The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Thinkpad & ReadyBoost via SD Card Reader?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by globalkiwi, May 25, 2009.

  1. globalkiwi

    globalkiwi Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Has anyone tried running ReadyBoost (Vista or Win7) on an SD card through the Thinkpad 4-in-1 card reader? Is it quick enough (with a Class 6 SD card) to run ReadyBoost?
     
    globalkiwi, May 25, 2009
    #1
  2. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

    Reputations:
    826
    Messages:
    3,240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    I've not tried it on 7, but it worked fine on Vista using a Class 6 OCZ 8GB SDHC card (this was before upgrading to an SSD as the switch made ReadyBoost counter-productive).
     
    jonlumpkin, May 25, 2009
    #2
  3. cloud_nine

    cloud_nine Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    127
    Messages:
    333
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Rule of thumb is that if you have 2GB of ram or more, the benefits of Readyboost is fairly minimal so it's not worth the trouble. Rather, you would get more hard drive thrashing during initial startup as Vista attempts to caches files onto the SD card.
     
    cloud_nine, May 25, 2009
    #3
  4. goofball

    goofball Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    358
    Messages:
    1,710
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    much better off just putting RAM in the system, given the price of RAM these days also.
     
    goofball, May 25, 2009
    #4
  5. globalkiwi

    globalkiwi Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Ok, I was actually planning to add RAM also but I was under the impression that Win7 had removed the 4GB size restriction on readyboost which I thought might have made it more effective. But you folks are saying that it's still really only an aid to machines on the specs margin?
     
    globalkiwi, May 25, 2009
    #5
  6. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    It's not really the amount of space available for ReadyBoost that limits its effectiveness - it's the bandwidth of the SD card. RAM is much faster than a ReadyBoost card, so it's more worth it to add more RAM if it is needed.
     
    MidnightSun, May 25, 2009
    #6
  7. globalkiwi

    globalkiwi Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Is there room for both? TP's are capped at 3GB in 32bit & 8GB in 64bit - would adding readyboost via an SD card improve the performance beyond these limitations or make no discernable difference?
     
    globalkiwi, May 25, 2009
    #7
  8. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Beyond 2GB of RAM, I've heard that ReadyBoost makes little, if any difference whatsoever.
     
    MidnightSun, May 25, 2009
    #8
  9. globalkiwi

    globalkiwi Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yes, I've read the same (though it's made a discernable difference in my X41T which has exactly 2GB RAM) but wondered if the extended readyboost capacities available in Win7 might have raised that ceiling...

    My original question has been answered (about the 4-in-1 reader) so I'll probably just give it a try & see if it makes a difference or not.
     
    globalkiwi, May 25, 2009
    #9
  10. BinkNR

    BinkNR Knock off all that evil

    Reputations:
    308
    Messages:
    1,000
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    It’ll likely not make a difference. With 4GB RAM in my box I rarely go beyond using 2GB—so Windows tends to use the rest for cache. If you are regularly coming close to using all the RAM in your system, ReadyBoost might help.
     
    BinkNR, May 25, 2009
    #10
  11. kidaquarius

    kidaquarius Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    to answer the OP's question-
    yes, the SD reader will work with Ready Boost.

    i'm using it right now on my x200.

    i have 4GB of RAM in the thinkpad (originally had 2GB), but the 8GB SD is in there all the time, so why not enable it?
     
    kidaquarius, May 25, 2009
    #11
  12. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

    Reputations:
    1,581
    Messages:
    5,346
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Not to mention the fact it works as a faster prefetch.
     
    Thaenatos, May 25, 2009
    #12