Turbo Memory

Hi Everyone,
One thing I forgot to get with my m15x is the turbo memory. I realize that it probably won't do any good on overall performance, being that I'm going to have 4Gb of memory. However, if I feel the need to try it out, does anyone know how much the card is? If not, I'll give Alienware a quick call.

Thanks,
Gabe

 

its like 50 bucks and its a pretty big deal i think, really helps cut down load times i would really get it but thats just me.

 

well if you want to order online, go here

http://www.excaliberpc.com/580907/intel-1gb-turbo-memory-card.html

for starters. the serial number's on that site as well, so i guess you could also use that to search on ebay or whatever your favorite place for shopping parts is.

 

Hmm, would that thing work in my M9750? If so I might order one.

 

I like it a lot, it definitely cuts down on load times, and when you have the "Hybrid Disk Power Savings Mode" turned on in Vista, the hard drive will just turn itself off every so often and run on the Robson for a bit. Saves a few % on battery.

 

@Cerath: if you've got a free expansion slot, it should work just fine. unless there's some random mobo issue again...

 

looks like there's a free slot next to the wireless card... at least it looks like it according to this.

Might be used for a TV Tuner though, so if you got that option, you might have to go hunting, or you might be SOL

 

Since your on 4gb of ram anyways, I don't think it will cut down THAT much, there will be a difference, not a big one though. As stated above, its only 50 dollars. Good luck

 

There are a few optimizations that come with Turbo memory, Superfetch and Readyboost.

superfetch is the new prefetching features in Vista. This is normally done from the HDD, but with Turbo Memory, can be enabled, to allow the computer to diversify where it gets the Prefetch from (theoretically speeding boot times)

Readyboost is the other major improvement. This extends disk read/write cache...

though read cache can be argued that the Prefetch will have the execs, it's not necessarily the case.

The huge improvement (IMO) is on small file accesses (reads and writes) to the harddrive while running on battery. with Readyboost and the superfetch files on flash memory, which requires significantly less power-on time and less power overall, the HDD can stay spun-down for extended periods of time, saving power.

So, for example, if you have advanced performance options and Readyboost enabled on your Intel turbo memory, and, let's say, you're typing notes into a word document, the periodic saves of the program are saved to the harddrive, but rather than spinning up the harddrive for a small file save, it's stored on the flash memory temporarily. when the harddrive is needed for a large save, or read access that's not in the superfetch files, it will spin up the disk, and not only do the large access, but do the small file operations cached to the turbo memory too.

It doesn't matter how much RAM you have. the Turbo memory isn't to boost performance of the RAM. it's for every OTHER file access that it's used for.

Additionally, in theory, being that the Readyboost is saving to NAND FLASH memory, it's possible that even if the file operation isn't saved to the disk (the system spontainously shuts down), the file can still be recovered, due to the redundancy of the memory, that it doesn't actually need power to keep the memory in-tact.

I'm not certain if Microsoft incorporated this into their thinking for Readyboost or not, but it seems like a good idea, and I don't know why they wouldn't.

 

You put the tubomemory in the lower right left hand side of the laptop when you flip it over

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...mNoX3RleHQ9dHVyYm8gbWVtb3J5&p_li=&p_topview=1

I have found them for sale on ebay for about 34 dollars with shipping.

I believe that the available mini pcie slot next to the wireless card is intended for an internal 3G card, which is why there is an unconnected antenna.

 

Hm I might pick one up then if it goes next to the wireless card. I have that slot free and I just use my verizon phone to connect to the internet while on the go via bluetooth.