ReadyBoost - Setup and Use

I'm not sure how active this thread is any more--I hope someone who knows something about this can respond.

I read the whole thread, and I have a few questions I did not see raised about Win7 running ReadyBoost. Many laptops have an ExpressCard slot that could be used with an adapter to run a flash card. However, there are also a couple of ExpressCard SSD's on the market. (ExpressCard has capability to run on either of two interfaces--USB 2.0 and PCI-E, which is MUCH faster.) This company makes an SSD (64 & 128 GB) for this slot that runs off the PCI-E, so it should be pretty fast:

Wintec Industries - Flash Memory - Solid State Drives - ExpressCard SSD - Product Specifications

I understand that one generally cannot use this SSD as a boot drive, as the laptop will not boot off of the ExpressCard slot. So the C: drive would still be the installed HDD on the laptop. However, so long as the boot drive remains a standard HDD:

1. Will Windows 7 allow the ExpressCard SSD to be used for the ReadyBoost cache? I know it will NOT allow it if the SSD is the boot drive.

2. I imagine the access times on an SSD are faster than an SDHC flash card, but I'm not sure. (SDHC is the fastest SD protocol that will run in the SD slot of most older laptops, or an SD adapter for the ExpressCard slot.) I'm wondering if it would be a benefit to put the ReadyBoost cache on this SSD. I'm not planning on replacing the main HDD with an SSD on this older machine.

3. With the 64GB SSD, there is enough room to also put the Page file and perhaps some frequently used programs on the SSD. Does this make the idea more worthwhile? Which other Windows components could be moved to this drive with benefit in this situation?

4. Since with Win 7, one can run two or more Flash drives with ReadyBoost, I could use the SD slot and the ExpressCard slot with an SD adapter to run TWO SDHC cards for readyboost. (I understand that by running several cards, Win7 will use them like a RAID array, increasing the speed of transfers by using both cards intermittently--so potentially much faster.)

5. I could also use the two slots for one SDHC card, and one ExpressCard SSD. In this case, the SSD may be much faster, because it is running on PCI-E,...so I am wondering if the discrepancy in speeds would be more problematical than running two identical Flash cards.

I realize these are complex questions. Anyone willing to take this on?

Thanks,
Michael

Thanks for replying. This laptop is actually a little older--around 2008 or 2009 vintage. I forgot to say it is maxed out with 4 GB of memory, but I know some have still reported benefit even there with RB. And I haven't seen any discussion of actual use of two or more flash drives with RB. Almost all reports are with only one Flash device. If two are working together, couldn't this tip the balance in terms of access speed on a heavily loaded Win7?

My wife uses this laptop, and almost always loads many programs and web pages at one time, so I'm thinking it might help. I am trying to find out now which has faster access time and random access speeds--SSD or SDHC.

Lastly, can you recommend a good resource on the question of putting the paging file on a fast separate drive?

Thanks again,
Michael

It is simple to use a PC Card or USB and ready boost!
Windows knows when it will save seek time cause it keeps a record of where it last moved the head to and only uses the cache's data when it faster getting the cache data than moving the head.
A disc access is seek, rotational latency, and transfer
Ready boost is just transfer even if it is sloooooooooooooow traaaaaaaansfer
It will wear out a flash memory eventually but mine has lasted longer than this thread.
You are overthinking if the disc is being thrashed ready boost helps independent of the other suggestions.
Your processor has a smaller cache fast RAM memory for similar reasons.
My laptop has a slow CPU and fast rotation disc and only uses the PC Card a lot in disc defrag hibernate & reboot when it is on near 50% of the time.
But I only use email and text web pages but the disc is near 80% full.
It is simple to plug in a medium speed (cheap) PC Card and use the recommended cache size.
It won't match a hybrid disc but that is more wonga and more difficult install, needing thought.
Don't forget to defrag regular a fragged disc is slow.

Thanks for the reply, Xmas. You know, a processor's cache RAM is REALLY fast! No PC card is nearly as fast as that, nor fast as regular RAM, nor as an SSD. But your points are well taken.

I'm really hoping that someone has had experience using TWO or more Flash cards or sticks using Ready Boost. I'm wondering if there is any evidence that using two makes a difference.

Michael

bilateral said:

Thanks for the reply, Xmas. You know, a processor's cache RAM is REALLY fast! No PC card is nearly as fast as that, nor fast as regular RAM, nor as an SSD. But your points are well taken.

I'm really hoping that someone has had experience using TWO or more Flash cards or sticks using Ready Boost. I'm wondering if there is any evidence that using two makes a difference.

Michael

Any cache memory hierarchy works when the faster more local memory is hit a reasonable % of the time on chip or intermediate fast RAM.
Two memories will be better than one statistically for sure.
But the big gain is the first PC or USB.
The gain is because a

10ms seek + rotational latency

is a very long time.
Especially if the head needs to be returned for the next file read or moved randomly.

A disc frag spends all its time moving files and the PC active LED is on a lot!

The big improvement is the first flash cache

Mine is a 2009 laptop 4gb RAM, 8gb ready boost note compressed so close to 16gb effective.
I don't think the compression is optimal but it is not optional either.

That was the recommended size the PC Card is 16 or 32 gb 96k/s read from... 320 gb disc fast rotation.

Note ready boost will boost (avoid a % of) seeks for virtual memory etc. as needed it is a uniform associative cache.

Your significant other may be better reducing the disc traffic as well, if ready boost still leaves her unhappy a hybrid might not be detectably better and a full flash uneconomic compared with a replacement machine.

Mine is just acceptable.

Check the fragment % and enable a scheduled defrag that is where the biggest gain may lie.

Xmas said:

Mine is a 2009 laptop 4gb RAM, 8gb ready boost note compressed so close to 16gb effective.

My wife's old Toshiba laptop has almost the same specs--with a Core Duo processor. I plan to give it at least 8GB, maybe as much as 32GB for ReadyBoost. For the moment it's a trial with a weak SD card with 4 GB. If I use the SSD ExpressCard, I will also follow Brink's suggestion and put the Page File on the SSD.

That was the recommended size the PC Card is 16 or 32 gb 96k/s read from... 320 gb disc fast rotation.

96k/s? Do you mean MB/s? (Which could only be sequential reads--Random Writes are much slower.) 96KB/s would be only .096MB/s. I did some comparative study through searches on benchmarking of various devices. I'll try to round up those numbers for you.

Your significant other may be better reducing the disc traffic as well, if ready boost still leaves her unhappy a hybrid might not be detectably better and a full flash uneconomic compared with a replacement machine.

Trouble is, she really likes her current machine (keyboard, touchpad, screen). She actually tried a newer, more powerful Lenovo--and we both hated it compared to her old Toshiba Tecra R10, and frankly, it was so loaded up with bloatware, it wasn't really faster off the shelf, despited updated processor and twice the memory!

Check the fragment % and enable a scheduled defrag that is where the biggest gain may lie.

That's a good point--I doubt she has defragmented the drive in a while, though maybe Win7 is doing it automatically. I'll check.

Michael