Should I add 1GB Intel Turbo Memory (G1S)?

I am getting the G1S-A1 within the next few days and I wanted to know if I should buy a 1GB Intel Turbo Memory PCI-E card for it? I have seen a few of you have it in your profiles so I know you have them installed. How hard is it to install (G1S) and is it worth the $30 bucks? Will performance improve in the future? Can a 1 or 2GB SD card do the same thing? Thanks for any help you can provide.

FifthE1ement

 

DEFINETLY YES!! Get the Turbo Memory, it is well worth it for only 30 bucks, you will see a major speed difference, go to http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/turbomemory/index.htm and watch the proformance demo and interactive tour, also read the summary, but the videos tell all. Hope i could help.

 

I don't think it's worth it, I got it in mine. But it was only 40 bucks so I got it anyway.

 

Can anyone post an image of where it goes on the G1S or do they have an image of the motherboard (internals). I just want to know if it will be hard to install and my advantages.

Thanks,

FifthE1ement

 

Last I heard, the video is misleading since the systems in question had relatively low amounts of RAM. If you have 2+ gigs on your system, the benefits from the Turbo Memory will be negligible.

 

Turbo Memory is hit or miss right now, right now I'd say it's not worth the money because it can actually slow down your system. Take the above link with a grain of salt, since it's from Intel.

 

I got mine simply because it wasn't that expensive, but I haven't run any tests on it so I can't tell how much (or how little) it's helping. As to self installing it.. it doesn't look that easy. I don't have the laptop in front of me now, but I did take off the cover some time ago and it looks like there are 2 slots.

One slot that's pretty easily accessible (I think - there are wires running around it so not sure) is the wireless card.
Next to that, half under the laptop shell, is the Turbo Memory (ITM) card. It looks very awkward to access, not only because it's half covered by the laptop shell, but also because it looks like you'd have to remove the wireless card first. If you attempted this on your own I would recommend that you be careful..

 

Thanks for the heads up Cheerfulnut. Does anyone have a screen on the G1S internals? Or have you installed the turbo memory and can you explain how easy/hard?

Thanks,

FifthE1ement

 

Take a look at the V1S review I posted on the main page, I did performance tests with and without Turbo memory, Turbo memory actually substantially slowed down the system.

Its easy enough to install, Remove the Mini PCI plate, angle it into the clip, press down, And its in.

 

If you take a look at page 14 of the hardware manual (I'm at work so I just checked the Asus website), you'll see a blue line (#4) showing where the wireless card is.

In the picture (if this works) is where the ITM module is located (if I remember correctly...) and that should give you an idea of what I mean by "awkward" to access.

 

Thanks for the information guys!

I saw your results matt_h1, however, I think with Windows Vista SP1 their will be fixes to the cache management which should significantly improve performance with the "flash" support. What do you think? And from all of the reviews on TBM, I would be willing to sacrifice a bit of performance for a little bit more battery time. From many tests done results show that TBM can add up to 6 mins on to your battery time depending on what you are doing. Do you agree?

FifthE1ement

 

wow.. 6 whole minutes?

I havent seen cache management improvements listed in SP1, I think they have bigger issues on their hands at the moment than a niche feature like TB which is only really being used in Laptops.

 

From all of the reports on SP1 I have read, this feature will be improved by Microsoft and supposedly Sony (most def) and HP (?) will start producing their notebooks with it. You can see what I am talking about by searching Google with the string, "Intel turbo memory vista sp1".

FifthE1ement

 

I got mine "just to have it", but I won't be promoting it just yet until there is solid evidence that it does have a beneficial effect. Also, I went through 2 weeks-ish of troubleshooting because of the #*&$ thing - you can see my progress on this thread: http://geared2play.com/phpbb/nfphpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1955

(pay no mind to the last couple posts, I'm just having some issues with BTO atm >_<)

In my case, having the latest BIOS was crucial to getting ITM to work. However, you do want to be careful with that process (flashing BIOS) since you don't want your beautiful new G1S turned into a pretty paperweight..

 

yeah I'm not touchin' my BIOS unless something major starts happening...

 

Fifth element are you sure you actually read those articles? I googles exactly that and all of the first 15 first results were about HP and SONY _NOT_ using Turbo Cache because it was useless, They said 6 months ago that they might consider using it if SP1 improves performance.

 

matt_h1 yeah, lol, I read them. It seems that Microsoft removed sections of the Vista code which would have given greater performance to the Flash Cache system we know as Intel Turbo Memory. Many claim that Microsoft will be implementing these "updates" into the SP1 pack to enhance performance and to smooth over their relationship with Intel. Sony has also mentioned that they will reevaluate Intel Turbo Memory implementation at that time. I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar that MS will implement these "updated" features into SP1 just so they can add another bullet point to their list and to improve overall performance.

FifthE1ement

 

i still say, the turbo memory is a great idea