Best for ReadyBoost: USB vs. SD Card

[Harry Krause]

Just for grins, I popped a a halfagig SD card I had around into a card
reader and it was accepted as ReadyBoost memory.

So, I'm wondering...

If I want to add about two gigs of ReadyBoost memory, should I be
shopping for a fast SD card or a fast USB memory key, or does it matter?

And what is fast? And how fast is fast enough? Very few manufacturers of
these memory devices seem to publish specs.

Thanks.

 

[Bob]

Just for grins, I popped a a halfagig SD card I had around into a card
reader and it was accepted as ReadyBoost memory.

So, I'm wondering...

If I want to add about two gigs of ReadyBoost memory, should I be shopping
for a fast SD card or a fast USB memory key, or does it matter?

And what is fast? And how fast is fast enough? Very few manufacturers of
these memory devices seem to publish specs.

Thanks.

A good place to start looking for info would be here:
http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/memory/vista/readyboost.shtml
Bob

 

[Puppy Breath]

You're right about nobody publishing those speeds. But if you can find them,
it's all about the Random I/O speed. I think that's the only criterion Vista
looks at when deciding whether or not a device is suitable for ReadyBoost.
But I could be wrong on that.

Samsung supposedly has a 4GB chip that can go right on the motherboard or
onto a hybrid drive. But I have yet to see any products offering that.

 

[Bob]

You're right about nobody publishing those speeds. But if you can find
them, it's all about the Random I/O speed. I think that's the only
criterion Vista looks at when deciding whether or not a device is suitable
for ReadyBoost. But I could be wrong on that.

Samsung supposedly has a 4GB chip that can go right on the motherboard or
onto a hybrid drive. But I have yet to see any products offering that.

Asus has a MB with ReadyBoost built in:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q1/asus-vistaedition/index.x?pg=1

A Google search using Vista readyboost flash memory turns up tons of good
info .
Bob

 

[Puppy Breath]

Thanks! I was thinking about getting a P5 anyway. I'm glad I didn't jump the
gun.

 

[Guest]

OK so we have a MB with flash built in, and it's faster to access flash on a
USB than it is to access the harddrive. I'm just wondering, a few things now.
1. In sleep mode, can flash be used instead of main ram to save battery life?
2. It was never answered: Usb2.0 vs SD. I have a built in card reader which
may be faster than a usb reader. Which is faster? Also SD is not so clunky.
Usb is 480Mbps but doing research on SD card speed for built in readers is
not so easy to find. Figure the 150x speed is 22.5 MBps. You see the Mbps vs
MBps. Great for confusing customers, must have been designed by Intel.

 

[Guest]

I found this info in the Windows Vista help files:
Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer
Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices,
such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a device
with this capability, the AutoPlay dialog will offer you the option to speed
up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can
then choose how much memory to use for this purpose. However, there are some
situations where you may not be able to use all of the memory on your storage
device to speed up your computer.
Some universal serial bus (USB) storage devices contain both slow and fast
flash memory, and Windows can only use fast flash memory to speed up your
computer. So if your device contains both slow and fast memory, keep in mind
that you can only use the fast memory portion for this purpose.
The recommended amount of memory to use for ReadyBoost acceleration is one
to three times the amount of random access memory (RAM) installed in your
computer. For instance, if your computer has 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM and
you plug in a 4 gigabyte (GB) USB flash drive, setting aside from 512MB to
1.5GB of that drive will offer the best performance boost.

 

[JW]

Out of curiosity what applications are you running that require 8GB of
Virtual Memory?
I believe that 8GB of ready boost would do much more for you then 256mb of
flash on a Hybrid HDD given your large paging file requirements.