Intel Robson: What would happen if...

...I put a first-gen Turbomemory module into a Centrino 2 motherboard?

I have a 1GB Robson chip from my old laptop. I was wondering if it'd be possible to use the card just as an internal flash drive (basically for pagefile) in my new Asus, which has the Centrino 2 chipset.

I know that the NV hard drive cache and ReadyBoost functions will not be available because of the difference between Centrino and Centrino 2.

I'm really concerned with the prospect of somehow messing up my laptop. I'm not concerned with the functions of Robson, but it'd be nice (at least in theory) to move the pagefile off my hard drive and onto an internal flash drive.

Also, I know Robson is split (basically 2x512MB). Does anyone know if I will see just 512MB or the whole 1GB?

 

Don't bother. The TurboMemory is worthless if you have more than 1GB of RAM, and some people have even noticed a slight slowdown if TurboMemory is paired with 4GB of RAM.

 

On my G2S' disk management it only shows up with a portion (512mb). Would be interesting if the Centrino 2 would see it as both or such. If this fails, going with something like a Corsair Voyager GT...was the fastest USB drive for a small stint but are inexpensive and still VERY fast. If anything, it may fry your turbo mem unit if there are power requirement changes.

 

I don't care about turbomemory/hard drive NVRAM. I just want to know if I can use it as an internal drive for what little pagefile I do have. I have 4GB of RAM and my pagefile is basically disabled, so I already don't see much differnce from ReadyBoost (which basically just mirrors smaller bits of pagefile).

Hmm... I have an 8gb Cruzer Contour for fast data speeds (it's like 20MB/s max read/write). Only problem with flash drives is they use up a USB port and stick out a good deal, so I usually don't keep them plugged in because I move around a lot.
AFAIK it's just a PCI card, right? Hopefully I won't blow anything up.

So what's the verdict? Give it a try or hold off for fear of breaking something?

 

With 2 drives in raid already I don't see much point. If you want a speed boost wait another year or two to get your hands on the next generation of cheap, fast SSD's to upgrade with.

 

I don't have RAID set up, figured I didn't want to risk failure nor lose disk space

This isn't really a matter of true performance, it's more just the question of whether it's possible or not-- the notion that I can in fact do it
I'm weird like that lol

 

Very true about the USB port. My G2S comes with like 4 USB ports and 1 USB/Esata, if your G50 has a load of em, maybe internally wiring it may be an idear.