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I have a Gigabyte motherboard with the z68 chipset. I have used it for 1.5 years with a normal 1 Tb HDD. Then I have bought a Samsung EVO 840 SSD drive and problems started to arise...

I have a Windows 7 x64 and I use many manually configured applications (music related). Reinstalling everything is not an option.

I have a bunch of questions as I could not enable Smart Response (no Accelerate button).

The goal

I am a musician and many of the plugins I use uses samples (some times loading 1 Gb of samples).

  1. I'd like to automatically cache the most used program files/data on the SSD (Question 0. 40-60 Gb would be more than enough?).
  2. I would use some of the remaining space for putting the latest project on I work with / backing up the most important stuff

Questions

  1. Is the Rapid Storage the best option to achieve my goal number 1 (caching most used data)?
  2. Can I have partitions on the drive I use for Rapid Storage for goal number 2?
  3. Is Rapid Storage only enabled when I use it in RAID? (Currently I use AHCI).
  4. [answered by myself, see below!] Is RAPID mode of Samsung EVO 840 similar to the Rapid Storage, or it is totally different (then what does it do really?)
  5. As I didn't remember downloading AHCI drivers for Rapid storage (it does exist), how can I know which drivers I should download from Intel? (options: AHCI drivers for NUC / Intel Desktop Boards / Intel 6 Series Chipset-Based Desktop Boards)

What I did

I had enabled AHCI (through editing registry).

I removed the partition on the SSD as some people said it worked for them, but accelerate button did not show up. Then I made a partition as it worked for some folks. Not for me.

Drivers on Device Manager: IDE ATA Controllers currently set on my computer

Update 1

RAPID mode uses your RAM to boost the performance of the SSD. This is NOT the caching as in goal number 1. See also: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5628/samsung-840-evo-overview-new-ssds-with-interesting-rapid-mode-cache-tech/index3.html

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    Intel SRT - Smart Response Technology is what your looking for. It only works in RAID mode and with the SRT drivers installed. Allows up to 64GB of an SSD to be used to cache the HD, the remaining space can be used for other partitions.
    – Brian
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 19:15
  • Thanks @Brian, I'll switching AHCI to RAID. In the BIOS I see two SATA controllers: one is SATA other is GSATA3 (or GSATAIII?). I will switch both.
    – atoth
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 20:24
  • Some MB use another SATA controller(s) for ESATA ports or additional SATA3 ports to supplement those provided by the Intel chipset. The MB manual should have drawings or pictures showing which are which.
    – Brian
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 11:55
  • Great, after switching to RAID I had fired up the Rapid Storage acceleration. After all this configuration, I had found a new element in Device Manager: "Other devices -> Raid Controller" with the yellow ! (driver not installed). Also, under Storage controllers, I see the Intel RAID driver. What could it be? How can I find out what is this mysterious device?
    – atoth
    Commented Dec 20, 2013 at 13:12
  • You can try to run Intel Driver Update Utility (Java application), which tries to detect your HW and currently installed drivers and offers you newer/missing drivers for download. You definitely need at least Intel's RAID driver and maybe Intel Rapid Storage Technology application (if it's not included in driver). See Intel Download Center.
    – David Ferenczy Rogožan
    Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 12:37

1 Answer 1

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I have switched to RAID and could finally fire up "Smart response" mode. I still can use the rest of SSD as an additional disk. It solved the problem.

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