Vista extra RAM

[Mem]

Has anyone used an SD card or other memory card to speed up your RAM on Vista?

I didn't know it was possible but when I inserted an SD card to read it, it gave me an option to speed up my system. Sounds cool if it works, I might have to go out and buy a 2 gig card, some cost less than $20 now. Or even a 4 gig those are online for about $20.

 

[Rugbypup]

Am interested to know too.

 

[Deno]

actually the feature does not speed up your ram. These sd cards are not as fast and Ram or DDR. They technology is that any information that is cached to your harddrive would then be cached to your added card therefore causing lag in performance due to the head movement in your harddrive to be less. It not only improves those function but also saves wear on your harddrive. If your actually gonna go out and spend money on a new card I'd suggest getting a usb flashdrive which is faster then most cheap sd cards. Hi speed card and flashdrive will sometimes be marked for this type of use called Ready Boost. Hope this helps.

 

[Industrialsize]

Macs Rule

 

[Mem]

actually the feature does not speed up your ram. These sd cards are not as fast and Ram or DDR. They technology is that any information that is cached to your harddrive would then be cached to your added card therefore causing lag in performance due to the head movement in your harddrive to be less. It not only improves those function but also saves wear on your harddrive. If your actually gonna go out and spend money on a new card I'd suggest getting a usb flashdrive which is faster then most cheap sd cards. Hi speed card and flashdrive will sometimes be marked for this type of use called Ready Boost. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I am looking online and I found an 8 gig SD card with USB card reader (supports readyboost) and it's only $36.

How do I find out if my card reader is "HDSC"?

 

[Mem]

Just to test it out I used a 2 gig micro SD card with an adapter that I purchased to use for something else. The readyboost really works well. I just ordered a 4 gig SD card online for $17 to use as readyboost.

I looked into getting a thumb drive, but you have to buy one that is ready for readyboost. I also read bad reviews of one USB drive where it adds spyware and erases info when you update.

 

[HazelGod]

Macs Rule

Vista is a total turd. Anyone advocating it or buying extra hardware to "improve" its performance deserves to be mushroom slapped.

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

I'm sticking with XP for now. It always takes Microsoft a couple of years to work out the kinks in their major releases.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

ME, too.
I am sticking with XP64 for now due to Vista Turdiness and the fact that the developer of the only software I run on Windows has thus far been unable to figure out a way to get it to run on Vista....

I also Run Macs...

I have to say that every major OS release for my Macs have been absolutely painless and transparent.
Even the new 64 bit Intel Macs... Apple crafted an OS update that runs an emulator for older 32 bit software that operates in the background without the user even needing to know its there.

The old software runs flawlessly, the new stuff runs flawlessly...

It astounds me that Apple can write an OS that is so vastly superior to that produced by the single most profitable software developer in the world.

Microsoft's products are invariably the worst in every category.

 

[B_Marius567]

SD card will slow down down your computer just buy more memory and everything off your hard drive you dont need. use only 25% of your hard drive so it will be fast.

 

[VeeP]

Haven't played with "ReadyBoost" as I'm still shunning Vista for being the turd that it is, however I will say it smacks of a really bad Microsoft marketing ploy.

 

[MASSIVEPKGO_CHUCK]

Haven't played with "ReadyBoost" as I'm still shunning Vista for being the turd that it is, however I will say it smacks of a really bad Microsoft marketing ploy.

Dig it- same here for me about Vista. I don't know what this extra RAM is supposed to do, unless somebody really thinks that it will increase performance and thus clear up the problems.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

SD card will slow down down your computer just buy more memory and everything off your hard drive you dont need. use only 25% of your hard drive so it will be fast.

Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive.

 

[VeeP]

Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive.

No, it's misguided folklore related to people not knowing the difference between memory and disk storage. Windows will automatically allocate the disk space it needs for it's paging file, although it should be manually adjusted upward if you add more RAM. The most common disk-related performance hit you can take is due to file fragmentation.

 

[dong20]

Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive.

No, it's misguided folklore related to people not knowing the difference between memory and disk storage. Windows will automatically allocate the disk space it needs for it's paging file, although it should be manually adjusted upward if you add more RAM. The most common disk-related performance hit you can take is due to file fragmentation.

Quite true. Although it's advisable not to run a disk right up to capacity.

A more effective way of speeding up a Wintel system is to have a dedicated physical drive for the OS, another for paging and another for apps and data. The benefits obtained will depend on the use to which the machine is put of course, for most 'home use' it will often make little difference.

Typically the simplest way to speed up a home PC is to add more RAM, followed by a faster (regularly defragmented) drive. Changing cluster size can help, and there are other things one can do too. The CPU speed is seldom the real bottleneck in current systems.

Server configurations (especially database servers) are typically set-up like this, with the OS, database application, its data and logs all residing on separate physical drives (or arrays of drives).

I wouldn't agree Vista is a total turd. But it can certainly come close enough unless set up correctly on the right hardware. That applies to any OS of course, but Vista especially so. SP1 helped some, caused trauma for others.

 

[VeeP]

Typically the simplest way to speed up a home PC is to add more RAM, followed by a faster (regularly defragmented) drive. Changing cluster size can help, and there are other things one can do too. The CPU speed is seldom the real bottleneck in current systems.

Hear, hear. I honestly can't tell much difference between a P4 HT and some of the current CPUs. Maxing out the RAM and replacing the (likely) original HDD with one of current technology can breathe new life into a machine that's 3 or 4 years old.

 

[Pendlum]

It depends on what you are doing to notice your cpu doing it's work. Running advanced video or imaging software, and of course the latest games are where your processor will shine. Of course, always have good RAM, after all it is your primary memory. Vista is a ram whore from what I've heard though, but it does have the advantage of not have a 4 gig cap like XP does.

 

[transformer_99]

"Ready boost" to me works as an inexpensive solid state hdd concept. Flash memory has a life span on how many times it can be flashed, so keep that in mind too. For the short term, it's a bandage until you can upgrade to at least more memory if not a newer, faster and more robust computer system. There is no substitute for more ram memory.

Keep checking, prices drop or sales on real ram memory happen everyday.

Here's a perspective on Ready Boost:

ReadyBoost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Performance

A system with 512 MB of RAM (the minimum for Windows Vista) can see significant gains from ReadyBoost. In one test case speeding up an operation from 11.7 seconds to 2 seconds (increasing physical memory from 512 MB to 1 GB reduced it to 0.8 seconds)."

 

[Dorian_Gray]

Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive.

As your HDD fills up it starts reading/writing to the inner egdes of the platters so seek time will be longer. But that shouldn't matter for anyone but the hardcore performance enthusiasts. But say if you were like me and only had 2% of free drive space at the moment on a 750GB drive, Vista has to throttle the disk caching (read: virtual memory) to give room for normal read/write sessions. Thats where ReadyBoost shines. It gives Vista extra "virtual memory".

 

[transformer_99]

That's where several partitions also comes into play. The C drive on a Windows machine can be about 30-40 GB, the OS will take 10+ GB or so with a few core Programs in that folder and be very healthy if defragmented periodically. I hear the OS X guys right now, OS X doesn't need to be defragged ? Well, OS X doesn't, but if a heavier user, you'll be doing clean installs periodically so what's the difference ? Windows allows system maintenance to refresh the OS, where OS X doesn't. The D Drive, make that another 40 GB and whenever you install Programs, change them to be installed to D instead of C. After that you can partition the rest of the space to hold your data in as many partitions as is convenient. Partition Magic allows for this on the fly in Windows XP.

But the key is to have enough memory (and other resources) in any computer system,so that you rarely need to page to a hdd or even to that flash memory. The Ready Boost sounds like a wonderful feature, but it's really a bandage for not having enough memory. Yes in that example 2 seconds is faster than 11, but it sure isn't .8 seconds either. And flash memory has a limitation on how many times it can be flashed. Granted it used to be and maybe still is 1,000 times or so, but after that, it's anyone's guess whether it still works. All of this doesn't preclude a regular stick of memory from dieing either. But it's faster and really the intended piece of hardware that does it's thing.

In summary, a c drive for Core OS and Programs, a d drive for Programs & Applications and many other partitions for data. OS X people like to tout that, but really how many Apple's go out the door with anything less than 2 GB of memory installed ? How often are they upgraded shortly after. Like Vista systems, it makes no difference when the memory goes in it, you'll usually wind up with 2 GB's with these newest OS's. BTW, 3rd party memory for Macs is so much cheaper than what Apple screws you over for. I have yet to hear Apple fans ever address that fact that their computers aren't inexpensive and getting upgrades thru Apple is a prison rape scene, pure and simple.