The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    How does ReadyBoost help if...

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Apollo13, Jul 24, 2008.

  1. Apollo13

    Apollo13 100% 16:10 Screens

    Reputations:
    1,432
    Messages:
    2,578
    Likes Received:
    210
    Trophy Points:
    81
    ...your hard drive is faster than your USB port.

    The maximum USB 2.0 transfer speed is 60 MB per second, and practically most flash drives give much lesser performance than that. Now if you look at 7200 RPM notebook hard drives, most give 45 - 55 MB per second transfer rates (and desktop drives can be much faster than that). That's a lot faster than most USB flash drives. So, it begs the question - wouldn't it be faster just to use virtual memory on hard drive instead of ReadyBoost on a flash drive that has a slower data transfer rate?
     
    Apollo13, Jul 24, 2008
    #1
  2. InTheZeroYear

    InTheZeroYear Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    127
    Messages:
    334
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I tried using it while I was waiting for another 4GB of RAM.

    It did nothing with a 4GB USB Drive.

    The drive's Transfer speed probably wasn't very good, but to me it was just a waste of a good USB Drive for minimal performance increase.
     
    InTheZeroYear, Jul 24, 2008
    #2
  3. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

    Reputations:
    5,504
    Messages:
    9,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    1. Readyboost doesn't actually help, so the second point is moot.

    2. In Unicorn land, Readyboost takes advantage of the instantaneous seek times of flash memory, not the transfer rates. For large, continuous files, Readyboost is smart enough to let the HDD handle it.
     
    Lithus, Jul 24, 2008
    #3
  4. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,024
    Messages:
    7,755
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    lol in unicorn land.

    but yeah is you have more then 2gb of ram drop ready boost. it's a waste of you time you might end up slowing your computer down the speed it up
     
    dondadah88, Jul 24, 2008
    #4
  5. devanmmc

    devanmmc Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Im curious now, if you switch that point from using a USB flash drive. To lets say a lexar 8GB SSD in the express slot, does that change transfer rates and the usefulness of readyboost?
     
    devanmmc, Jul 25, 2008
    #5
  6. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,972
    Messages:
    7,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    jus tget more ram, it's more cheap and more useful.

    but yes, a faster ssd will help readyboost. wether it's noticable is another thing.

    as you may know (else check the pinned ssd thread), ssd's main gain is the fast accesstimes of lower than 1ms, compared to tens of ms for ordinary harddrives.

    that's where readyboost could help. espencially if it collects those small files that are spread and fragmented all over the disk.
     
    davepermen, Jul 25, 2008
    #6
  7. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,972
    Messages:
    7,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    just don't forget: in unicorn land..

    in reality, get more ram, then get an ssd, and then you should never bother about it again. but more ram is the most cheap and most important one first :)

    (still i'm interested, how a very-low-ram vista system works with a great ssd.. have to test that. would allow fast hibernate, which i loved on pre gb-ram days.. :))
     
    davepermen, Jul 25, 2008
    #7
  8. devanmmc

    devanmmc Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    thanks for the help guys :)
     
    devanmmc, Jul 25, 2008
    #8