Turbo RAM questions

I've found a few tidbits about "Turbo Ram" here, mostly saying there are drawbacks! But what is it exactly, what's it for, and not for? Basically:

1. What are the benefits vs drawbacks of Turbo Ram
2. Is it a Vista-only feature?
3. Is it actually extra physical RAM, or a software thing, like Intel Turbo Memory?
4. Does it have any driver/software compatibility problems?
5. When should you definitely get Turbo RAM?

I've read that Turbo RAM can be a disadvantage in some cases:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=182875

As an example, this notebook build offers 4GB RAM, 8800M-GTX 512MB, plus a 1GB Turbo Ram option.
Would Turbo RAM be of any benefit here?
http://www.p4laptops.com.au/order-m57ru-special.htm

Can anyone shed some light on the Turbo Ram decision?

I assume this is unrelated:
Power Rangers Turbo Ram

 

Only with 64bit OS (4GB 32bit OS limit).

I think Turbo RAM is Intel turbo memory (that is what NBR link was about) which is both hardware and software based. If it uses memory addresses which I believe it must then not worth getting on 32bit OS over RAM imo.

 

This applicatioin claims to make it work well with XP.

Not sure if it does.

http://www.eboostr.com/download/

 

I thought Turbo memory only worked with Vista.
Basically you will only notice a performance gain if your system is low end and has a 4200 rpm drive. With the specs you mentioned, the turbo memory will do nothing for you. It basically acts as an integrated memory card which has readyboost enabled. Again, readyboost will only help with boot times on a 4200rpm drive. Any 5400rpm or 7200rpm drive will outpace the turbo memory, so if you have it installed, it will actually slow down your system.

Its not worth the money for the turbo memory module. Use the money and get a 7K200 or a 320Gb 5400 rpm drive.

K-TRON

 

I doubt it would slow down your system's boot or anything of that nature but what you are stuck with is a $40 upgrade which does nothing at all to enhance your set up. Aka not worth it

 

Turbo Memory is a storage device so it does not use any of the RAM address space. Under normal configuration it is split as two devices: A disk drive called IMD-0 with about 540MB capacity and a non-volatile cache of about 380MB for the HDD (I don't know where the remaining ~80MB is used).

This means that there is the equivalent of a very small flash drive with the advantages of very fast access time (if the required files are there) and the cache for the HDD is meant to reduce the HDD activity and save some power).

It is difficult for tests to show the benefit which, I feel, is smoother operation.

John

 

I just noticed that my NEC S3300 has it too.

It's main HDD is a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 (st9160821AS) which according to device manager has 387 MB of NVcache.

There is another drive called IMD-0 of size 514 MB and that is 'unallocated' and 'not initialized' according to Computer Management/Storage.

Should I initialize IMD-0 to derive the benefit of turbo memory?

 

Turbo Memory is completely useless on laptops with greater than 1GB of ram, With it disabled/enabled on a 2GB system, you won't even feel a difference.

 

Too late! I found a Intel Turbo Memory configuration app in the programs menu and turned on ReadyDrive and ReadyBoost. Let me see if it makes any difference