Ramdisc + readyboost + SSD

unknownsock

unknownsock

unknownsock

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I'm upgrading at the end of the year and im really doing a lot of reseach atm to get the best price : performance stuff etc and so i can get every but of performance i can.

I was considering getting 6x2gb RAM and possibly using a 6gb Ram disc for the game/app ill be using at the time.

Combined with a 12gb+ Flashdrive for my Readyboost.

Also get a very small SSD for my Pagefile.

Would i notice any difference in speed?
and if so how much.

Cheers in advance :)
 
ok for a start i wouldnt use ramdisk for games as 1 game would likely fill it and all you would get is fast level loading times as for ready boost if you have enough ram e.g. 4gb it will have practiccally no effect.
using an ssd for page file would be a bad idea becasue the rapid and constant read/write cycles would ware it out fast also as with the ready boost idea if you have 2gb+ ram you really dont need to use much page file.
hope this helps
 
Well the Ramdisc is gonna stay, possibly may use it for my OS. Dunno ill figure something out.

Not really too informed about SSD's didnt realise this.
I'm sure the readyboost idea must do something, as flashdrives are very cheap anyway wouldnt make too much difference money wise.

And i know regardless of Ram the system uses the pagefile still, for example some programs use this rather than RAM, although theres a lot of theory's goin round.

Also ive noticed several new mobo's not having a NB, rather a ram controller instead, is it worth paying that tad extra for this feature?
 
You dont want to waste your money like that mate, just get a decent SSD to boot your OS from. Ready boost is proven to be rubbish and makes no difference to performance, its basically a stop gap measure for systems with insufficient RAM. Pagefile can be safely disabled in any system with 4GB+ RAM, ive not got one on any of my systems. Disabling the pagefile on my PC has had no adverse effect what so ever.

Hawker
 
Ok then its a scrapped idea, im still interested in that Ramdisc idea though.

And im pretty sure you need the VRAM, as some programs require this to run.
And some are known to crash without it.
 
Ramdiscs are good in theory but the cost of making one with sufficient capacity for a modern OS (Vista W7) is prohibative as you need 16Gb minimum which means 4GB sticks and they cost a bomb, also if you have a power out and lose your drive your not going to be happy.

What programs require pagefile? ive got a lot of different programs and none of them complain, the idea of pagefile is to use HDD as RAM when you run out, so long as you have enough for this not to be a problem it shouldnt have any effect.

Hawker
 
Can't think of any off the top of my head, but your computer is always using the pagefile regardless of Ram.
Well im gonna read into using a ramdisc anyway.
 
Mines not :D. Seriously try turning it off see if it has any effect on you, you can always turn it back on. (note doing this you should also delete the pagefile file from C:\ location)

Hawker
 
look you can turn the page file off and your programs will all use the ram instead and so wiill run faster it is only programs from era 95/98 and early xp that need page file.
 
unknownsock said:
That's wrong.
Forgetting forum users, regardless of what knowledge why do most experts reccomend keeping it on.
Its a myth.
Click to expand...

because certain programs can not run or cause the pc to crash if its off but they are old programs for example hl2 which is 5yr old, besides why ask for advice if you throw it back in our faces.
 
Well regardless of opinion ill keep mine on and be happy.

I'm not throwing it back in your face because my main questions were about other subjects not just the pagefile, that went of the tracks.

I welcomed the rest f the advice and glad i asked...:o
 
I would like to know what "experts" are telling you to keep it on because there are a whole number of people here who are enthusiasts and really know there stuff telling you thats a load of rubbish, your not even willing to try it...

Still whatever makes you happy.

Hawker
 
Oh my. That was not a well informed or well researched first post, and now you're ignoring peoples advice. I'll give this a shot anyway

Dont use readyboost. Flash drives are very slow. Slower than hard drives. In no way is using one as ram sensible.

Use a swap partition/virtual memory, hard drive space is cheap enough that a gb or so just doesn't matter. It's a step towards increased stability and that's always a good thing. Granted it will spend most of it's life idle, but the cost vs gain still comes out in its favour.

If you get an ssd, don't use it for the page file. Put your os on it.

Ramdisks are excellent. I don't think you've grasped the concept though. Ram loses data when its unpowered. So you're not putting your operating system on one, for frankly obvious reasons. Putting /tmp temporary files in it works very well.

For games/applications, crude usage but simple process
1/Accept that if it crashes all your save games and work is lost
2/Install to ramdisk
3/Make image of drive, save this to a hard drive
4/clear ramdisk
5/go to 2 until you have an image of anything you might want in it

Then, after a reboot, copy the image to the drive, work/play. Remember to move save games or data off the ramdisk before you reboot, and before you move a different image into its place.

Ramdisks are brilliant, but need care and sensible useage, Operating systems running sanboxed inside one load very, very fast and run very nicely. This is perfetly doable, but of limited use compared to just putting the application in the ramdisk.

I'm happy to answer other questions, on similar themes or based on this post, but I am annoyed that you have researched this so little
 
JonJ678 said:
Oh my. That was not a well informed or well researched first post, and now you're ignoring peoples advice. I'll give this a shot anyway

Dont use readyboost. Flash drives are very slow. Slower than hard drives. In no way is using one as ram sensible.

Use a swap partition/virtual memory, hard drive space is cheap enough that a gb or so just doesn't matter. It's a step towards increased stability and that's always a good thing. Granted it will spend most of it's life idle, but the cost vs gain still comes out in its favour.

If you get an ssd, don't use it for the page file. Put your os on it.

Ramdisks are excellent. I don't think you've grasped the concept though. Ram loses data when its unpowered. So you're not putting your operating system on one, for frankly obvious reasons. Putting /tmp temporary files in it works very well.

For games/applications, crude usage but simple process
1/Accept that if it crashes all your save games and work is lost
2/Install to ramdisk
3/Make image of drive, save this to a hard drive
4/clear ramdisk
5/go to 2 until you have an image of anything you might want in it

Then, after a reboot, copy the image to the drive, work/play. Remember to move save games or data off the ramdisk before you reboot, and before you move a different image into its place.

Ramdisks are brilliant, but need care and sensible useage, Operating systems running sanboxed inside one load very, very fast and run very nicely. This is perfetly doable, but of limited use compared to just putting the application in the ramdisk.

I'm happy to answer other questions, on similar themes or based on this post, but I am annoyed that you have researched this so little
Click to expand...

Well for one i arent ignoring other peoples advice :/
I asked 3 questions, i knew about already but was just confirming, the pagefile arguement, which was different to the stuff i asked for.
I'm glad i asked as i arent going to be touching readyboost etc.

And i know how a ramdisc works, you can get one of those battery things if i wanted to put my OS on it., (cant remember of the top of my head).
I'm probably just gonna get a cheapish ocz agility drive for my OS tbh.

Its just ive never actually done this and was asking advice to see if its worth my time, you can say i havnt done my research but google is full of crap nowadays its hard to get a straight answer, because theres different answers, left right and centre.

Ive heard readyboost not being useful after 2gb of RAM but i just thought seen as flash drives are so cheap, aslong as it did something i might give it ago. Plus i think i may have a spare..

Cheers..
 
hawker1986 said:
I would like to know what "experts" are telling you to keep it on because there are a whole number of people here who are enthusiasts and really know there stuff telling you thats a load of rubbish, your not even willing to try it...

Still whatever makes you happy.

Hawker
Click to expand...

2 People?
 
Readyboost is pointless on any system with more than 1GB RAM. It can be useful for making Vista tolerable on systems with very low RAM, but on a modern rig there's really no point at all.

Don't disable your pagefile - there's no benefit and it can make your rig unstable. Windows will page data to disk as it needs to - unless you think you know better than the guys who wrote the Windows kernel, leave it on. Turning it off might not make any difference if you have lots of free RAM, but if you rut out of RAM and paging is turned off, your programs will just crash.

You can't just stick a battery in your computer and get a permanent RAMdisk. You need a dedicated card which uses separate RAM from the rest of the system. They were expensive and pretty gimmicky, and I'm not even sure they're sold any more.
 
I'm fairly sure they're still around. Finding one that takes ddr2 might be more of an issue.

Ramdisks as stand along battery powered things aren't so good. They've been eradicated by ssds really. A ramdisk as part of your system ram is very good if you use it sensibly, and more than worthless if you dont. Don't leave anything you care about on it and you'll be fine, anything else is a gamble. I suspect putting video files on one before encoding would work excellentl for example.

Ocz agilty is probably very good. I'm quite taken with my 30gb vertex. Using one purely as a paging file with your os on a hard drive would be a poor use of resources though :)
 
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