Hello exiob,
There are issues with ramdisk as well when it comes to interfacing with older systems, though I agree with you. It is a cool technology.
Here is the solution I came up with to achieve both speed and data security for older media heavy systems:
1) Star Tech 6G SSD Controller card (PCIe 2.0 based) StarTech.com 2 Port PCI Express SATA 6 Gbps eSATA Controller Card - Dual Port PCIe SATA III Card - 2 Internal/2 External Card PEXESAT322I
2) SanDisk SanDisk Extreme PRO 960GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) with 10-Year Warranty- SDSSDXPS-960G-G25
3) Star Tech 6G RAID 1 Controller card (PCIe 2.0 based) StarTech.com 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card with HyperDuo SSD Tiering - PCIe SATA 3 Controller Adapter
4) 4 Toshiba 3.5 inch 3TB 720 RPM HDD's in RAID 1 (Striped Mirror) yields a very fast 6G RAID that optimizes both speed and data recovery Toshiba 3.5-Inch 3TB 7200 RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 64MB Hard Drive DT01ACA300
The SanDisk SSD can be used to launch the operating system at bootup according to StarTech using their controller. The SSD will also hold all the media software, etc.
The RAID will hold all the data. SSD drives have a limited number of writes, so this configuration gives the best of both worlds. It will also work as long as the system has two available PCIe slots.
I have not completed the installation yet, but the parts are on the way. According to StarTech, this should all work well. I will update this post when the installation is completed with a report of performance.