StoreMI & FuzeDrive in the test: (Free) HDD Turbo for systems with AMD Ryzen

StoreMI & FuzeDrive im Test: (Kostenloser) HDD-Turbo für Systeme mit AMD Ryzen

AMD StoreMI accelerates HDDs via SSD cache. This is reminiscent of Intel Optane Memory, but there are significant differences. Positive: The software is free of charge for AMD Ryzen (Threadripper) with X470, B450 or X399. Everyone else has to buy FuzeDrive. Both solutions are convincing in the test.

Overview of AMD StoreMI (FuzeDrive)

AMD StoreMI is a software solution that can be downloaded and used free of charge by all owners of a motherboard with chipsets from the 400 series (previously X470 and B450) and with X399. StoreMI is based on Enmotus’ FuzeDrive. If you own a 300 series chipset for AM4, you can rely on this alternative, but then you have to pay. Two versions are available: FuzeDrive Basic and FuzeDrive Plus. The difference lies in the maximum size of the SSD used for caching. With Basic it is 128 GB, with Plus 1 TB – StoreMI offers a maximum of 256 GB.

What can AMD StoreMI (FuzeDrive) do?

StoreMI and FuzeDrive are caching solutions designed to speed up access to mass storage data (Windows 10 required). For this purpose, the software combines a slower storage medium with a faster one, e.g. a classic HDD with a SATA SSD. Connect means that from the user’s point of view, a single drive is created that has the capacity of both storage media. And that has its advantage.

Thanks to the steadily falling SATA SSD prices, it is becoming increasingly affordable to equip your own system with fast storage media. But despite the drop in prices, faster SATA SSD storage space is still about five times as expensive compared to classic HDDs. For this reason, a combination of SATA SSD for frequently used programs and the OS and HDD for pictures, games and films are often used. The user decides personally which data is where.

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AMD StoreMI for X470, B450 and X399 (Image: AMD)

It’s different with StoreMI (FuzeDrive). Here, an algorithm continuously monitors access to the stored files and moves frequently used files to the faster storage medium without being visible in the file manager. This does not necessarily have to affect the entire file or the entire application, according to Enmotus, only the “active block” is moved to the faster medium, which should achieve very high efficiency and accuracy. The software differs significantly from other solutions to speed up loading times, which use an active cache, for example. There are also differences to Intel’s “Optane”.

A bit like Intel Optane, but different

The biggest difference to many other caching solutions is the fact that the full storage space of both hard drives used is preserved. Because even when using Intel’s Optane as a cache (test), only the storage space of the HDD used can be used, but not that of the Optane module. Another advantage of StoreMI is that classic SSDs can be used for the cache – and they are significantly cheaper per GB than Intel’s Optane based on 3D-XPoint. In return, Intel Optane is even faster when it comes to access times – but this is hardly relevant for end users.

StoreMI also gives the user the option of choosing which storage media should be linked to one another. So not only a combination HDD + SSD is possible, but also SATA-SSD + NVME-SSD or HDD + NVME-SSD.

If the faster hard drive has a larger capacity than the software can use, a new drive is created with the remaining space – so no space is lost. In addition, 2 to 4 GB of RAM can also be dedicated as a cache in order to speed up access times again.

What Optane and StoreMI have in common is that both systems learn over time which data is increasingly accessed and then move them to the faster storage medium. If the faster storage medium is full and more data is to be recorded, the frequency of use is used to decide which data is to be moved back to the slower medium.

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benchmarks

In order to find out what advantages users can get from using StoreMI or FuzeDrive, in addition to selected games, GIMP 2 and Adobe Lightroom were installed and loaded several times. The average values ​​of these charging processes were recorded, averaged and plotted.

An HDD from WD with 1 TB, a SATA SSD from Kingston with 256 GB and an NVME SSD from Samsung with 512 GB were used as storage media. The specified read and write speeds correspond to the values ​​that could be determined for the storage media with CrystalDiskMark (sequential transfer rates).

In order to determine the practically relevant basic speed of the storage media used, the loading times were first determined without the use of caching. The result is not surprising: While a clear jump is noticeable between HDD and SSD, the difference between SSD and NVMe-PCIe-SSD is significantly smaller in practice. But what impact does caching have?

Storage media loading times

  • HDD
  • SATA SSD
  • NVME SSD

The first test scenario of this type was the combination of HDD and SATA SSD. It becomes clear that StoreMI can absolutely meet its own requirements: the loading times after the familiarization phase are all at SSD level. Only ARK: Survival Evolved was reproducibly faster to load from the separate SSD than from the combined drive. Ashes of the Singularity is only about 2 seconds faster if it is fully installed on the SSD. In all other applications, the difference is hardly noticeable and mostly in the range of less than one second. The additional use of RAM as a cache is hardly noticeable, although significantly better values ​​are achieved in CrystalDiskMark.

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HDD + SATA – SSD

  • HDD
  • SATA SSD
  • HDD + SATA SSD
  • HDD + SATA SSD + RAM

The second test scenario consisted of a combination of SATA SSD and NVME SSD. Enmotus recommends this configuration for loading times at NVME SSD level. The results show (again with the exception of ARK: Survival Evolved) that the SATA SSD can also be raised almost to the level of the NVME SSD. However, the difference between SATA SSD and NVME SSD is so small that the effect is negligible compared to the SSD-HDD combination.

SATA SSD + NVME SSD

  • SATA SSD
  • NVME SSD
  • SATA SSD + NVME SSD
  • SATA SSD + NVME SSD + RAM

The last test combination consisted of HDD and NVME-SSD and was again able to impressively show the effect of the StoreMI software. The combination does not manage to raise the HDD to NVME SSD speeds. The top speed is in most cases at the level of the SATA SSD or the combination of HDD + SATA SSD.

HDD + NVME SSD

  • HDD
  • NVME SSD
  • HDD + NVME SSD
  • HDD + NVME-SSD + RAM

Windows also loads faster, however

In principle, StoreMI and FuzeDrive can also speed up the booting of Windows. However, because the software itself is still loaded (before the boot process), the combined effects are small in the end and depend on the starting point. If the system previously only had an HDD, Windows boots a little faster. If the system previously had a SATA SSD, the overall process takes a bit longer with StoreMI / FuzeDrive.


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