pci-e Intel 750 Cannot Enable Write Caching

[JJohn71]

I have a Rampage V Extreme motherboard with the latest chipset drivers. I also have installed the Intel 750 NVMe drivers. I cannot enable write caching in Windows 8.1 Pro. I think I disabled it while testing my PC overclocks to ensure I wouldn't get file system errors if my PC crashed but now that i'm stable I cannot enable write caching in Device Manager.

Can anyone help?

KedarWolf

[jbenavides]

Hello KedarWolf,

The configuration changes you applied to overclock the PC should not have any relation with write caching on your SSD.

The http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-specifications/ssd-750-spec.pdf Intel® Solid-State Drive 750 Series are PCIe NVMe* drives, so they are different in many ways from previous generation SSD's. Write cache on this type of drive does not work the same way as previous SSD's and it can't be configured by the user.

The Intel® Solid-State Drive 750 Series have Enhanced power-loss data protection built-in by design. This can't be disabled or enabled by the user with the options available in Windows* configuration, Intel SSD® Toolbox, or even Intel® SSD Data Center Tool.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=Intel%C2%AE+SSD+750+Series Intel® Solid-State Drive 750 Downloads

[VProk]

Is there a plan to fix this? Any reason for this limitation?

I've just bought Intel 750 PCI-e myself and discovered this problem. The PCI-e is fast but caching is still faster. I have bought 64GB of RAM to allow a lot of caching. It is very disappointing that I cannot utilize it for write caching. Now I'm considering returning PCI-e card and buying a regular SSD.

[jbenavides]

Hello Vit,

It seems there may be a confusion about this, since this is not a limitation of the drive. We would need more information about the caching technology you are planning to use, but, here is some information we can provide based on your comment:

The Intel® SSD 750 Series is a PCIe drive with NVMe technology. Configuration of write caching with Intel® SSD Data Center Tool, or with the OS is a feature for ATA devices (SATA SSD's), therefore, it is not available for NVMe drives. The 750 uses new technologies to handle write and read requests even though these are not configurable by the user, this allows the drive to achieve performance that surpases the possibilities of any SATA SSD.

Handling of Reads and Writes is a lot faster with NMVe drives, however, a computer using the 750 would still benefit from additional RAM in the system.

If you obtained additional RAM planning to use a specific caching techology with software or hardware, we would advise you to contact the support team for this technology and check how the Intel® SSD 750 can be integrated to take full advantage of it in your configuration.

[TYan3]

Are you sure that it has *EVER* been possible to toggle the cache options *FOR THIS DRIVE* in device manager?

Also I don't think your RAM would be used as disk cache in the way you think, even for common internal SATA drives.

Apparently Windows uses a portion of it for external drives when you select "Better Performance" instead of "Quick Removal", but I doubt that it is proportional to your RAM size anyway.