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    RAM or Readyboost?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by lordmail, Jun 8, 2008.

  1. lordmail

    lordmail Notebook Consultant

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    Hi

    I've got a laptop with 1gb of ram right now, running vista :eek: . So I'm going to upgrade it to atleast 2gb soon. Right now it is 2x512.
    I can buy a 4gb usb stick for $20 or 2gb of RAM for $40 I was wondering which is better.

    thanks!
     
    lordmail, Jun 8, 2008
    #1
  2. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

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    Increasing the ram will probably increase your performance 10x more than using readyboost would. Upgrading the ram is the best upgrade, and on systems that have already more than 512mb ram, the difference using readyboost is negligible.
     
    jisaac, Jun 8, 2008
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  3. tianxia

    tianxia kitty!!!

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    agreed, their bandwidths are not even in the same order of magnitude!
     
    tianxia, Jun 8, 2008
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  4. X2P

    X2P COOLING | NBR Super Mod

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    RAM!!!!! readyboost is a joke.
     
    X2P, Jun 8, 2008
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  5. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    OK what ready boost might be 20MB/s to 40MB/s with a RA of say 1/ms. Sounds good? RAM is 4000MB/s with a RA in nano/s? You do the math and get back to us?
     
    powerpack, Jun 8, 2008
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  6. moon angel

    moon angel Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    QFT! Go for ram.
     
    moon angel, Jun 8, 2008
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  7. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Forget ReadyBoost. I would suggest you get a 1 x 2GB module instead of 2 x 1GB. That way you get a bit more memory that SuperFetch can use and will more than offset the very small memory bandwidth associated with asymmetric dual channel operation (see this thread).

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jun 8, 2008
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  8. boypogi

    boypogi Man Beast

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    get more ram. readyboost is a joke
     
    boypogi, Jun 8, 2008
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  9. Meemat

    Meemat Notebook Evangelist

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    As everyone has said, ReadyBoost isn't too great.

    I tried using it on my Desktop with Vista Business and my Computer just hung up at the loading screen where the bar moves across the screen about 2/3 of the time I had my flash drive in, so yeah, go for the RAM.
     
    Meemat, Jun 8, 2008
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  10. lordmail

    lordmail Notebook Consultant

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    ok thanks! i've ordered 2gbx1 :D
     
    lordmail, Jun 8, 2008
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  11. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

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    Definitely RAM
     
    The_Observer, Jun 8, 2008
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  12. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    Ram, either DDR or DDR2 will have a much higher bandwidth and read/write speed than and usb or sd card. This is because of the relatively slow usb hub which controls the media card reader and USB ports.
    The maximum USB transfer speed is about 30-40mb/sec while the memory can have much higher bandwidth cause it is directly linked to the motherboard's chipset. You can have 2000+ mb/sec bandwidth over the internal memory.

    Plus you can pick up DDR2 laptop memory for close to nothing these days.

    If your system uses DDR memory, which is much more expensive, around $75 per Gb than you may be better off using a memory card, because it is more cost effective.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Jun 8, 2008
    #12