Intel Smart Response Technology
SSDs are fast...very fast. But, the problem is they are small in capacity and expensive. For instance, a 160GB SSD costs around $400, while a 3000GB (3TB) hard drive runs about $180. So, with the hard drive, you get 20 times the storage for 1/2 the cost. The cost per gigabyte for the SSD is about $2.50, whereas the cost per gigabyte on the hard drive is about $.06. That means the cost per gigabyte on the SSD is 40 times as much!
Now, let's talk speed. A typical SSD can read at around 250MB/s and write at around 150MB/s. A new mechanical hard drive is around 1/10th this speed in real world tests. When it comes to seek times (the time it takes to find the data on the drive), SSDs are nearly instantaneous, while hard drives are around 10ms. This means that random reads and writes are much faster on SSDs. Bottom line...SSDs are much faster than hard drives. Load times are dramatically reduced with SSDs. This includes Windows load times and program load times.
For most people, a single SSD will not suffice for storage. After loading the operating system, programs, and games, the SSD will likely be full. Until now, most people with SSDs had to also install a coventional hard drive for mass storage. This forces them to "manage" the storage by keeping frequently accessed items on the SSD and off-loading less-frequently-accessed items onto the slower mechanical hard drive. But, who has time for that?!
Now, we have a new solution from Intel called "Smart Response Technology". This technology allows you to implement a smaller SSD to be used as a cache along with the larger conventional drive. It gives near-SSD performance for less money (smaller SSD needed) and less headache (only one drive letter to deal with). The two drives work TOGETHER to give your the faster performance AND the larger storage capacity.
When you select this option on your Digital Edge system, we have this all set up for you. When you receive your machine, you just turn it on and enjoy exceptionally fast hard drive responses.
According to Intel:
Intel® Smart Response Technology is an Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (RST) caching feature that improves computer system performance. It allows a user to configure computer systems with an SSD
used as cache memory between the hard disk drive and system memory. This provides the advantage of having a hard disk drive (or a RAID volume) for maximum storage capacity while delivering an SSD-like
overall system performance experience. Intel® Smart Response Technology caching is implemented as a single drive letter solution; no additional drive letter is required for the SSD device used as cache.
