Just for grins, I popped a a halfagig SD card I had around into a card reader and it was accepted as ReadyBoost memory.
So, I'm wondering...
If I want to add about two gigs of ReadyBoost memory, should I be shopping for a fast SD card or a fast USB memory key, or does it matter?
And what is fast? And how fast is fast enough? Very few manufacturers of these memory devices seem to publish specs.
Thanks.

"Harry Krause"

activewin.com/reviews/hardware/memory/vista/readyboost.shtml Bob

You're right about nobody publishing those speeds. But if you can find them, it's all about the Random I/O speed. I think that's the only criterion Vista looks at when deciding whether or not a device is suitable for ReadyBoost. But I could be wrong on that.
Samsung supposedly has a 4GB chip that can go right on the motherboard or onto a hybrid drive. But I have yet to see any products offering that.
"Harry Krause"

"Puppy Breath"

Asus has a MB with ReadyBoost built in: techreport.com/reviews/2007q1/asus-vistaedition/index.x?pg=1
A Google search using Vista readyboost flash memory turns up tons of good info . Bob

Thanks! I was thinking about getting a P5 anyway. I'm glad I didn't jump the gun.

"Bob"

OK so we have a MB with flash built in, and it's faster to access flash on a USB than it is to access the harddrive. I'm just wondering, a few things now. 1. In sleep mode, can flash be used instead of main ram to save battery life? 2. It was never answered: Usb2.0 vs SD. I have a built in card reader which may be faster than a usb reader. Which is faster? Also SD is not so clunky. Usb is 480Mbps but doing research on SD card speed for built in readers is not so easy to find. Figure the 150x speed is 22.5 MBps. You see the Mbps vs MBps. Great for confusing customers, must have been designed by Intel.

I found this info in the Windows Vista help files: Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a device with this capability, the AutoPlay dialog will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can then choose how much memory to use for this purpose. However, there are some situations where you may not be able to use all of the memory on your storage device to speed up your computer. Some universal serial bus (USB) storage devices contain both slow and fast flash memory, and Windows can only use fast flash memory to speed up your computer. So if your device contains both slow and fast memory, keep in mind that you can only use the fast memory portion for this purpose. The recommended amount of memory to use for ReadyBoost acceleration is one to three times the amount of random access memory (RAM) installed in your computer. For instance, if your computer has 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM and you plug in a 4 gigabyte (GB) USB flash drive, setting aside from 512MB to 1.5GB of that drive will offer the best performance boost.

"Puppy Breath" wrote:

Hi All,
I'm considering buying a 8gb readyboost flashdrive AND/OR a Samsung HM16HJI MH80 SATA Series Hybrid HDD, FlashON hard drive which has 256 mb of flash memory on board.
Would it be useful to have both since it's both using flash cache?
Which one of them would give the highest speed increase?
Thanks and greets!
Dr.Drane Dr.Drane's Profile: forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=26513 View this thread: forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=696292
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Out of curiosity what applications are you running that require 8GB of Virtual Memory? I believe that 8GB of ready boost would do much more for you then 256mb of flash on a Hybrid HDD given your large paging file requirements.
"Dr.Drane"