SD Card ReadyBoost

Hey all

I was wondering, if i was to run Vista one day, can i use the Readyboost feature on my Asus W3J? cos i think the W3J Card reader is a little old, only being able to read SD, MS and "MMC?". Is there a speed requirement at which the reader must run for readyboost, or is there no such requirement.

Im a little disappointed with the card reader actually. My friend got her laptop a couple months after me and hers reads much more formats. My camera uses xD cards and the W3J doesnt read it. Is there an adapter thing that converts xD to SD or MS size?

Next time i buy a laptop (far far off in the future) imma look into all components and not just the build, HD, Ram, CPU and GPU.

thanks.

 

Readyboost works with USB Flash drives, not memory cards, as memory cards are too slow.
Your memory card reader is fine. The most common formats are SD, Sony's MS and MultiMediaCard. xD cards aren't common, but if you really need to read xD cards without using the USB/Firewire interface on the camera, then you will have to get an external xD card reader.

 

I think I've read that many SD memory card readers are ReadyBoost capable, but I may be mistaken. You just need to make sure you have 150/166x media (the faster versions).

 

Actually I am using an SD card for Readyboost right now, so I can confirm it works. The big problem, however, with using SD cards is finding one that is fast enough and combining it with a card reader that is fast enough. I have a 150X 2Gb Transcend from Newegg that works, but I've read comments from others on that website that the same card doesn't work. The same with a Corsair 2GB that is rated at 133X -- works for some, not for others.

It's a touch and go thing with SD cards and Readyboost, unfortunately.

 

This isn't true... from RC1 ReadyBoost is also available for some SD cards. Vista RTM is compatible with USB 2.0 drives, Secure Digital (SD) cards and Compact Flash cards. Flash memory options are much slower than RAM, but ReadyBoost makes them a faster option because (unlike the hard drive) they are not multitasking.
Also most of the faster vista compatible SD cards that I have looked at are not much slower in data transfer speed than some of the fastest USB flash drives. If anything they are only about 1-2% slower . However the situation with them working as DrewN has suggested is probably more hardware related as older memory card readers might not recognize them.

 

hm ok then, does anyone know if the Asus W3J card reader is fast enough?

maybe i shouldve posted this in the Asus section of the forum.

Thanks

 

The card reader is probably on a USB 2.0 bus, so it should be the same as a desktop card reader.

 

You'd better get more RAM than equipped it with Flash Disk or any other memory card though....