USB3 drive for swap, registry and temp files ?

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

  1. Posts : 180
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Windows 8.1 Pro x64
       #11

    bobafetthotmail said:
    Moving temp files, cache, similar out of the SSD is actually a good idea, not for read-write cycles (as that number is so huge that you don't need to care about it unless you are running a server farm with hundreds of GB moved per day), but for sheer performance. Your choice of USB3 is poor. It will hurt performance.
    Screw USB3, and make a RAMdisk out of some of your RAM and use that for browser cache and temporary internet files, system's temp files and whatnot. Being RAM put to work in another way, it will smoke even SSD performance. An article with more details.

    About pagefile, since you have 8 gigs of ram you don't really need a swapfile (that's disk memory used for emergency situations when ram is low, if you need more ram and you are at 100% the less-used data is dumped from RAM to that dedicated disk space), as it's pretty damn hard to fill 8 gigs unless you like to keep 30+ browser tabs open. Nowadays it is rarely if ever used for its real purpose, but since it is needed for some minor error logging you can easily reduce it to 200 mb with no impact. (yes, you could place it in a ramdisk but it would be kinda pointless as i explained above and you need error logs to last after system restart, while a ramdisk is erased when the computer is shut down just like normal RAM).

    I think moving registry is completely pointless, if possible at all. As the name implies, that's a list of all stuff for the OS to lookup whenever it needs it, it's not anywhere near write-intensive (unless you are an obsessive registry cleaner user or you install/uninstall tons of things per day), so leaving it in the SSD is the best (and only) choice.
    For a large part, I agree with you Mr. Fett. When I first set up my machine [below] I knew I had memory to spare, so I set up a 4 Gig RAMDrive & a disk image that's installed at boot. My browser's cache, %Temp%, and %Tmp% point to it. I'm happy with only that sitting on the drive, as 4 Gigs should be enough for daily usage [and cleaning up the drive is EASY {Just reboot.}] You would need to add memory before you think about doing that.

    Now, because this is my first SSD, I have been thinking about adding a USB3 Thumbdrive, and using it for ReadyBoost [whatever that extra memory thing is called] but I do not think I use ALL the memory I have now...

    Your registry is data Windows reads. Unless your constantly installing/removing programs, or tweaking settings for programs/Windows, I'm pretty sure it's a read only thing MOST of the time.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #12

    meh, readyboost is basically irrelevant when the machine has more than 3 GB of RAM, and even on my atom 455 netbook with 1 GB of ram it's hard to notice (with 2x USB 2 and a SD card anyway).

    I do not think I use ALL the memory I have now...
    actually, if you check with performance monitor you'll see that a lot if not all ram is filled but "available" (there will be little "free" memory). That's a Win7 feature called SuperPrefetch, (a service running all the time) that tries to track your program usage behavior and preloads most used programs in RAM so that when you need them they load faster (as they are already there duh!).
    In vista it was yet another performance hog, but in Win7 it rocks. If something needs more ram the preloaded stuff gives way as it should (in vista this wasn't so straightforward so you got an endless battle for RAM).
    Most users take it for granted as it is always on by default, but try disabling it on a HDD and you will pull your hairs off.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #13

    bobafetthotmail said:
    meh, readyboost is basically irrelevant when the machine has more than 3 GB of RAM, and even on my atom 455 netbook with 1 GB of ram it's hard to notice (with 2x USB 2 and a SD card anyway).

    I do not think I use ALL the memory I have now...
    actually, if you check with performance monitor you'll see that a lot if not all ram is filled but "available" (there will be little "free" memory). That's a Win7 feature called SuperPrefetch, (a service running all the time) that tries to track your program usage behavior and preloads most used programs in RAM so that when you need them they load faster (as they are already there duh!).
    In vista it was yet another performance hog, but in Win7 it rocks. If something needs more ram the preloaded stuff gives way as it should (in vista this wasn't so straightforward so you got an endless battle for RAM).
    Most users take it for granted as it is always on by default, but try disabling it on a HDD and you will pull your hairs off.
    I would not say Ready Boost was irrelevant with more than 3Gb of RAM. I have 2 machines with 16Gb of GSkill DDR3 1600 MHz Ram and I have a 32GB USB stick plugged in each internally as permanent cache and the systems most definitely benefit from it, being snappier. It seems to take a while to sort itself out. An older socket 754 Athlon 64 in an Asus motherboard which maxes out at 3GB DDR 400MHZ I have a 4 GB flash drive in that. Sometimes when I opened to many windows on the machine explorer would crash or would open slowly. Not now. Actually waiting for the next round of stocking fillers to replace the 4GB with a larger size. I am not sure if it makes any difference but I have the drives formatted with exFAT. As for the RAM disc with the 16 gb of system ram I have 2 64 bit OS and a 32 bit Windows 7 for casual games and I have a 12GB ram disk to store a whole bunch of temp files, pictures and music being edited, internet files. All very snappy on the 32 bit system.
    Ready Boost is well worth the effort IMHO.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #14

    yeah, I heard people saying exFAT was better because you could format them to use cluster size of 32 MB so it would be "faster" because it read 32 MB at once with less overhead. I left them exFAT because otherwise BIOS would keep trying to boot from them even if I told him not to. Also I heard that if you plug in more than one (not in ports that share the same header mind me) again that's better as it goes RAID-like.

    I frankly never saw so huge differences on either this machine (or similar machines) or the atom netbook I talked about above. But I never tried for more than a few days. Hmmm.... I have a bin of 4 GB usb2 drives none will ever use anymore, might as well try leaving a couple of them in for longer.
    Are your USB sticks 2.0 or 3.0?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #15

    bobafetthotmail said:
    yeah, I heard people saying exFAT was better because you could format them to use cluster size of 32 MB so it would be "faster" because it read 32 MB at once with less overhead. I left them exFAT because otherwise BIOS would keep trying to boot from them even if I told him not to. Also I heard that if you plug in more than one (not in ports that share the same header mind me) again that's better as it goes RAID-like.

    I frankly never saw so huge differences on either this machine (or similar machines) or the atom netbook I talked about above. But I never tried for more than a few days. Hmmm.... I have a bin of 4 GB usb2 drives none will ever use anymore, might as well try leaving a couple of them in for longer.
    Are your USB sticks 2.0 or 3.0?
    Using Sandisk 32 gb on USB 2 headers. They are wired internally to their own header. Have an 8 gb fast SD HC card in the netbook EEPC and that makes an enormous difference. The ram in that maxes out at 2gb. My wife even noticed how much quicker it made the netbook. I am sure this is more of a long term solution rather than a quick instant fix unlike extra RAM. Like you say USB drives and SD cards get cheaper, faster and bigger and everyone has them lying around. Why not use them?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 180
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Windows 8.1 Pro x64
       #16

    bobafetthotmail said:
    meh, readyboost is basically irrelevant when the machine has more than 3 GB of RAM, and even on my atom 455 netbook with 1 GB of ram it's hard to notice (with 2x USB 2 and a SD card anyway).

    I do not think I use ALL the memory I have now...
    actually, if you check with performance monitor you'll see that a lot if not all ram is filled but "available" (there will be little "free" memory). That's a Win7 feature called SuperPrefetch, (a service running all the time) that tries to track your program usage behavior and preloads most used programs in RAM so that when you need them they load faster (as they are already there duh!).
    In vista it was yet another performance hog, but in Win7 it rocks. If something needs more ram the preloaded stuff gives way as it should (in vista this wasn't so straightforward so you got an endless battle for RAM).
    Most users take it for granted as it is always on by default, but try disabling it on a HDD and you will pull your hairs off.
    OK, I phrased that wrong...

    When I said I don't think I use ALL my memory I have now, I meant at any time. We don't run many memory intensive programs, so 12 Gigs of RAM should be plenty.

    8-Cores, 16 Gigs of RAM was because I could for the money! My wife was looking at a Dual-Core, slower CPU pre-built machine for like $70 less than I spent on this, and it didn't have a Blue-Ray DL burner. This machine is MOSTLY used to check email, surf the web, and flash games. The two most intensive games played on this are League of Legonds, and RollerCoaster Tycoon (1, not 2 or 3)

    SuperPrefetch...Prefetch... Do I need either with an SSD? Would it make a memory difference?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #17

    I don't know if you need it (theoretically it should still make a difference as ram still laughs at SSD in both speed and seek time), but won't hurt ram usage as prefetched stuff can be dropped anytime to make space for whatever needs more ram. You can try disabling it (it's a service, go in the service tab of task manager and stop it) to see if you notice some difference. THen maybe share the experience.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 180
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Windows 8.1 Pro x64
       #18

    bobafetthotmail said:
    I don't know if you need it (theoretically it should still make a difference as ram still laughs at SSD in both speed and seek time), but won't hurt ram usage as prefetched stuff can be dropped anytime to make space for whatever needs more ram. You can try disabling it (it's a service, go in the service tab of task manager and stop it) to see if you notice some difference. THen maybe share the experience.
    What? Do you think I'm one of those nerds that enjoys experimenting with their computer by constantly tweaking and modding the machine?...

    ...disabling now...

    Was already disabled....
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #19

    hehehehe

    well, general consensus here is to force it enabled even on SSDs (win7 tends to avoid running it on SSDs if detects they are fast enough or somesuch).
    To do this, go to “Control Panel”, “System and Security”, “Administrative Tools”, and “Services”. Scroll down until you see the “SuperFetch” entry, double-click on it, then in the startup type select "Manual".
    Within a week you should see some difference, or not if there is none.
      My Computer


  10. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #20

    You worry too much. This SSD will live longer than you will care to keep it. Keep all the system files and normal programs (exceptions may be large games because of space constraints) on the SSD. There cannot be enough R/W operations to damage your SSD prematurely.
      My Computer


 
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:02.
Find Us