Is using an SD card as pagefile practical

[- Bobb -]

Friends have a few old XP PCs they're tossing (512mb) and wondering if would
be useful to someone if set up with a 4gb, 8gb SD card drive for swap space.
Get an SD card with a USB holder, insert as USB drive and set pagefile to
live there ? Too slow ?
If light work I'll tell them to contact ... local charities, otherwise not
enough memory to work effectively these days ( - reason they're tossing
them)

 

[Paul]

Friends have a few old XP PCs they're tossing (512mb) and wondering if would
be useful to someone if set up with a 4gb, 8gb SD card drive for swap space.
Get an SD card with a USB holder, insert as USB drive and set pagefile to
live there ? Too slow ?
If light work I'll tell them to contact ... local charities, otherwise not
enough memory to work effectively these days ( - reason they're tossing
them)

One problem with older systems, is they just don't have good enough
bus bandwidth for "home repair" type projects. The sad part was,
the technology existed to do a better job, but it would have cost
a few more dollars to do it, so they didn't bother.

If it was me, I'd probably use an IDE2SAT adapter and a 2.5" SSD
drive. Which would do about as much as is physically possible
to speed up storage. For around $105, that would give a 60GB
hard drive, with a 0.1 millisecond seek time. And max write
speed of 95MB/sec and likely a read speed of 100MB/sec. That's
about the best I could do for an older computer (like my first
PC with the 1.1GHz processor upgrade in it). It would make the
storage seem a bit faster, but when the CPU is flat out
doing something (like movie playback), it still might not
be fast enough to avoid stuttering or dropped frames.

(Adapter, to allow SATA devices in an IDE ribbon cable PC)
http://ca.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/25in-and-35in-40-Pin-Male-IDE-to-SATA-Adapter-Converter~IDE2SAT

(SSD for $80 - typically these have SATA interfaces)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

The hardest part of using stuff like that, is aligning the partition
of an older OS properly, on the SSD. That's to reduce the amount
of read-modify-write operations needed on the SSD. I'd probably
have to struggle to get that done right. Apparently, Macrium
has some alignment options, but I don't know how well that works.

Paul

 

[glee]

Friends have a few old XP PCs they're tossing (512mb) and wondering if
would
be useful to someone if set up with a 4gb, 8gb SD card drive for swap
space.
Get an SD card with a USB holder, insert as USB drive and set pagefile
to
live there ? Too slow ?
If light work I'll tell them to contact ... local charities, otherwise
not
enough memory to work effectively these days ( - reason they're
tossing
them)

Old computers are just that... old.... and adding swap space isn't going
to speed it up with XP, swap space is too slow compared to actual
memory. Unless they want to spend money to add RAM (assuming the memory
installed already is not the maximum for the motherboard), there is
little else they can do. I'd max out the RAM if it isn't already.....
it would be the most effective performance boost for the money, more so
than adding an SSD drive and adapter, Paul's is a good idea but it
isn't going to improve the low RAM symptoms, and costs at least as much
as adding RAM, if not more.

 

[Paul]

Old computers are just that... old.... and adding swap space isn't going
to speed it up with XP, swap space is too slow compared to actual
memory. Unless they want to spend money to add RAM (assuming the memory
installed already is not the maximum for the motherboard), there is
little else they can do. I'd max out the RAM if it isn't already.....
it would be the most effective performance boost for the money, more so
than adding an SSD drive and adapter, Paul's is a good idea but it
isn't going to improve the low RAM symptoms, and costs at least as much
as adding RAM, if not more.

Some of the old chipsets were hobbled by Intel. Intel made one chipset,
where it supports three slots, and it also can operate a 512MB DIMM
in a slot. But in a moment of stupidity, the motherboard won't let
you use 3x512MB and instead, adding any more RAM would be ignored.
It has a 512MB upper limit (a good match for Win98, but not why they did it).
The only reason it has that limit, is because of input from a "marketing team".

A VIA chipset from the same era (I have one of those) would support
3x512MB and you can in fact expand and do a bit better.

So while it's fun to pretend the old chipsets could be expanded, some
of them are dogs.

Just like many old machines didn't come with AGP slots, and then you can't
install a decent video card. Retail motherboards (built your own computer type)
would have the AGP slot, but pre-built machines (HP/Dell/Gateway) could easily
be made with AGP slot missing. And customers would never think of checking whether
one was present or not. Until it's too late.

Paul

 

[- Bobb -]

Yeah but tough to find locally and too much money online - older memory more
$$$ than new. That's why I was wondering if maybe cheap SD would work...
I'll suggest they toss them
Thanks to all.

 

[glee]

Yeah but tough to find locally and too much money online - older
memory more $$$ than new. That's why I was wondering if maybe cheap SD
would work... I'll suggest they toss them
Thanks to all.

Older RAM is more expensive, especially PC100/133 SDRAM, but much is
still affordable, especially if you use generic RAM rather than modules
specifically listed for a brand and model computer.
What brand and models are they? What type of RAM do they have?

 

[David H. Lipman]

Older RAM is more expensive, especially PC100/133 SDRAM, but much is still affordable,
especially if you use generic RAM rather than modules specifically listed for a brand
and model computer.
What brand and models are they? What type of RAM do they have?

It really isn't expensive unless you compare the size in GB to newer RAM and look at its
price per GB.

 

[Bob F]

Either spend the money or replace the computer. RAM is cheap (unless
its Rambus In-line Memory Module (RIMM) and ikn that case definitely
replace the computer).

Many older computers are very limited in how much RAM thay can take.

 

[- Bobb -]

It really isn't expensive unless you compare the size in GB to newer RAM
and look at its price per GB.

It is/was PC100/133 SDRAM. New was too much $, BUT I found a place that sold
used 128gb sticks for $5 ! I asked mailman if he knew anyone that needed a
PC - he said yes. I told him where to buy the used memory and gave it to
him. For $10-$20 someone will have a working PC.
Case closed.
Thanks folks