USB sticks for RAM

[#juan]

If you are running Windows Vista you can apparently use USB memory sticks to increase your RAM.. Is there any way to do this on Windows XP? Right now USB memory sticks are dirt cheap

 

[#juan]

There is a program out there called eBoostr that is a free download that lets you use your flash drive memory for RAM on an XP OS. I am currently trying it out. I will tell you all if it is any good.

 

[lone wolf]

If you don't get back to us, is it safe to guess it didn't work?

 

[#juan]

If you don't get back to us, is it safe to guess it didn't work?

If my machine blows up I will send smoke signals. ;-)

I installed eBoostr 3 fifteen minutes ago. The immediate change is not dramatic. I'm using it in conjunction with a 4 gig flash drive stick. Moving around the internet it seems a bit quicker but I don't know if that is just me wanting it to be quicker. I'll stick with it for a while.

 

[DurkaDurka]

"Ready Boost" is really only useful on Vista if you are running less then 2GB of system RAM. The thing with this technology is that it's limited by the USB 2.0 bus which maxes out around 40 MBytes/sec, which it pretty slow when considering that DDR2 800 SDRAM gives a maximum transfer rate of 6400 MBytes/sec.

 

[DurkaDurka]

If my machine blows up I will send smoke signals. ;-)

I installed eBoostr 3 fifteen minutes ago. The immediate change is not dramatic. I'm using it in conjunction with a 4 gig flash drive stick. Moving around the internet it seems a bit quicker but I don't know if that is just me wanting it to be quicker. I'll stick with it for a while.

Juan, if you have more then 2GB of RAM, anything you notice will be placebo effect. RAM on a USB stick basically moves parts of your page file and commonly launched dll's etc from hard drive to USB, acting as a cache.

 

[#juan]

I've just logged in to about twenty different sites selected randomly from my bookmarks. Everything seemed normal the first time I went through the list but surfing through the list a second time, it was very quick.

 

[#juan]

Juan, if you have more then 2GB of RAM, anything you notice will be placebo effect. RAM on a USB stick basically moves parts of your page file and commonly launched dll's etc from hard drive to USB, acting as a cache.

It sounds like you are right. Any improvements I've found are likely related to improved cashe.....Oh well....:roll:

 

[Kakato]

Would it make a difference on microsofts flight simulator?

 

[#juan]

Would it make a difference on microsofts flight simulator?

I don't know if it would improve the flight sim or not. I took the eBoostr 3 out a half hour ago and it looks like Durka was right. I can't see any difference. I would sue if it hadn't been free....;-)

 

[DurkaDurka]

Would it make a difference on microsofts flight simulator?

Not really. Video Games need to be able to move textures between system memory and graphics memory at a very fast rate otherwise you get stuttering and low frames per second. Your best bet to speed up MS Flight simulator is a graphics card with 512mb of dedicated memory and a fast GPU.

 

[DurkaDurka]

I don't know if it would improve the flight sim or not. I took the eBoostr 3 out a half hour ago and it looks like Durka was right. I can't see any difference. I would sue if it hadn't been free....;-)

Well, at least you know first hand.

I tried out ready boost when Vista was released and I could not notice any difference at all.

You could be adventorous and create a RAM disk, where you basically partition lets say 512mb of system memory and mount it as a local disk. Mind you though, any data stored on it will be destroyed when you reboot the pc.

 

[Lou Garu]

Well, at least you know first hand.

I tried out ready boost when Vista was released and I could not notice any difference at all.

You could be adventorous and create a RAM disk, where you basically partition lets say 512mb of system memory and mount it as a local disk. Mind you though, any data stored on it will be destroyed when you reboot the pc.

I see reports of d.i.y types modifying their computers to hold solid state hard drives (8gigs or so ) to hold the o/s's and/or permanent data ,to some good reports.Kinda like the netbooks.

 

[DurkaDurka]

I see reports of d.i.y types modifying their computers to hold solid state hard drives (8gigs or so ) to hold the o/s's and/or permanent data ,to some good reports.Kinda like the netbooks.

solid state drives are quite fast, depending on the mode. Intel has a couple nice ones but the price point is pretty steep. I hope to get one in the new year at some point.

 

[Lou Garu]

solid state drives are quite fast, depending on the mode. Intel has a couple nice ones but the price point is pretty steep. I hope to get one in the new year at some point.

There ARE ide to compact flash adapters (cable to c/f holder) some with the capacity for two ( or more) c/f's, This may prove the cheapest way.
just recently heard of cards with 64 gig caps being announced in Japan I think,but I don;t recall when or where....