SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB versus Toshiba Q-Series 500GB SSDs: Review

Cache SSDs offer near-SSD speeds without the data migration hassle. Graeme Burton reviews the keenly priced SanDisk ReadyCache alongside a 500GB Toshiba Q-Series SSD to see the difference

Solid-state disks (SSDs) are the future and with prices now dropping to a sensible level they are undoubtedly tempting buyers away from conventional mechanical hard-disk drives.

But, although the prices of 256GB SSDs are fast approaching the £100 price point, and 500GB devices are typically priced at between £300 and £400, they remain expensive when a decent 500GB mechanical hard-disc drive can be had for £35-£45.

An alternative is to use a low-capacity SSD - 32GB or 64GB - to intelligently cache frequently accessed files, providing near-SSD performance at a fraction of the cost. So, Computing put a 32GB SanDisk ReadyCache to the test alongside a 500GB Q-Series Toshiba to see how the two approaches weighed up.

After all, there are still some big question marks over SSD technology, especially when retro-fitting an SSD into an existing PC, rather than getting a nice man from Dell, Chillblast or Novatech to fit it for you in a shiny, new machine.

First, there is the question of capacity. While 128GB SSDs are becoming affordable, for many people that's not nearly enough storage, and dropping a few hundred notes on a half-terabyte SSD is out of the question, too (and still not enough for some of us...)

Second, there is the immense hassle of migrating the operating system and, possibly, everything else as well, over from the conventional hard-disk drive to the new device. Third, and perhaps most ominous of all, the technology still hasn't quite reached maturity in terms of reliability.

Apple, for example, was forced to recall a number of its MacBooks in 2012 over a shonky set of SSDs. And when an SSD goes "phut", it does so suddenly and catastrophically, with no prospect of recovering a byte of data.

At least if a mechanical hard-disk drive goes wrong there are invariably some warning signs first. Failing that, data-recovery specialists can get back much of the lost data if the jiggered disk happens to contain your university dissertation or that cure for cancer you've just worked out - as long as you cross their palms with sufficient quantities of silver, that is.

But... SSDs are small, fast, quiet and sexy. Their access speeds make computing fast and, for Windows users, at least, they could potentially overcome the problem of ever-lengthening boot-up times, the irritating pause while you wait for a simple menu or dialogue box to appear, and speed-up many applications used every day.

SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB versus Toshiba Q-Series 500GB SSDs: Review

Cache SSDs offer near-SSD speeds without the data migration hassle. Graeme Burton reviews the keenly priced SanDisk ReadyCache alongside a 500GB Toshiba Q-Series SSD to see the difference

SanDisk ReadyCache

The clever solution to the cost-capacity conundrum proposed by SanDisk and some other manufacturers is to use the SSD not for storage, but for caching frequently required files.

Rather than spend a fortune on a suitably capacious SSD and sacrificing the best part of a weekend migrating the operating system over, it simply caches the files your PC accesses most frequently so that they can be retrieved at SSD speeds, courtesy of software from companies such as Condusiv Technologies (in the case of SanDisk SSDs).

This means you only need a modest-sized SSD and is, hence, much cheaper. Furthermore, you only need to plug it in and go and, if the SSD does fail, you won't lose a byte of data as it's all stored on the trusty hard disk drive.

Besides, it's a technique that's been tried and trusted to great effect on high-end storage systems to improve the performance of massive corporate databases.

So far, so clever. But does it work on your home or business PC?

Testing, testing...

We tested the 32GB SanDisk ReadyCache on a three-and-a-half year old Mesh Ice 5 PC. This Intel Core i5-750-based machine sports an Asus P7P55D motherboard, a 1TB SATA-2 Samsung hard disc drive, and 8GB of memory. It runs Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux in separate partitions.

Before installing the disk, we spent a week taking boot timings with a stopwatch to see whether the SSD really did improve boot times and, if so, by how much.

We took timings at the following seven points in the boot sequence:

1) From switch-on up to the bootloader (where we wouldn't expect to see any differences);
2) To the Windows login;
3) To the Windows desktop screen;
4) To network availability;
5) Until the Opera 12 web browser appears;
6) Until the GPU Temp application finally appears; and,
7) Until the hard-disk generally stops chundering - a highly subjective final benchmark.

Before installing the SSD, it took five minutes or more from start to finish, in a fairly straightforward linear format from point one to seven. It generally took one-and-a-half minutes before the desktop appeared; a further one-and-a-half minutes for network connectivity to be achieved, and up to four-and-a-half minutes until GPU Temp was loaded up.

The hard disk, meanwhile, might chunder away for another five minutes before settling down.

First things first: before buying, check whether the motherboard has spare slots for SATA devices. Happily, the Asus P7P55D motherboard offers six of them, but older/cheaper motherboards may only offer two - and these will be occupied by an existing disk drive and, probably, a CD or DVD-Rom drive.

Next, the 2.5-inch SSD needs to be screwed into a 3.5-inch adapter mount in order to slot it securely into one of the PC expansion slots. This is where things got a bit fiddly, with the supplied adapter seemingly half-a-millimetre too wide for the space. That was nothing a little bit of brute force couldn't fix.

Finally, connect the SSD to the spare SATA interface using the supplied cable, and locate a spare SATA power cable and connect that too. That's pretty much it. Then boot up.

The next step is to download and run the ReadyCache software from the SanDisk website, which is straightforward enough if you've plugged everything in properly. The software then runs in the background, intelligently caching as it goes.

It's suggested that it will take a week of monitoring and caching until it reaches optimum performance. However, we noticed a big performance boost straight off. Rebooting as soon as the software had been installed, we started the stopwatch and by the time it got to the desktop, the boot-up metrics had been cut from minutes to seconds. GPU Temp, for example, loaded before we even realised it was there.

So, on its very first outing, the device cut the total boot time in half and slashed the time it took for Windows to boot-up. When we checked the ReadyCache software, though, the SSD had cached less than 2GB. Within days, though, the SSD was starting hit 25GB - before the software decided to regurgitate it all and start again...

This is a commonly reported problem with the SanDisk/Condusiv ReadyCache software and can require some Googling around to fix. Since a software update that came down the pipe mid-test, though, we haven't had a problem.

Web browsers and office software load up quickly and are far more responsive in operation. Both Libre Office and GIMP load up in seconds rather than tens of second or longer. Less frequently used applications, or games loaded from DVD are no faster, but overall the results are impressive.

It's not the speediest unit in terms of its raw benchmarks. Read and write speeds, at about 110 megabytes per second (write) and just over 230MB/s (read) are far from class-leading (which is generally in the 400-500MB/s ballpark for both functions). But it doesn't need to be in order to radically speed-up a non-SSD PC.

SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB versus Toshiba Q-Series 500GB SSDs: Review

Cache SSDs offer near-SSD speeds without the data migration hassle. Graeme Burton reviews the keenly priced SanDisk ReadyCache alongside a 500GB Toshiba Q-Series SSD to see the difference

Hello Tosh, got a new SSD?

So, over to the Toshiba SSD. This Q-Series 512GB SSD could make a nifty alternative to the mechanical hard-disk drive as prices drift down towards the £265 mark (Dabs.com) for the basic package.

Indeed, Toshiba's units come in two flavours - ones with just the SSD on its own, and "PC upgrade kits" that include a SATA cable, a double-USB connector (should you wish to use it as an external drive), an adapter to convert it from 2.5" to 3.5" to fit it into the case of a desktop PC and, perhaps most valuable of all, data migration software.

To test this unit, we thought we'd try installing it on the same PC, but running Ubuntu Linux 13.10 instead because, well, we wanted to. Fitting the unit proved easier than the SanDisk, with the adapter mount just the right size to slot comfortably into the 3.5" expansion bay in the PC.

Getting the Linux boot loader, Grub, to behave proved more of a frustrating challenge, but nothing that an afternoon of fiddling around and cursing couldn't fix. Finally, though, when Grub was made to settle down, the operating system kicked into life. Very quickly.

Again, compared to the hard-disk version, the Toshiba SSD proved snappy and quick in operation. For example, Libre Office loaded within a couple of seconds and dialog boxes appeared within the time it took to snap your fingers. We noticed no lag on any operation. The response times were immediate.

The benchmarks we've seen put the Toshiba Q-Series near the top of the pack for performance, but at a mid-range price.

According to Toshiba, the Q Series SSD ought to be capable of read speeds of 552MB/s and write speeds of 501MB/s. PCMark 7 benchmarks, meanwhile, seem to back up Toshiba's performance claims, putting it well ahead of OCZ Vector and Crucial M4 and M500 SSDs and on a par with the Samsung Evo.

As we stated earlier, the Toshiba SSDs come in two flavours - one with just the drive, and another that includes a bundle of useful goodies, especially data migration software. If you're planning on running a fresh install, therefore, you can save around £50 by opting for the simplified bundle (in green, rather than red, packaging - just remember to buy a separate SATA cable at the same time.

To buy or not to buy?

Computing doesn't give out five out of five ratings without good reason. A review device must not just be objectively good, it must also offer good all-round value and offer no significant drawbacks.

But the SanDisk ReadyCache ought to be on the Christmas list of any PC owner with a spare SATA socket on their motherboard. It genuinely offers a significant performance boost at low cost, with minimal hassle and no drawbacks that we could find.

Okay, we did experience a glitch with the Condusiv caching software, but this ought to be solved with the latest software update.

Perhaps more frustrating, though, is that it is only available on the 32GB SSD. Although other manufacturers offer SSD cache products on larger capacity disks, the SanDisk ReadyCache is the most competitively priced at between £35-£45, depending on when and where you buy it. A bigger SSD, though, would almost certainly be better as we found the SSD approaching its capacity within days.

However, in addition to providing a welcome boost in performance for our test PC - much more significant than a memory upgrade - it could also provide a good way for organisations to give their PC estate a performance upgrade without breaking the bank. Staff, after all, are always complaining that their work PCs are too slow...

It should be noted, incidentally, that a cache SSD will not provide performance quite on a par with running an SSD on its own. But it does provide an 80 per cent performance upgrade for one-tenth of the price, which in our book makes it a winner.

As for our review device, we intend to track its performance long-term, which means that we won't be able to hand it back for at least three, maybe five, or possibly 10, years...

The Toshiba SSD is harder to evaluate. As a straightforward SSD, it did the job to a high standard: It was fast, responsive and easy to install. Its benchmarks are also among the best and the prices of the Q-Series Toshibas is becoming enticing. Unlike the ReadyCache, it didn't require any further software - it just worked.

When migrating to an SSD, we would recommend purchasing a second mechanical hard-disk drive and mirroring or regularly backing up to that just to be on the safe side. But if you've got the money to lash out on a high-capacity SSD, you can certainly afford the extra 40 notes a decent 500GB hard-disk drive will cost you.

Overall, though, we would recommend the Toshiba, too, if you wanted to go the whole hog and go 100 per cent SSD.

[Turn to next page for ratings and alternatives]

SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB versus Toshiba Q-Series 500GB SSDs: Review

Cache SSDs offer near-SSD speeds without the data migration hassle. Graeme Burton reviews the keenly priced SanDisk ReadyCache alongside a 500GB Toshiba Q-Series SSD to see the difference

SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB

Rating: 5/5

Pros
Pretty much all of the advantages of an SSD with none of the disadvantages.
Easy to install.
Keenly priced.

Cons
The caching software occasionally "forgets" all the data it has cached - requiring it to go through the process of re-caching.
ReadyCache software only works on Windows.
High capacity would be useful.

Alternatives
SSD caching is not exclusive to SanDisk, but few packages are as good all-round as the SanDisk ReadyCache, taking into account capacity, price and ease of installation.

Toshiba Q-Series 512GB

Rating 5/5

Pros
Fast and responsive.
Makes old-style hard-disk drives seem slow in comparison.
Benchmarks highly against rivals.

Cons
Although falling, prices for high-capacity SSDs remain high enough to make your wallet cry.

Alternatives
You could install a cache SSD instead and get much of the performance boost at almost one-tenth of the price.

SanDisk, Samsung, Crucial and OCZ all make well-regarded models that may make suitable alternatives for a similar price.