ReadyBoost Upgrade

hi folks,

I googled a bit but I haven't really found reliable infos on ReadyBoost. from what I understand, it's some kind of hdd cache to reduce access time, and there are notebooks sold with some kind of "ReadyBoost" flash memory built in.

but I also read it's usable with usb devices or memory cards. since they dont cost much, and my hdd is 4200 rpm and not really fast, I considered buying a flash device for that purpose. I would prefer a memory card, I dont want an USB port to be blocked and prefer something "internal".
questions:
1. which devices will be best (speed-wise of course)? CF, SD, USB, ...,? since it's a Sony, it can also read MemoryStick Pro.
2. is more size = always better or is there some cap at which it isnt really increasing performance when you have a greater readyboost memory (2,4,8,16 gb?)
3. on the fastest device (see 1.), which is the fastest memory (for a reasonable price) to get?

thanks a lot for your replies

edit: of course the speed is probably mostly relevant in terms of access time - does anyone know if high-speed CF cards have better access times than standard ones?

 

about 1,5x your RAM-amount is the recommended size of ReadyBoost according to Microsoft. ReadyBoost is compressed, so the actual size is 2x the cardsize in practice... i.e. a 4GB SD-card will in practice be able to hold 8GB of ReadyBoost-files..

Get the fastest SDHC-card you can get, and no bigger than 4GB (unless you want to use the remaining space for other things than ReadyBoost, say, for SWAP-file and backup of critical data..., then you might want a bigger card than 4GB)

ReadyBoost will NOT speed up your harddrive, nor is ReadyBoost a substitute for RAM, the latter will speed up your system more than ReadyBoost will, just so you know... Also, ReadyBoost files are not saved during reboot, so ReadyBoost will have to fill-in the data anew after every cold boot or restart. The ReadyBoost feature is powered by the same prefetch service that loads files into RAM to chache the most frequent used apps. This is usually done when computer idles. So, to make it short: ReadyBoost will not speed up cold-starts of ANY programs, unless you've let your computer idle first, but it WILL speed up reading of data that has been processed before, i.e. map-loading in games, opening outlook and itunes etc. It will not make your computer boot any faster, but you might gain batterytime, as reading from the SD-card drains less power than reading from the harddrive.

The premise is, get the fastest card you can, access-times are all low, regardless... Also, getting a 8GB card might be wise (4GB ReadyBoost + 4GB SWAP) or get Intel Turbo Memory 2.0 4GB if your computer supports it. But remember, if you can, get RAM instead...

 

thanks temagic!

if 1.5x the amount is recommended, I'll probably get 8gb, since ~3.5gb x 1.5 > 4 gb

but why would readyboost not speed up my hard drive? I know what a cache is, I dont expect it to fasten the sequential reading data rate, rather like you wrote a faster outlook start.
no point in upgrading ram, I have 32 bit vista.
all I expect from that is faster access times on often used files/programs.

why are you recommending sdhc? is that the fastest? a friend of mine told me (photographer) that professional cameras still use CF due to its being the fastest memory card.

 

It really matters how fast your USB flash drive is; the faster the better. I am using the fastest that I know of which is a 4gb Kingston HyperX drive which is 20mb/s write, 30mb/s read, and I believe around .67ms access time.

I have the acer 8930 with a 7200rpm 320gb hdd along with 4gb ddr3 memory, and I can assure you that using readyboost with this drive has literally almost doubled the responsiveness and speed of my system. It is like night and day.

I used this drive on my old HP 17 inch 5400rpm 4gb ddr2 laptop, and the HyperX drive worked 3 fold better than the 4gb Sandisk titanium drive in that.

I would never use a computer without using Readyboost anymore!

HyperX for the win...

 

well, all you expect it to do is all it will do

re sdhc vs cf, I have no idea. I have been told SDHC is the fastest, but have no way of verifying that information. I guess somebody have to google cf vs sdhc, and it ain't gonna be me, sorry

 

hear hear (!)

 

I use an 8GB card on my G71V Asus. It does provide some benefit to how the system runs as it caches all the small files that are written to the HDD and makes reading them back alot quicker.

The only thing about SDHC is that all cards over 2GB in size have to be SDHC cards as they changed the way the card is accessed, SDHC is just Secure Digital High Capacity.

This is the SD card I use on my laptop - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/8GB-Veho-Secure-Digital-SDHC-x150-Flash-Memory-Class-6-(Fastest)