I know memory can help save some battery life since it decreases the load on your CPU, and I know Readyboost acts like memory, but I also know USB drives can drain your battery. So my question is, would Readyboost help with battery life or drain it since its a USB?
Aka when I'm running off battery and I want the battery to last as long as possible, should I plug in my USB to use Readyboost or just keep it out?
Using ReadyBoost will probably have no noticeable effect on the longevity of your battery. The only way to find out for sure is to test it out on your machine.
I cant imagine either giving you any noticible battery life. The decreased CPU load for readyboost is eaten up by the additional service running, disk IO and power for the flash drive.
You'll get your best battery life from decreasing screen brightness, using sleep mode, power drive off x minutes and speed step.
Reduce the number of tasks running in the background that are using the CPU or drive that arent needed.
Alright, thanks guys!
Quote