a lot for its price. However, with all that said, a pure SSD setup is still the only way to go if what you want is the ultimate in performance. For those who can't spare time for a complete backup, system overhaul or simply don't have the time to help speed up your system, the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD is as effortless as things can get.

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