Yes/No Intel TurboMemory on SantaRosa Latitudes

The Deal:
I've been looking around all over to try and make a decision on whether or not to purchase the steal-of-a-deal on 1GB of Intel TurboMemory from Amazon ( URL HERE).

A Quick Briefing on TurboMemory:
TurboMemory is part of Intel's Centrino Pro standard and is essentially a NAND flash-based memory card that plugs in via a PCI-e motherboard slot. TurboMemory takes advantage of two features built into Windows Vista, ReadyBoost, and ReadyDrive. ReadyBoost ( Wikipedia) stores the page file from SuperFetch in flash memory so its faster to access than from the hard Drive. ReadyDrive ( Wikipedia) speeds up system boot and or hibernation times and caches the most frequently used hard disk files again to access them faster.

The Question:
I have a D830 (w/ Vista Ultimate) on order, which will have an available slot for the card, and I don't necessarily mind spending $27, for what could be a noticable performance increase. That's what's up for debate, whether a noticable performance increase would result. In my case, like many others on this forum, my system will have 2GB of RAM installed. Some reviews have said that the increase is slightly noticeable when paired with this amount of RAM already. According to those reviews though, it does offer advantages, but I wanted to see what the general consensus is around here. Whaddya think?

 

I think you should wait for them to release decent drivers for the device. I find it unlikely the price will go up, so just wait it out.

Otherwise, you might just end up with a BSOD nightmare and a -$27 on your bank account.

 

That's true, I have heard that the drivers aren't spectacular and semi-buggy, but nonetheless, it still works right? Driver updates cant be too far ahead, now that the technology is mainstream.

 

My current laptop has 4GB of ram. I think it's wiser to buy a 2gb 1 dimm memory stick. Fry's electronics has them for 89 dollars. 89-27 = $62 extra dollars for a more stable solution. If you still want to buy the "turbo memory" then go ahead. I suggest you wait until better drivers are released. Maybe then, Intel will have a 2 gb version of the turbo memory. And the 1gb for $27 wouldn't be considered a steal anymore.

 

Good point, I dont even have my laptop yet, so I may not even need it, the idea of increased performance is intriguing.

 

In our Santa Rosa preview we found that Turbo Memory did very little in fact. Performance didn't improve (in some cases it got worse), we couldn't find any measurable reduction in power consumption and in the end we found absolutely no use for the technology. Notebook makers echoed our sentiments, with both HP and Sony declining to use Intel's Turbo Memory in their Santa Rosa lineups, but Intel insisted that there was an upside to the technology.....
.....

We leave today with a more hopeful outlook for Intel's Turbo Memory, but it's clear that the technology is in its infancy. We stand by our original conclusion with regards to the Santa Rosa platform, as it isn't one that you absolutely need to upgrade to, it is barely evolutionary by Intel's own standards. Turbo Memory could be nice to have, but your mileage may vary. We'd suggest waiting for the second revision of the technology, hopefully by the next Centrino launch in 2008 we will see larger flash sizes and more software optimizations for the technology.


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3009

- Tim

 

I'd say wait it out. Turbo Memory's benefits seem a little dubious currently - waiting a little while won't hurt. Especially since Dell's not offering it in their configs, it's quite possible support isn't even there in the BIOS.

 

Does something like the E1520 or M1330 have TurboMemory options, or is there just an empty slot on the mobo?

 

i think they're santarosa, so they support it, dont know if it'll be offered factory, probably eventually, but not necessarily at launch.

 

if you want it then get it, you may not see a huge performance improvement but boot times and overall program load times should be slighty more faster and responsive

 

if you mean the 1520 then it does, not sure about the M1330 but i would believe so

 

Personally I think anandtech hit the nail on the head. The current turbo memory offering just isn't big enough to improve performance. You have too keep in mind that 1gb turbo memory really means 512mb read & 512mb write. In the real world it's not even enough space to spit on. I think as soon as we see 4gb turbo memory(2gb,read/2gb,write), + improved read/write speeds, then we will have something to get excited about.

That being said. I did order one of these cards to play with. I tried installing it into a Latitude D620 today but I couldn't get the drivers to work. I think it is because turbo memory requires the i965 chipset to work properly and my d620 has the i945. I have a D630 on the way so I will have a chance to play with it more once that gets here. In the mean time.

Like so many have been saying. I think people are much better off spending their time and money getting more system RAM. Readyboost & turbo memory are a great idea; but they still need more work before they can offer noticeable performance improvements.

 

The last Anandtech review concluded that Turbo Memory should help battery life. However, it doesn't significantly boost performance and may make things worse in some situations.

John

 

I was wondering does anyone know how these numbers compare to using a SD card for readyboost/drive? I am finding very little on the net about using anything but the turbomem.

 

It was my understanding that Turbo Memory was something Dell will be offering shortly as an option during the configuration but that it not yet allows for that....but yes the 1520/1720 should have that as a supported option very soon.

Anyone know?

I've seen Toshiba offerings where it is built right into the system already...I think 1gb.

 

As for when Dell will be selling it, I don't know, but there are actually 2 slots in the notebook for the FCM or flash control module, you can either put it in the wpan slot, or the wwan slot according to the manual for the E1520.

 

correct, but i would consider it odd if you wanted to omit a wireless a/b/g/n or whatever module for a turbomemory card.

putting it in the wwan slot seems a more acceptable route, as less users are adopting the wwan tech. (at least until wi-max)

 

I guess I should of covered that, there are actually three slots for mini cards on the E1520, WWAN, WPAN, & WLAN. The wireless a/b/g card sits in the wlan, wwan is for like: sprint, tmo, cingular, you get the idea, wpan which is basically along the ideas of a/b/g, but meant for a much shorter range and to be able to be use by a group of people to work together, from the online searches I have done about it, it is 802.15 (standard)