A second thought about ReadyBoost

[MICHAEL]

Or, an adjustment.

As I and others here have said, ReadyBoost may
be a bit over-hyped. If you have over 1GB you aren't
really going to notice much of a difference, and you'd
be better off just buying more RAM.

Well, I have found that ReadyBoost can provide a
performance boost when running VPC 2007. It allows
me to devote more RAM to the virtual machine without
noticing a performance hit in Vista.
I have 2GB of RAM, and with ReadyBoost, my computer
and the vm run great.


-Michael

 

[Bill Frisbee]

Michael,

I tend to agree. I have both a 2 GB and a 4 GB box, and when I use a 2 or 4
GB USB fob, I notice a markable difference.

It also helps in Oblivion for some reason.

On my laptop, it doesn't seem like it helps much, but that may simply be the
speed of the hard drive (slow!).


Bill F.

 

[Red nosed reindeer]

Hello, indeed you are correct...

that was one of the reasons I wanted to use my 2 gig flash stick,
(but with vmware not vpc).
In fact I wanted to try another trick too. Vmware 6 beta supports USB 2.0
connections.. so I was thinking of installing RC2 as a virtual machine and
then letting the virtual machine use the stick (via the usb).

However although
the theoretical specs of this flash stick are in the limits Vista needs
for some reason it does not want to use it....

Is your cpu a single or dual core?

How much ram do you give the virtual machine? 1 gig?

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

I share the same sentiments when it comes to physical hardware, Vista
Ultimate x64 does not boot any faster, which is a shame, because its so slow
on my inadequate Sempron 1.6 GHz with 512 MBs of RAM.

 

[MICHAEL]

I use VMWare to play around with various Linux flavors.
And your thought about putting a vm on a USB stick has
crossed my mind, too. You could take it with you and use it
on any computer that had that virtual program installed.
Not to mention, it seems that the vm would be a bit faster off
a USB flash drive than an external hard drive. Although, I can
say, I have been impressed with VPC 2007.
I've meant to ask Colin about this.

You probably have tried this, but go into Device
Manager and check under Disk Drives>your USB Device>
Properties> Policies>Optimize for Performance

See if that will get ReadyBoost to work.
Have you tried formatting it? I also found
that one USB slot may work one another
doesn't for ReadyBoost. Try switching slots
if you have one available.

I have a P4(HT) 3.4Ghz.
For the WinXP Pro vm, I give it 1GB of RAM.
It would probably be just fine with less, but
1GB is nice number.


-Michael

 

[Red nosed reindeer]

I did not do that "optimize" trick nor have I formated it... it was new..
and I doubted that I would have to format it... I will try it...

actually the thing I said about VM and USB was not exactly what you said...
although that too was in my mind (for some linux distro that can work from a
usb).. I meant having vista as the client.. and giving the client direct
access
the usb device to use as a readyboost.

So the USB drive would be physically plugged into the machine, but the OS
using it
would be the client loaded inside the virtual machine.

The host would be Vista or windowsXP for example... or it could even be
linux.
But only the latest Vmware 6 beta supports USB2 in the virtual machines...
and for you to have readyboost you have to have usb2 or else it will not
work.

I have no idea if vpc 2007 supports usb2... although I did download the beta
and try it... I like vmware more because I use various linux flavors too.

 

[MICHAEL]

Okay, I see what you are saying.

I'd look under the Policies tab first to see if
Optimize for performance is checked.

Unfortunately, VPC 2007 doesn't support USB.


-Michael

 

[MICHAEL]

Oh, try plugging it directly into the computer and not a hub.


-Michael

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Do you use VMware Player or VMware Server?

I did not do that "optimize" trick nor have I formated it... it was new..
and I doubted that I would have to format it... I will try it...

actually the thing I said about VM and USB was not exactly what you said...
although that too was in my mind (for some linux distro that can work from a
usb).. I meant having vista as the client.. and giving the client direct
access
the usb device to use as a readyboost.

So the USB drive would be physically plugged into the machine, but the OS
using it
would be the client loaded inside the virtual machine.

The host would be Vista or windowsXP for example... or it could even be
linux.
But only the latest Vmware 6 beta supports USB2 in the virtual machines...
and for you to have readyboost you have to have usb2 or else it will not
work.

I have no idea if vpc 2007 supports usb2... although I did download the beta
and try it... I like vmware more because I use various linux flavors too.

 

[David Hearn]

Or, an adjustment.

As I and others here have said, ReadyBoost may
be a bit over-hyped. If you have over 1GB you aren't
really going to notice much of a difference, and you'd
be better off just buying more RAM.

That may be true - but in my case, I have a 2 RAM slot machine, with
both full with 512MB DIMMs to enable dual channel support. To upgrade,
I'd need to buy 2x1024MB @ £105 a stick (£210 = approx $400). A 2GB USB
drive is about £35 ($70) from the same supplier.

Well, I have found that ReadyBoost can provide a
performance boost when running VPC 2007. It allows
me to devote more RAM to the virtual machine without
noticing a performance hit in Vista.
I have 2GB of RAM, and with ReadyBoost, my computer
and the vm run great.

That's a nice idea - well worth thinking about.

D

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

I share the same sentiments when it comes to physical hardware, Vista
Ultimate x64 does not boot any faster, which is a shame, because its so
slow on my inadequate Sempron 1.6 GHz with 512 MBs of RAM.

Well, ReadyBoost will not help you boot faster. Currently, not even when you
return from sleep/hibernate.

You see, Windows doesn't "trust" cache on removable ReadyBoost devices
(somebody could unplug such device between reboots/during sleep and tamper
with it) so it is not used during boot/resume from standby process.

Now, when fixed ReadyBoost devices hit the shelves (integrated in
motherboards or maybe as add-on PCI(e) cards) that will change. Such devices
will have a special mark that will tell Windows that it is not removable so
cache on it can be trusted during return from sleep. However, it still
won't be used on cold boot/reboot.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=242512


As for ReadyBoost being over-hyped... Well, its not a secret that you will
not get mych from it on systems with lot of RAM. RB is a cheap solution to
give a budget PCs some speed boost. Think of it as a faster page (swap)
file: If you've got a lot of RAM, swap isn't used that much anyway so even
if you move it to faster drive or, say, defrag it... chances are it you
won't get any noticeable speed improvement.

 

[MICHAEL]

That may be true - but in my case, I have a 2 RAM slot machine, with both full with 512MB
DIMMs to enable dual channel support. To upgrade, I'd need to buy 2x1024MB @ £105 a stick
(£210 = approx $400). A 2GB USB drive is about £35 ($70) from the same supplier.

I understand what you are saying. I just think some are
under the impression that ReadyBoost equals the performance
of more RAM. It can certainly help in certain low RAM
situations, but the benefit really diminishes after about
1GB of RAM. Of course, it also may depend on how many
RAM hungry programs they are running. A buddy of mine
has 2GB of RAM and says he notices that ReadyBoost
helps his performance when he runs AutoCAD.
But, once Vista is out in full force, I can see users running
around trying to find sticks that work with ReadyBoost
and then complaining they don't notice any difference.
I don't think many will notice a difference. Especially,
those that buy a new computer with Vista already installed.

That's a nice idea - well worth thinking about.

I have dual booting situations on three machines,
but I do think (as Colin has said) that virtual technology
is the future for using/testing multiple operating systems.

Take care,

Michael