First computer build - ssd cache

[jbm7777]

I'm building my first rig and have some ideas as to what I want to accomplish. I am posting here because it will be used mainly as a photo editing computer, lightroom, photoshop etc. As you guys know, RAW files aren't small especially when editing many at a time. I already bought a 90gb SATA3 SSD and was going to use that to run Windows 8 (when I finalize the build that should be out.) and the photo editing software. I read up about SRT/SSD Cacheing with the new motherboards. I'm going to be purchasing everything new so I'm not upgrading to get this feature. I'm waiting for Ivy Bridge to come out and hopefully some new motherboards with it as well.

After that long winded background info, here is the question... With this setup, can I set up a second SSD to cache directly from one drive only to speed up the read and write times? If I have a WD black 1TB as my main drive that I store my RAW files on, and a 32gb SSD as cache I would imagine it would speed up the accessing of the files on the 1TB drive. But I have read that with SRT you can't specify what drive you are caching, but instead it cache's everything that you access. And since I'd be accessing the OS every day, even though that would be on the #1 SSD, it would still cache it, actually diminishing the read and write times due to #2 SSD being only SATA II. Anyone know about this first hand? I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to building a computer and want to get it really right the first time.

List of parts..

MOBO - to be determined (1155 socket set for Ivy Bridge)
Processor - 3500k Ivy Bridge (soon to be upgrade equivalent of the 2500k)
SSD - OCZ Vertex 3 90 gb
HD- Probably WD black 1TB when the prices come down a bit
RAM - Gskill Ripjaws 8 GB 1600mhz
PSU - probably seasonic modular 650 watt (next purchase)
GPU - probably XFX or gigabyte 6850 (waiting for a few months to see if prices drop)
Case - Antec Illusion 300
DVD - RW
Multi Card Reader
LG IPS 23" monitor

Thanks Guys!

[tim]

OS on SSD is a nice luxury, not an essential thing. Caches on SSD is really helpful, makes image processing faster. You can do both on a 90GB SSD, my Win7-64 install with office, development softwware, etc is 35GB.

Go for 16GB RAM. It's cheap and does make a decent difference through file caching. 32GB would be overkill.

For GPU get the cheapest in the latest generation of AMD/nVidia. I got a fanless 520.

Cases I suggest the biggest you can tolerate.

3500K would be fast I guess. K is unnecessary if you're not overclocking. It'll be crazy fast anyway, probably no point.