Where to place my cache...

Ok, maybe this is a dumb question, but I've been fiddling with it so much that now I finally want the opinion of someone else lol.

I have windows installed on C:/ drive, and my games and programs (including SL) are all installed on drive F:/

I've run a simple test program, and it showed that out of the two, the F:/ drive was the fastest one, with 8ms, while the C:/ drive scored 13-14ms.

Now I'm simply curious, where I should let my cache reside. In my logic, F drive would already be used to run the game itself, so having it handle cache as well, would mean it's not writing the cache files with a speed of 8ms, but much slower. If I'm right about this, it would make sense to put cache on C drive instead.

But I'm not a total expert on hard disks, so I'm curious as to see what others advise me.

Feel free to shoot me now for asking this question

It really isn't going to make a significant difference where you put it if you have a lot of memory, Sl loads it into system memory at start up. I have put the cache on a ram drive and it made no real difference. The biggest benefit I saw was loading SL from a Ram Drive, cut the time between hitting the start SL button to verifying protacal to instantaneous but you still have to wait for the server to client internet communications. The difference was not worth the hassle of setting up the Ram Drive. SL is a 50-60 meg application and with an average HD, 25 meg per second means SL loads in 2 seconds. I'd basically put it on the drive that has the least usage and is defraged most often.

Thanks bunches for the reply

As the sl cache is at best managed in a very messy way and becomes defragmented everytime it is used, my defrag programme spends 90% of its time defragging the SL cache. Putting this cache onto a relatively small hard disc on its own, would at least speed the process up. You could argue, as many will, that a partition will work just as well.... IMHO as SL uses the OS which also has its own cache and utilises the cpu cycles at the same time as SL, using a seperate IDE/SATA controller for the SL cache would at least free some cpu cycles as both controllers can be used at the same time, assuming they are on different irq's.

This won't buy you a WOW factor in overall performance, but with the nature of the PC, every little helps.