PC Drivers & Software

[rafaspeed]

Hello everyone.

Since 2014 I have used the Intel Smart Responde Tecnology solution to speed up my primary mechanical hard drive. It has always worked as expected and very well (Intel H97 Chipset).
Earlier this year I choose to test the AMD platform, as I had seen that it used a similar feature (a small SSD for caching the mechanical hard drive).

I configured AMD STOREMI on my new machine without any error. The solution works in theory, but I have found problems in practice. The system in general accelerates but when opening simple programs such as: Microsoft Word, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, etc., and more "heavy" and for games: Steam, Origin, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, etc., the system is "paralyzed", waiting for the disc to be "released" after a few 20 seconds or more. This is sufficient so that the computer cannot perform any more tasks, waiting for the disk access to be released before continuing.

I've already reconfigured it 5 times, and the same thing always happens. Right now, I have the cache disabled to be able to work.

Below are my settings:

- Windows 10 PRO 64bit - V.2004-19041
- AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor.
- Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus B450 Elite ATX (BIOS “F51”).
- 16GB Ram DDR4 3200Mhz PCCooler (2x8GB) with active XMP.
- SSD NVME 256GB Asgard AN256NVM3-M.2/80.
- HDD Seagate 2TB ST2000DM006-2DM164.
- PSU OCZ ModXstream-PRO 500W 80plus.
- VGA Gigabyte Nvidia GTX1060 3GB.
- AMD StoreMI V.2.0.0.113-BETA, Driver Version 9.4.0-00009

All parts were tested to exhaustion. I also tested with a 128GB Kingston SATA3 M.2 SSD and another 256 NVME from Wester Digital (Blue). The same problem happens.

Video driver, Chipset (by AMD) and all others updated in the latest versions.

Before making a new configuration of the SSD M.2 for caching, I use DISKPART to remove any partition table or data. My main HDD is in GPT and my motherboard is configured in UEFI, with legacy compatibility turned off (CSM OFF).

Could someone help me say what I'm doing wrong?

Very grateful to everyone!

[pokester]

I wish I had an answer never used the software myself. Another user may be able to help. You might want to open a support request directly with AMD as well. An AMD engineer should know what to tel you about it. The link is hard to find on the AMD site IMHO so here it is, if you want to start a ticket:  https://www.amd.com/en/support/contact-email-form 

[pokester]

AMD has big FAQ page for StoreMI too if you have not already seen it:  https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/amd-storemi-faq 

[rafaspeed]

Hi pokester

Before I posted in the community, I researched the documentation about the software on AMD's own website and on others as well.

This software was initially developed by another company, the Enmotus and was called FuseDrive (still exists).

In the first quarter of this year, AMD assumed the continuity of software development with its own team, naming the program as StoreMI 2.0.

It is still in the BETA version and relatively recent. I hope AMD will continue to develop it and will not abandon the project.

Many thanks again!

[pokester]

Yes I was aware of the switch. I know that fuse drive still has a product, not sure if it is better, worse or indifferent. I have never used this technology on a PC. I have had fusion drives on my Macs which work flawlessly. On my PC the only things I even put on my big spinning drives are my older games steam library.

I hope you find a fix and do contact AMD support if you have not. Hopefully they will have a helpful response. Good Luck!

[rafaspeed]

Hello pokester

I never used Enmotus' solution to compare.

From the articles I read on the internet it apparently works well and is still in constant improvement. AMD seems to have just launched its prototype BETA and has not worked on it anymore.

For me, the simple solution of using an SSD for caching would be sufficient, without the need to invest in large SSD's to have a better overall performance.

I have an open ticket on AMD support (# 8201012686) but the answers I have obtained so far seem to be only generated by AI and extremely evasive and superficial.

I appreciate your comments and also hope that a company of AMD's size does not leave its new customers helpless.

Best regards

[pokester]

It seems as though they maybe only have the beta as to say they have the feature. Unfortunately as an AMD GPU user I am very used to features not really working. 

[rafaspeed]

Hi friend pokester!

Thank you so much for your answer.

As per your guidance I opened a support ticket waiting for some guidance from the AMD team.

The support options did not contain anything about software. Only processors, video cards, chipset, etc. I chose the closest one (chipset).

These solutions: StoreMI (AMD). ISRT (Intel) or Optane (Intel) are magnificent for those who need a faster system on large storage capacities or multiple disks.

Thank you very much for your help and I hope that the AMD team can analyze this case.

In the meantime, I will continue to look for the solution and if I find it, I will post it to the rest of the community.

Thank you so much again!