Fancycache! :d

[enigma#]

TLDR: FancyCache is a _free_ piece of software that you can use to enhance the IO of your computer, specifically in the realm of disk read/writes.

 

To put this into perspective, your SATA disks and even graphics cards are not that fast compared to your memory. If you have spare memory (and yes, even 1 GB counts)... why not use it to your advantage?

 

First download FancyCache here

http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/fancy-cache/download.html

 

Pick the Disk edition, imo it's better

Download it and install it.

 

Reboot as it tells you to and launch it

 

Click register and select 'Activate using a License File' then add the Key File by hitting Browse. Navigate to the key file.

 

Here's the registration key (its good t'il July 31st 2013) .. you can find the next one on forums.

 

The basis of FancyCache is knowing what to have and not have.

 

In my case, I have 16 GB of RAM; which for most people (including me) is overkill. However, I can utilise the 16 GB to speed things up.

This means that when I copy files back and forth from my drives (like the 3 TB hard drive [Disk 0]) I don't suffer from the slow speeds of the hard-drive.

 

so select the drive you want to enhance... for instance Disk 0:

 

Now for the block size, this strictly depends on what you do. If you do massive file copying/moving, increase the block size. This one you'll have to play with to see if you get good results.

 

Cache Size (Level-1) - this represents the memory you are allocating as a 'cache'. Set it to how much you can afford taking from your system RAM. If you set it too high, you could crash your computer should it find a load too large to handle.

Algorithm - This one you can play with pretty much. For RAM, it doesn't matter too much. I use LFU as a personal choice.

LRU (Least Recently Used): discards the least recently used data first.

LFU (Least Frequently Used): counts how often a data block is needed. Those that are used least often are discarded first.

Cache Strategy - Do you want to cache both read and writes, just reads, just writes? Up to you

 

If you want to cache writes, read this section:

'Enable Defer Write' is a must for you!

Latency is the time it takes for it to 'defer writing' the data it cached onto the disk itself. This means that for instance, if you wrote a 4 GB file to the disk that is cached and you have 4 GB cached, then you would actually not have written the 4 GB file to the disk itself YET. This is where the latency matters, if you specify a latency of 120 or whatever amount... FancyCache will wait that time before it writes the data onto the disk itself. This is a personal preference thing and it is highly suggested to keep it LOW just in case a power outage/browning hits. If you have a UPS, you can set it higher.

 

Release After Write is good if you want to clear your cached written data off the cache itself and want to begin immediately caching the new data (Good for OS drives and game drives)

If you're using a hard-drive, maek sure to check on 'Overcome HDD C1 issue'. It makes it so one of your SMART values don't freak out too easily lol.

 

Do not check 'No Write Flush at Shutdown' unless you have a specialised setup that can support it (UPS for instance).

 

You can optionally check on 'Averaging Write Amount'... never really saw any performance enhancements myself with this option but you can test it out.. some applications may like it more.. some less..

 

Okay, last piece is the L2 Caching.

 

This is good if you have another SSD and want to use it to speed up your hard-drive. With L2 Cache enabled, you can bridge your SSD to a hard-drive to do some of the writes/reads for you.

In this case, I have a 120 GB Samsung SSD so based on the size of it: I've created a ~100 GB L2Cache for my HDD.

 

Assuming your SSD is a drive letter, select 'SSD/Flash/Other Drive' and change it to the letter drive you want it to be.

 

For Algorithm: it's a personal preference thing: I picked 'LBW'.

• MBU (Maximum Block Usage): This L2 algorithm is to achieve the better cache capacity combined with L1 cache. When the L2 cache is full, the algorithm discards/replaces the data in L2 cache.
  
• LBW (Least Block Written): This L2 alogrithm is to achieve the least data written. When the L2 cache is full, the data in L2 cache will not be replaced. This algorithm is designed for SSD drive because of the write-cycle lifespan. Note: Although there's no replacement in L2 cache, L1 cache keeps replacement while full
  

Once you've set up everything select 'Configure Caching'. Depending on the options, you will need to reboot. This is unfortunately a downside to FancyCache but it works quite well for what you need.

 

If you're not sure how many GB you need, here are a few conversions for you:

1 GB = 1024 MB

2 GB = 2048 MB

4 GB = 4096 MB

16 GB = 16384 MB

32 GB = 32768 MB

64 GB = 65536 MB

128 GB = 131072 MB

256 GB = 262144 MB