- Oct 14, 2003
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Does Z68 allow usage of Quicksync even if I'm using my Radeon in the system and disabling Intel Graphics?
Does anyone have a good idea of how great this SSD caching thing will be?
Zero chance that SSD caching will be compatible with P67 through a bios update? Its a hardware thing that P67 doesnt have?
So if you have a 60 GB SSD and use it for the OS and a few heavily used programs, could you still use a 30 GB SSD to speed up a 1 TB HDD that holds most of your files?
SSD caching doesn't seem useful for enthusiasts seeking maximum performance. They'll most likely get a 100GB+ SSD and run their OS and programs from that.
This technology seems more in line with Seagate's hybrid hard drives, offering a modest low cost performance boost.
I'm feeling better about my P67 board now, SSD caching will be useless to me, and the quick sync is only marginally appealing at this point. Guess I'll wait for P77 or a new socket before upgrading my board. [QUOTE]
Yep I posted my questions before reading the Tom's article (silly me).
After reading about SSD Caching......YAWN! So basically it only improves read times, somewhat. Not sure I'll wait for it. Sounds like it will be better to go 100% SSD, and those prices will keep falling. Its not going to drastically improve my read/write times on large video files (I guess unless I just use the same one over and over and it stays in cache).
Quicksync I'm less concerned about....when I encode I want quality so I'm willing to let the CPU churn it out, and my 2600K at 42x can churn fast enough for me.
That's how I feel too. I'd rather go with a bigger SSD as my booting drive. As for the Quicksync, I don't really encode any video, so it doesn't really apply to me.
so is Z68 the way to go if we haven't splurged on SB yet (but plan to do so)?
Based on the linked preview, yes. In the Intel software you just choose the SSD (within the 20-64GB limits) and choose the destination HDD, plus choose the mode (write through or whatever).
Why not just copy the game you want to play to the boot SSD and copy it back when your done? From what I understand, games are pretty much self contained, and moving them between drives is pretty painless. Might have to update the shortcut.See this I can see as being a very useful feature... If you can acquire a cheap (under $100) SSD to use as the cache..
I plan on getting an SSD bootdrive but there's no way I can put my games on it to take advantage of the speed it provides...I have well over 300GB's of games and that's not including all the ones I own on steam that I don't have installed currently due to space limitations...now if I could tie a cheap SSD into a large HDD for a gaming drive and get actual performance benefits (even if it is a lot less than a dedicated SSD) that would be fantastic. cause simply put there's no bloody way I could afford a 500GB SSD or higher that would be necessary to have my games on there as well (don't even think I can justify one over 120GB for my bootdrive >_<)
I'm pretty sure in Anand's review, he said all you had to do on the H67 to get both IPU and discrete was plug a monitor into both. Would figure this will be the same with Z68.Also one thing that's not mentioned in there...I know quick sync was able to do decoding as well as encoding (least I'm pretty certain I read that in the original sandy bridge reviews)the ability to offload 1080p decoding onto some dedicated silicone would be rather nice but since they said lucid only currently works with those two transcoding suites I'm assuming it can't be used this way just yet? (I sometimes watch movies/shows while playing games...taking basically no performance hit from running a 1080p movie would be quite nice )...if I'm right on remembering that quick sync can do this I would very much like them to add VLC support
See this I can see as being a very useful feature... If you can acquire a cheap (under $100) SSD to use as the cache..
I plan on getting an SSD bootdrive but there's no way I can put my games on it to take advantage of the speed it provides...I have well over 300GB's of games and that's not including all the ones I own on steam that I don't have installed currently due to space limitations...now if I could tie a cheap SSD into a large HDD for a gaming drive and get actual performance benefits (even if it is a lot less than a dedicated SSD) that would be fantastic. cause simply put there's no bloody way I could afford a 500GB SSD or higher that would be necessary to have my games on there as well (don't even think I can justify one over 120GB for my bootdrive >_<)
Also one thing that's not mentioned in there...I know quick sync was able to do decoding as well as encoding (least I'm pretty certain I read that in the original sandy bridge reviews)the ability to offload 1080p decoding onto some dedicated silicone would be rather nice but since they said lucid only currently works with those two transcoding suites I'm assuming it can't be used this way just yet? (I sometimes watch movies/shows while playing games...taking basically no performance hit from running a 1080p movie would be quite nice )...if I'm right on remembering that quick sync can do this I would very much like them to add VLC support
....SSD caching: I'm assuming they are going to tie this with the Intel SSD 310 series: http://download.intel.com/design/flash/nand/324696.pdf
Anyone remember this roadmap?:
http://www.dvhardware.net/article44687.html
The small form factor SSD code-named "Soda Creek" is the Intel SSD 310. See how it fits with the Z68's SSD caching capability?