anyone tried using the new vista feature of using cheap usb flash drive as added memory catche? Does it speed up your computer load time much if at all?

'New'!? Vista has only got 10 days left to live before the introduction of Windows 7.If I recall correctly this 'boost' technique wasnt really of much benefit to most pc's especially gaming rigs with plenty of RAM.
I for one (amongst millions ) will no lament Vista's passing .Im LOVING "7" having been using the free version for a couple of months now .I will definitely buy it .
If your load (boot?) time is slow something must be starting up and hogging resources.Id be suspicious of stuff like Hewlett Packard printer software .Type msconfig in the Run box (comes up when you click on START)and hit startup and see what comes up.Try unticking boxes of stuff you feel you wont need but ATI and Nvidia stuff is probably vital as is SOME Creative ...

I've read several reports on the readyboost feature and it does seem to help but only when using 2gb of ram or less. If you run more than 2gb of ram then don't bother.

quote:

Originally posted by Urufu_Shinjiro:
I've read several reports on the readyboost feature and it does seem to help but only when using 2gb of ram or less. If you run more than 2gb of ram then don't bother.

2 gigabyte of ram in your computer Urufu? is that what you mean? Some flash memories are 16 and more gigibitz.

You'd need a seriously fast flash drive to get any benefit over the usual swap file... HDs are still faster than any flash drive I have.

quote:

Originally posted by stalkervision:

quote:

Originally posted by Urufu_Shinjiro:
I've read several reports on the readyboost feature and it does seem to help but only when using 2gb of ram or less. If you run more than 2gb of ram then don't bother.

2 gigabyte of ram in your computer Urufu? is that what you mean? Some flash memories are 16 and more gigibitz.

Right, RAM in the pc. And julian is right, not just any flash drive will do, it has to be a fast one, but I believe windows tests them when you select to use as readyboost.

I tried eBoostr for a while. This is similar toreadyBoost for XP. Windows was not really any faster.

It is not the read or write throughput that counts here, but the minimal access time that flash memory devices have.
eBoostr can use HD, Flash or RAM. Only with RAM I noticed a minimal increase in responsiveness. You will notice turning off your security MUCH more. If you want a fast responding Windows, install it on an SSD. Keep swap file and temp folders on HD. SSD speed will decrease over time and it needs a LOT of work to keep it responsive (don't use more than 50% of the drive, and wipe deleted file areas back to $00). To say nothing about the expense. I would NOT recommend SSD - It's too expensive, and performance will degrade over time no matter what.

Vista will use a Flash drive, or even an SD Card for ready boost (I've used both), as long as it is fast enough.

I found that even the cheap 'genaric' 4GB flash drive that Microcenter sells with their name on it worked just fine. Vista will 'test' the drive to see if it IS fast enough, but I'm betting that almost ANY of the newer ones are fast enough,

I have run Vista 64 bit with 2, 4, and 8GB of memory, and used a 4GB flash drive in readboost in all 3 configurations. The result?

2GB RAM with 4GB flash gives a VERY noticable boost in performance.

4GB RAM with 4GB flash drive gives a good boost in performance.

8GB Ram...don't bother, because if there IS a boost it's not enough to notice.

Also note that 4GB is the maximum that Vista will use for Readyboost. You can use an 8GB flash drive, but Vista will only use 4GB of it.

READYBOOST is NOT the swap/paging file. It works with SUPERFETCH to pre-load the applications that you use most often. By pre-loading those applications onto the flash drive, they will load into memory much faster than loading them from the HDD. The increase in performance you will see is that programs load much faster. They won't RUN faster.

The other thing you need to be aware of is that it takes Vista a week or two for Superfetch to 'learn' your habits so that it loads the right applications. You will see that Vista load times for applications will decrease as time goes by, and Superfetch has the right applications pre-loaded at the right times.

I have Vista and Win 7 on this system, and the ONLY thing that I don't like about Win 7 is that it's Superfetch is not as 'aggressive as Vista's. Win 7 will only pre-load about 4GB of applications, while Vista will pre-load 7GB+ of memory.

quote:

Originally posted by RAF_OldBuzzard:
I have Vista and Win 7 on this system, and the ONLY thing that I don't like about Win 7 is that it's Superfetch is not as 'aggressive as Vista's. Win 7 will only pre-load about 4GB of applications, while Vista will pre-load 7GB+ of memory.

Yeah, you can thank all the Vista haters for that, "Vista is using all my RAMZ!!!?!!!111one", well duh, it's supposed to do that.

great info here you-all. thanks for the excellent posts everyone.