SSD to boost limited RAM - good idea?

So, you've got a laptop which is an old classic and doesn't go beyond 256MB of RAM. You find it can however fully support a rather handy SSD.

Does cranking up the Virtual memory allocation on the SSD introduce the possibility of effectively increasing RAM-like memory available to the machine?

Comments

 

The SSD probably won't work with your "old classic" laptop.

 

I have been greatly assured that it will; after all it's a laptop that was running Windows 2000, and a version later on was released running XP so it's not that old; standard 44-pin 2.5inch HDD...

 

I don't know for sure, but it is possible that it may improve performance, as the "classic" laptop runs out of memory fast and then uses page filing on the harddrive. Unless you already have a 7200rpm disk in you could probably see a small gain, but i believe it may be quite small.

I would however not consider using an SSD in an old "classic" because of their price, but if you've got the money for it...

 

I'm sorta regretting having used the word classic now hehe; all it is is a Sony Vaio C1-series lappy.. Didn't come with much storage anyway (15GB), and i'm looking to go like-for like as i also use a different machine for the usual stuff, but want to sort the Vaio out and give it a bit of a makeover

 

Doesnt the SSD drive cost more than the laptop itself? lol..

yes its possible cranking up the virtual memory could help specially with quick read times from a SSD

At the end of the day its still a "classic" laptop and the processor that powers it will still be the same

 

Yeah lol! Why not just buy a whole new budget laptop like the Vostro with 1GB or 2GB RAM, reletively good CPUs and decent hard disk space.. I'm sure they cost lesser than the SSD itself!

EDIT: Forgot something.... "classic"

 

Indeed it does; never the point when dealing with classic machines though is it? You can get a classic Merc for £10000 quid, restore using £50000 and get £200,000 if the right buyer shows up or just keep it as a valued possession...

At the end of the day, it depends on what you want to achieve from your endeavours. I want to retain a fully usable machine and take it to the next logical step it was unable to reach at the time, that is fully solid state. I can do that now, so working towards that. I could put a 5400/7200rpm mechanical drive in there, and risk thermal problems etc but i'm just looking at options at the moment

 

Well that's cus it's not a damn car!! People don't keep old tech and be happy about it! Techy people get turned off, and non-techy people don't bother! So what's the point ? A car however, when very old, can be really valued..

 

I could you know, but its not a Sony Vaio running on a clever-for-its-time processor, in such a small form factor.. And as i said, it's just for the love of the machine. I use a 2.33 C2D MacBook Pro for work that requires grunt; the Vaio is for play

 

Depends who you know and how you feel about technology my friend. At the end of the day, it's each to their own isn't it? Take a trip down the Sony Vaio C1-series lane when you can, and let me know what you think about the little things yourself - regardless of whether you are gonna get one or not..

 

Damn... I really don't get you... You wanna use a weaker system for play (as in gaming), and a better one for work ?
Well, it's upto you finally... I'm too young to understand the value of something "classic".

 

True

I still have my first macintosh laptop somewhere. If i could upgrade it, i would! haha

Im guessing your just working with what you have in your hands atm

well give it a go, hope its succesfull

 

I will; i've come into a good bonus for some work i did, and thought i'd put it to good use hehe

 

As you also misunderstood the meaning of playing as i meant in this case .. I meant stuff like messenger, email, browsing, office productivity and silly stuff like that. I game on the MacBook Pro via BootCamp...

 

You can upgrade it depending on what it is i guess.. this is the reason i'm investigating stuffing an SSD into the C1-series laptop. It's quite weak processor-wise (667MHz Transmeta Crusoe) but i'm thinking with an SSD and some of that given to the Virtual Memory it could effectively simulate thre-stage memory (as in L1, L2, L3 ) hehe of sorts ofcourse, nothing spectacular but able to manage better than it does on the meagre 192Mb maximum it was designed to handle

 

I see... in that case, no point in replacing that NB... I'm sure memories count more than well... anything else! THAT, this 18 year old knows all too well!

 

Have any of you guys who are questioning why he wants to keep using the C-1 ever even seen a C-1???

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press_Archive/199809/98-085/index.html

The form factor and it's built in CCD Camera set it apart from every other machine in its day. And to be honest there are still few machines that come close to what it does in the form it has. Its VERY small and VERY portable. Not fast, not powerfull but VERY functional. My best friend still has one, the only computer he has ever owned. But he only uses it for email and web surfing. Literally nothing else. It's a sweet little machine.

Gary

 

Thanks for the support yo - it's like those people who ask why someone would still own a nokia 6310i - Go get one and use it for a month and then ask the question again. The C1-series machines were and are quite special little machines; and i'm just investigating whether adding a SSD would prolong the inevitable and even bring forth a revolution in the usefulness of older machines. It is after all the reason why the Asus Eee and other pretenders to that throne are sporting SSDs, they allow the machine to operate within a very usable bracket for what they are used for, and i'd like to do that with a machine that holds particularly good sentimental value to me and to be honest, would beat the Asus Eee hands down any day were people offered one or the other...

 

For one, using the SSD as RAM (that gets written to and read from constantly) is going to hurt the drive in the long run. For two, SSDs are still MASSIVELY slower than traditional RAM.

 

I understand both those facts, and i'm working from the perspective that new advances in SSD tech mean that these read/writes are distributed over all the SS memory, and thus hurt the drives less; it is the reason after all why they now have massively better MTBFs than they did when they came out, and now exponentially better flash memory. The other point is ofcourse they will be slower than traditional RAM, but i'm working on the assumption that read/writes to an SSD are generally quicker than to a standard HDD; mtron SSDs are blazing amazing trails these days so why not?

 

Plus, you have to factor the SSD performance against older RAM.

 

Exactly.. I'm thinking it will be a good experiment to see what the performance gain will be. I'll see what tests i can run on the machine pre-SSD, and post-SSD and post the results here.. Any good tests to recommend for an XP machine?

 

If you can find Everest Home out there (by googling), you could run the memory benchmarks. Other than that I'm not sure...

 

Would something like the usual PCMark benchmarking software tools etc give useful results as well?

 

Is SSD really THAT good? It takes longer to install my games... :-/

 

If that's the Samsung SSD i'm thinking, it's not actually as fast as the Mtron one - check out this review for Mtron performance vs Samsung...

 

What is the specific model number of your Samsung 64GB SSD if i can ask?

 

Check my benchmarks below for comparisons if you like. The Samsung/Mtron and others are there.

 

I found this useful link to use when determining the probable maximums the rest of the machine can support when deciding on certain upgrades.

I found the jargon in the specification of the C1VFK slightly confusing regarding my guestimation.

My question is: When regarding what the maximum throughput coming from the HDD/SDD is , do i use the HDD interface type maximum (ULTRA ATA/66) or the storage controller maximum (ULTRA ATA/33) as the actual operative limit?

The reason i ask this is because obviously in the past the HDD/Storage controller interface has been where the bottleneck is, and with an opportunity to resolve this using the SSD, i wouldn't want to perform overkill and install the king of current IDE consumer SSDs (Memoright) when a slower (read cheaper) SSD can still max out the bus.