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    Seagate Momentus XT and ReadyBoost ?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Chris_ast1, May 28, 2010.

  1. Chris_ast1

    Chris_ast1 Notebook Consultant

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    EXPERIMENT

    Hi there. I just try to create a weekend-experiment. Conditions:
    Hardware: Dell E6400, C2D 8600,4GB RAM, 250GB 5400rpm, Vista business SP2, Intel MHD4500 GMA.....
    1. Infamous Vista has feature called ReadyBoost...
    2. This feature is using 4GB (max. .. sounds familiar?) but there are articles that in those 4Gigs could be as much as 8GB compressed (and encrypted in AES128) cache for HDD....
    3. I am using OCZ Rally 2 8GB (but 4GB was formatted), this pendrive has TWO channel controller ...

    IDEA

    Does Vista improve (I have 4GB RAM) same as with momentus XT? Will I get comparable numbers? Are in any way those two technologies familiar? If they are, which one is better? Why both of it are constrained to 4GB (FAT32 partition and license fees for bigger ones, need for NTFS etc...).

    CONCLUSION:

    1. first reboot: 46,72 s , second: 44,89, third: 44,19 (not getting better and near 29s that it was just year ago after clean install). Boot time will not cut more due to loading USB Drv by system from HDD (as I assume).
    2. readyboost does not work "from start" - it is rather initialized when screen with user logon is displayed (any pen activity starts then, earlier it is 'dead silent')
    3. Applications do load itself quicker: Excel with 'lately used' files, Word, FireFox (with all temp files). This is definitely loaded from PEN activity diode on PEN is just crazy-fast-blinking (and PEN is getting warm due to it's two channel controler - this also occure when copying huge amounts of small files)

    Even if H-HDD are bit 'work-around' for full SSD's they DO start uploading data earlier than readyboost, as former solution needs USB drv loaded by system first. Period. H-HDD could be also used with many other operating systems - like Linux or MacOS.
     
  2. gaah

    gaah Notebook Deity

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    It's my understanding that ReadyBoost isn't anything like what's on the Seagate drive. ReadyBoost has something to do with expanding RAM and the pagefile, not caching frequently accessed data (files) in faster storage. Seagate's tech is more like ReadyDrive and Intel Turbo Memory that mirror files and keep them stored even after reboot. ReadyBoost if I recall doesn't keep data after the system is turned off.

    Windows 7 also supports ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive partitions larger than 4GB with EXFAT and NTFS filesystems.
     
  3. Chris_ast1

    Chris_ast1 Notebook Consultant

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    Well, ReadyBoost do keep data od PEN-SSD (lets call it like that). And similarly as Seagate tech. it also has this same data copied on HDD, so if:
    A) NAND fail in H-HDD
    B)Pen will be removed
    Nothing bad will happen.
     
  4. jacobxaviermason

    jacobxaviermason Notebook Consultant

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    The Momentus XT is much more like the Windows Superfetch feature, as I understand it.
     
  5. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Momentus XT is more like a regular hdd + eboostr cache