Vista, Readyboost best option? (what media)

shimy182

shimy182

shimy182

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So it seems USB is the most popular option, but i see they are pretty expensive compared to Compact flashes.

But, not many people do it, plus my compact flash was seen as "not suitable" by vista it self.

so is USB is only suitable option to get the most out of this feature?
 
Im of the opinion, RAM is so cheap just buy some more. I tried it just for the sake of it, not a huge improvement as your USB is always going to be slower than youre RAM. If you really desperate just increase your page file.
 
Ready boost im sure is something else. as Ram has to be written in with hard drive speed, plus page file... well thats also something on the hard drive?
 
There have been a million threads on this topic, if you search you should find the answers you're looking for.

J.B. is spot on though, RAM will make the most difference.
 
shimy182 said:
Ready boost im sure is something else. as Ram has to be written in with hard drive speed, plus page file... well thats also something on the hard drive?
Click to expand...

The page file is virtual memory on the hard drive. It acts exactly the same as RAM but is considerably slower as hard drives have much high access time.

When you use readyboost you are basicly putting a page file on the USB drive, turning that into virtual memory. Again, still very slow in comparison to physical RAM.
 
I don't think ReadyBoost is really meant to be an 'upgrade' option nowadays, more a case of making use of some flash memory if you happen to have some e.g. USB stick.
 
ReadyBoost:

1) It is designed to use USB flash sticks (1GB or greater in size is recommended) as mini pagefile's basically, because of their fast read/write access.

2) Readyboost has to stabilise (and needs at least 2-3 weeks for this).

3) It is basically an extension to Superfetch... where it creates a "Superfetch Store" on your USB memory stick. But the difference is that it is "persistent memory" whereas RAM isn't and if you reboot its contents is lost.

4) The cache file remains on the flashdrive when you shut down.

5) ReadyBoost is really good for improving boot-up times and general system performance. It does the former on any machine, even a machine running 1,000 tera bytes of RAM would benefit from better boot times. Once the system has booted though and its uptime increases the gains go away quicker the more RAM you have. And it's at this stage that ReadyBoost gets its bad press and people saying "just buy more RAM..." But the fact remains that ReadyBoost does help a lot with low memory systems, especially laptops.

6) Readyboost is not meant to replace additional ram, but to supplement it, especially in systems that are not always up (which are the majority of home systems in normal use).

7) Readyboost is a passive thing that helps in the long term, if you have a system which has been using readyboost for several weeks and you were to pull out the memory stick, the user would notice their system behaving differently. Most benchmarks compare things like FPS in games which has nothing to do with the purpose of ReadyBoost.

8) The question arises, if you have a 4GB USB ReadyBoost drive and set 2GB for ReadyBoost, will it be okay removing it everyday, once the PC is off to use at work/school? Or will it defeat the whole point?

The answer is quite simply that ReadyBoost is designed with this in mind. The fact that it lets you allocate a certain percentage of the drive, and that you can "unplug" the drive at any time provides a hint to users that ReadyBoost doesn't tie/lock the drive down to that machine.

Obviously when it is unplugged from your Vista machine it will reduce the performance. But as soon as you plug it back in... the performance increases again!

Space needed - min. 256 MB, max 4 GB (because ReadyBoost can compact this data this can yield up to 512 MB and 8 GB respectively), recommended, ratio 1:1 to 2.5:1 (2 GB RAM would be 2 GB - 4 GB of flash drive).

How many drives can I use? - One

Security risk? - No, the data is encrypted.

ReadyBoost FAQ

ReadyBoost Compatibility List
 
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nice post there, didnt know you had to wait to that long to stabilise.

But, question is still gone unanswered, can you not use compact flash for ready boost?
 
shimy182 said:
nice post there, didnt know you had to wait to that long to stabilise.

But, question is still gone unanswered, can you not use compact flash for ready boost?
Click to expand...

You can use any type of flash memory, when you plug it in windows will ask you if you want to use it for readyboost.
 
yeah, every time i plugged my camera's high-speed CF cards into my cardreader vista asked me if i wanted to use them for readyboost.

then i turned auto-run off because of the considerable security risks. (and it's really annoying)
 
I use my Memory Stick Duo that I had in my PSP (Sandisk 'Gamer' MSDUO 4GB). Seeing as I don't use my PSP that often anymore, I thought it might be put to good use.
Boot times seem a little quicker, but looking at the performance monitor, I can see just how much the system is writing to the readyboost file.
 
ah yeah, i know of this, but im just wondering why people are still going for the USB option when its a lot more expensive ( by speed figures) compared to a compact flash of equivalent speed.
 
I also have a 8GB corsair voyager, even if you could; don't use ready boost it just slows down pc a lot. Ram is a lot better.
 
Well I might aswell put in my un-unsed 2gig USB stick to see if I notice any improvment !! It became redundant when I bought a 750gig external HD and because the keyring bit broke so I never carry it anyway.
 
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