RAMdisk - who uses it?

[whs]

Does anybody have experience with a RAMdisk and can give a report for what you use it and whether it really speeds the system up (beyond an SSD). Also what are the downsides and what to watch out for.

Reason I ask is that I am in the very early stages of planning a new system. I am wondering whether it is a good investment to install e.g. 12GB of RAM to use 4 or 6 GB for a RAMdisk.

 

[dogbert2]

IMO, I used this for about a month and removed it. With today's technology, it's not worth using RAM for something like this (esp. if your OS files are on a SSD for booting, etc).

 

[nitroman84]

I'm Guessing you are referring to SuperSpeed Ramdisk? I use this on my laptop as basically a scratch disk to save writes to my SSD. I have not used this program with a spinner. So as far as performance is concerned I can't say, but it is a reliable program.

 

[whs]

Oh, I forgot to mention that all my systems have SSDs - could'nt live without them. The new one may have a Revo drive or one of the 3d gen SSDs plus at least one hybrid spinner.

 

[seekermeister]

I doubt that a RAM disk program would have much benefit for you. I have only used one a little, quite some time ago, when browsers were slower than now, to run Opera on, but I seriously doubt that would help any more. There may be some other use that it would be good for, but I don't know what it would be.

 

[whs]

One of the main applications I had in mind was video editing which I do a lot.

 

[seekermeister]

Don't know anything about video editing, but if it is something that would mean a lot of work lost if there was a power loss, the volatile nature of that would be enough to discourage me.

 

[rap33042]

whs:

I don't how much RAM you have.
If you've got tons of it, say, 6GB or more, you might consider using a RAMDrive to minimize writes to your SSDs. You probably won't see a heck of an increase in speed compared to SSDs, but RAM is still faster. It'll get all those Temp writes off your drive, at least.

In any case, I had a 1GB RAMDrive on my system for a couple of years.
I used it to store all my browsers' cache files.
I used it for all the System Temp files as well. (I pointed my TMP & Temp variables to it; both User & System)
I pointed all my programs' temporary files there, too.

Let me say this, and I'll probably catch some flack, but I'll be brave.
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to put your pagefile on a RAMDrive.
That defeats the whole point of having a lot of RAM in the first place- avoiding the necessity of paging.

I used a program called DRDataRAM. One very nice feature is that you could set it up to save an image of itself on a HDD so it would be ready to load when the system started again. That's real nice if you don't want to lose all the data that's stored there. RAMDrives are volatile; but I'm sure you knew that.

The Free version allowed up to 4GB, if I remember right.
You can check it out here: RAMDisk - Software - Server Memory Products & Services - Dataram

I guess the bottom line is that you just need to play with it. See if you notice any benefit that you deem worthwhile. If not, the price is right and if you're a geek like me, it's a lot of fun. You can always uninstall it and be right back where you were. No harm done.

CAVEAT: If you use Acronis, you will have to get their 'snapman.sys' driver update. Otherwise they don't play well together.
You can find the link to the update mid-way down the page here: http://kb.acronis.com/content/1514
I posted here about this very thing a while back. Here it is: http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/134668-acronis-dataram-ramdisk.html

Have fun!

 

[whs]

Thank you Richard. That was very informative. As I said, that would be for my next system where I consider 12GBs of RAM. You really made me curious regarding the experimenting - I like that. I use Macrium, but if necessary I would switch to Acronis. Anyhow, the system is not yet built. I am currently only exploring my best options.

And you are certainly right regarding the pagefile. There is so little activity on it, that it is really not worth moving it around. On the other hand some programs use it regardless how much RAM is available. And then you would not get a dump in case of a BSOD if you play around with it (e.g. make it smaller).

 

[rap33042]

You know what i do with that Pagefile? I make the smallest one that Windows will allow and toss it onto a spinner. Then, I forget about it. Windows has
It leaves more room on the SSD, too.

 

[whs]

The smallest is 200MB I believe. But why put it on the spinner - it's not worth the trouble.

I only put the user folders on the spinner - and not even the default folders, but I make new folders that I INCLUDE into the respective library. That way I seperate system/program generated files (especially in Documents) from my own stuff.

 

[rap33042]

My main purpose in life regarding SSDs is to eliminate as many writes to that drive as possible.
Also, because of their cost, I want to utilize that space in an efficient manner.
For that reason I move the Pagefile; I don't us Hibernation, so I get rid of that, too.
Like you, I have my User files on a spinner as well.
I keep all my Programs, Data, and Games on the spinners.
I have all my Browser caches on a separate drive; along with the System, User, and Program Temp files.
In other words, I strive to keep only the OS on the SSD., and eliminate the rest of the clutter.

Another huge benefit is when doing backups. If for some reason my OS gets corrupted, it's a simple matter of restoring it and not worrying about all the other stuff. The backup is small, quickly made, and quickly restored.

This might seem like overkill to some, but in the end, any backup I make will easily fit on a single DVD.
If any one of my partitions gets messed up, I don't have to worry about all the others- they are isolated from each other.
I guess I just like it that way.

 

[whs]

I think that is a valid approach. I do not really worry about the writes to the SSD. By the time those things will wear out, I will probably have 4th gen SSDs. Without user files and the hiberfile my 80GB SSD on this system is using 33GBs - but I have system restore points enabled. On my other desktop it is about 25GBs - On the laptops it is more, but there we also have the user files.

Imaging the OS takes between 4 minutes and 25 minutes depending to which disk I image (I use 2 internal HDDs and 6 external HDs for the different systems) and depending which system it is (3 duo core and 2 quads). But that runs in the background and does not keep me from doing other things.

We have another laptop without an SSD up in NY that my wife uses when she is there. For her convenience, I have made an imaging partition on that one. But that Laptop is rarely being used and since I never go to NY, it had to be a setup that she can easily deal with.

 

[rap33042]

Your point regarding SSD writes is a valid one.

If I had things to do over again, I probably wouldn't be so extreme.
However, when I first got this SSD, there was a lot of hype on the internet in that regard; that's my excuse for being so anal about it.

When I get my next big SSD upgrade, I won't worry about it.

I have two of them now and I'm not looking back...

Addendum: There's a neat utility you might be interested in looking at called SSDLife.
Probably not very useful, but it's fun.
Check it out here: http://ssd-life.com/
NOTE: Check for the FREE version at the above link.

Enjoy!

 

[whs]

Did you ever try this program. Does it work for any SSD or only the C300. I have OCZs and Intels.

PS: Just tried it. Looks like the Intel on this system is OK. Woll check on my other systems later.

 

[rap33042]

I see that TRIM is not enabled- that's not a good thing.
Windows 7 supports TRIM.

You should get the Intel SSD Toolbox to correct that.
You can get it here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

 

[seekermeister]

I'm assuming that you are thinking about using software to create the RAM disk on your regular RAM, but there is another possibility:

ACARD ANS9010B 5.25 Inch SATA-to-DDRII Ram Disk Up to 48GB (Ram Modul

Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK GC-RAMDISK 1.2 GC-RAMD Battery - 1400mAh

This is an expensive alternative, but with the battery it would eliminate the volatility issue (I think).

 

[whs]

I see that TRIM is not enabled- that's not a good thing.
Windows 7 supports TRIM.

You should get the Intel SSD Toolbox to correct that.
You can get it here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

Yeah, It is a Gen1 SSD which has no Trim. According to Atto, it is in the 280MB/sec for reads but only in the 70s for writes. I have had this thing for a while and got it for cheap. Except for my first Vertex (nearly 3 years ago), I never spent more than $150 for an SSD. Then I am not too sorry if I have to replace one.

BTW: It has been in the system since St. Patrick's day 2009. Here is when I put it in:

 

[whs]

I'm assuming that you are thinking about using software to create the RAM disk on your regular RAM, but there is another possibility:

ACARD ANS9010B 5.25 Inch SATA-to-DDRII Ram Disk Up to 48GB (Ram Modul

Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK GC-RAMDISK 1.2 GC-RAMD Battery - 1400mAh

This is an expensive alternative, but with the battery it would eliminate the volatility issue (I think).

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I already have a battery backup surge protector because I thought that's what you need in Florida. Turns out, we never have any power failures. And I would not use the RAMdisk to store important information. The worst that could happen would be a lost job that I would have to rerun.

 

[seekermeister]

I was simply tossing it into the ring, but I didn't think that it would appeal, because I wouldn't want to go that route, due to the expense, but I'm not just thinking about power failures. There is always the possibility of a system crash. I don't know that this would preserve data through the crash and restart or not, but if designed properly it could. Still, if the data is not all that important, then this is irrelevant anyway.