Fastest Flash Memory for Readyboost

Please let's not debate the effectiveness of readyboost... instead let's focus on the large pool of users who have VERY slow hard drives and low ram who may actually benefit from it...

That said, what is the fastest flash memory to implement in a readyboost drive?

SD seems to max out at around 20mb/s

usb claims higher, but which has a faster bus usually?

Also, is memory stick memory any faster than sd cards? Or is the architecture of the card irrelevant?

Any photogs or other flash gurus wanna chime in here?

Thanks,

 

Intel Robson (turbo memory) clocks in at about 40MB/s for me with 100+MB/s bursts according to HDTune.

 

I have the fastest Corsair USB memory cards, I have found that the 4Gb Flash Voyager Gt gets about 24mb/sec, and the 2Gb flash voyager Gt gets 22.5mb/sec.
I am not sure about SD, but the fastest SD cards are the Adata 150x cards. They average about 20mb/sec.
I just bought a 4Gb ADATA 150x SDHC card. I will benchmark it and tell you how fast it actually is.

For read/write speeds, compact cards are the fastest. They come up to 266X, which is 40Mb/sec.
I recommend ADATA, they make very good flash memory (2,4 and 8gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211177
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211163
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211164

I think I am going to purchase the 8Gb compact flash card, so I can install Windows XP on it, so that my laptop gets better battery life. Since flash memory has a 0.1ms latency, it should be as fast as most 5400rpm drives.

I hope this helps,
you really need a pretty decent memory card reader if you want to have faster boot times.

K-TRON

 

I am one of the unfortunate tz owners with a 4200 rpm drive and most likely a slow card reader... I have both memory stick pro and sd card readers... it just seems way more convenient to have a mem card in the slot than to have a huge usb dongle hanging off the side...

 

how do you add "robson" to your computer though? I have fairly limited upgrade options internally

 

You need a pci express x1 slot on your motherboard, it looks like this:
In the first image, the turbo memory robson card is on the left just below the cpu heatsink, in teh second image, it is next to the processor.



K-TRON

 

SD is limited by spec at 20MB/s.

To go faster you need MMC+ or CF (CF being much easier to find) it maxes out at mid 50 read and mid 40s write.

This of course is limited by the connection too, USB's theoretical max is 480Mb/s and actual available after overhead is usually closer to low 300s. Firewire gets closer to it's theoretical max of 400Mb/s, which means both are really pretty limited to below 50MB/s and likely closer to the 40MB/s seen on some Robson modules (Robson II should increase the speed dramatically). Robson relies on 20MB/s memory running in dual Channel mode, some memory sticks also run dual channel, but the Voyager GTs are near the top at 20-28MB/s, and that's what I use.

The thing to remember is most of those built-in card readers in PCs are slow, I've seen some many appearing to be connected to USB 1.1.

Always plug you reader into the USB2.0 or Firewire ports directly.

and if you have the choice, IMO, get the Lexar Professional or SD Extreme IV CF cards and use a FireWire readers as I've found them faster and more consistent when transfering files, so likely that would be the case with readyboost too.

 

I just tested the maximum throughput of USB, with my external harddrive.
The harddrive is a 320Gb Seagate perpendicular recording drive. I ran an HDTUNE test, and it is a consistent 26mb/sec.
SO USB 2.0 maxxes out at 26mb/sec.

Here is my hdtune result:



If you want a turbo memory card, PM me I will give you the one in my T61. You will have more of a need for it, than I will.

K-TRON

 

I don't have a santa rosa chipset... tz's are still a gen behind... also, I doubt there is room in this little bastard for anything but air

 

Well USB 2.0 throughputs also depends on the chipset (remember the early ATi AMD ones had a USB2.0 bug, which really got people to start looking at the differences even closer).

Here's a difference between eSata/Fire/USB with slightly higher throughputs;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/160gb-external-hdd_6.html#sect2

But anywhoo, here's a benchmark of the Extreme IV with the difference between the USB and FireWire readers;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/sandisk_5.html#sect1

Only the Firewire Extreme reader gets close to rated specs for all 3, but as the ImageMate cheezy shiny reader shows Firewire doesn't guarantee fast.

Anywhoo, good luck.

 

I benchmarked my 2Gb and 4Gb 150x Adata SD cards. Here is the performance hd tune tests. The 4Gb is an SDHC card.

2Gb adata SD card 150X:


4Gb adata SDHC card 150X:


All of the hdtune tests were tested on a SUPER TALENT 15 in 1 card reader.

K-TRON

 

What is the fastest possible interface AND card for ReadyBoost on a Dell M1530 XPS with an ExpressCard slot and an 8 in 1 card reader slot, i.e. is ExpressCard - which some say runs at USB speeds due to notebook design limitations and others say can run in a Dell m1530 at the faster 2.4 gig/s PCIE speeds - a faster interface than any of the formats that can be read in the 8 in 1 reader - which most say are limited to USB speeds; AND will a Lexar 16 gig Expresscard running in a m1530 interface at PCIE speeds or at USB speeds? If the Lexar in an m1530 will only run at USB speeds, then is there a 8 in 1 card option that will effectively run just as fast?

Cost is not a factor and quite aware of the negligible gains.