Is Vista "ReadyBoost" worth it?
I figure he's got 2 choices. Either bump the actual RAM in the machine, which can only hold up to 2Gig and requires opening up the machine, or else grab a USB flash drive and use the "ReadyBoost" feature of Vista to help himself out, which has the advantage of being greater than 2Gig, and easier than taking the computer apart.
I'm not as worried about the computer thing, as I can certainly do that for him (although a USB stick would be one less house call for me!). A USB stick will give him, what, maybe 8Gig? That's much better than 2 onboard.
Seems like a bit of a tossup to me, but leaning toward USB boost drive. Anybody got any insight? Looking mostly to see if somebody can talk me out of that path, like "No, don't do it, the boost is almost as slow as if you didn't even have the extra mem to begin with."
For extra info, he's a very lowpower user - bring up the browser, the email, occasionally MS Word. Still uses AOL software. You probably know the type. Right now the machine is unusable, trying to keep him running reasonably without major disruption (so nobody tell me to get him a new computer, or install Linux for him :)).
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M$10 Answers
"However, a benchmark put together by PCStats underscores the fact that Windows ReadyBoost indeed offers a performance enhancement, but especially for Vista running on just 512 MB of RAM. In terms of boot times, Vista at 512 MB RAM finishes the startup process in 47 seconds. Throwing in a 512 MB USB speeds the boot time to 44 seconds, but a 4 GB USB takes the boot down to just 40 seconds. Still, with just 1 GB of RAM Vista boots in 26 seconds, while the operating system takes only 25 seconds to start with 4 GB of RAM and a 4 GB USB under ReadyBoost. The conclusion is simple, ReadyBoost is nothing but a temporary solution that won't and cannot solve the problem of insufficient RAM."
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M$If you do go the readyboost method get a USB drive which supports it. While ones without the label work you dont get 100% success in my experience unless it has the readyboost label.
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M$
True, but the real question is the diff between 2Gig onboard, and 4Gig (max) USB drive. I even left him one of my extra 4Gig thumb drives, so if it turns out that works, then there's no new onboard memory to worry about at all.
If it was going to come down to benchmarks my money would still be on RAM. Simply because the access speed of RAM is going to totally smoke any disk device. I dont have any link handy to proove that point, but im sure 5 mins with google will prove it.
Readyboost is mainly there for those who cant upgrade their memory due to lack of slots etc....
However that said, if it works well enough then by all means use it :) Why spend money if you dont have to.
The core idea of ReadyBoost is that a flash drive has a much faster seek time (less than 1 millisecond), allowing it to satisfy the requests fairly quickly compared to a hard drive when booting or reading certain system files. It also leverages the inherent advantage of having two parallel sources from which to read data. Unfortunately USB flash drives are slow in terms of sequential reads and writes, compared to modern desktop hard drives. Desktop hard drives can sustain anywhere from 2 to 10 times the transfer speed of USB flash drives. However, USB flash drives hold an advantage in random access times: typically around 1ms, compared to 12ms and upwards for desktop hard drives."
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M$
It's always better to have more and not use it then not enough and find out you need more. The later can be very frustrating.
Started out good but then just sort of stopped. Which would u go with, 2g of ram or 4g of flash?
I really, really wish you wouldn't cut and paste Wikipedia into this site. I mean, I can visit Wikipedia, I don't need anyone to bring the content to me while I am on this site. I kinda like the personal nature of this site. Don't you?
It would be more economical (especially these days) to go out and just purchase some more ram or a marginally faster CPU that is compatible with your original equipment.
Another thing to bear in mind is that in some (if not most) using a readyboost "drive" is sometimes beneficial also if you don't want to void a systems warranty but still want to increase it's performance.
_
Personal Note: I even created A hole forum on the very subject.
Which unfortunately didn't take off.
Kind Regards,
XDS
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M$
ReadyBoost is a disk caching technology which aims to make computers running Windows Vista more responsive by using flash memory on a ppUSB]] 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash, or other form of flash memory, in order to boost system performance.
When a ReadyBoost compatible device is plugged in, the Windows AutoPlay dialog offers an additional option to use it to speed up the system; an additional ReadyBoost tab is added to drive’s properties dialog where the amount of space to be used for ReadyBoost can be configured
For a Device to be compatible with ReadyBoost in Microsoft Windows Vista it should meet the following requirements:
* The capacity of the removable media should be at least 256MB.
* If the media is larger than 4GB only 4GB will be used for ReadyBoost.
* The Device should have an access time of 1ms or less.
* The device must be capable of 2.5MB/s read speeds for 4 kB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 1.75MB/s write speeds for 512 kB random writes spread uniformly across the device.
* The device must have at least 235 MB of free space.
* NTFS and FAT32 are both supported.
* Currently only one device is supported.
In my experience, ReadyBoost yields almost no gains, even on machines with only 512MB of RAM. It was designed as a way to sidestep memory requirements by using flash memory as a swap space instead of the hard disk, but with even 4GB, you'll never need to use your swap file anyway.
Still, since ReadyBoost won't hurt anything, why not give it a try? Since vista does a lot of disk caching through superfetch it may or may not help, depends on how you use your system really.
For more tests and user-generated info, refer:
http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/is-readyboost-really-worth-it
http://www.articlesbase.com/operating-systems-articles/is-readyboost-worth-the-bother-660955.html
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-vista-performance/946782.htm
http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Is-ReadyBoost-worth-the-Bother-/196907
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Vista-ReadyBoost-Test-44476.shtml
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=417&pgno=1
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M$Of course, if the computer is really limited to 2 GB it is probably an old motherboard and CPU so you can only do so much. Double check your manuals, that sounds pretty low for a computer that is able to run Vista at all.
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M$
I trust Crucial and usually buy from them. My recommendation is still both: the 2 gig ram and the 4 gig thumb drive. Do you think he could handle a faster browser like Chrome or Firefox (which are free of course)?
It is a Compaq Presario that I'm sure he picked up at Walmart or somesuch. You know the time, custom made for the consumer who knows nothing to walk in and say "Heyyy, that looks like a good deal. Oooo, Vista, that looks cool." I get the "2gig max" number from running the memory scanner at www.crucial.com.
I am a profesional
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M$
The capacity of the removable media should be at least 256MB
If the media is larger than 4GB only 4GB will be used for ReadyBoost
The Device should have an access time of 1ms or less
The device must be capable of 2.5MB/s read speeds for 4 kB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 1.75MB/s write speeds for 512 kB random writes spread uniformly across the device
The device must have at least 235 MB of free space
NTFS (New Type File System) and FAT32 (File Allocation Table) both are supported
Currently only one device is supported
HOPE THIS INFO IS USEFUL TO YOU.
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Not a helpful answer, especially given that I said I don't want to have to get him a whole new machine. Plus, I'll never understand how people jump from a $30 memory upgrade to a $500 laptop and say "Hey, they're cheap enough." Some folks don't have $500, people. That's a big number to throw around. Just because new machines used to cost $1200 and now they cost $500 doesn't mean everybody can magically afford one every time their existing PC gets too slow.
Boot time is related to system performance, however my comments were based on more than that single source.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/17/readyboost-ready-but-doesnt-boost/
"They tested three USB flash drives by Kingston, Lexar, and Ridata that claim to be ReadyBoost, uh, ready, and found that while they were able to measure a slight speedup in certain activities (like opening frequently-used applications) overall the effect was unnoticeable -- they concluded that "installing more RAM inside your PC would help a lot more.""
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2160&page=5
http://www.pcworld.com/article/131742/readyboost_flash_drives_lack_significant_boost.html
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2017818,00.asp
Also this article:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070307/readyboost-works/
Points out that readyboost on increases system responsiveness, not system performance. And the computer in question needs performance, not just an increase in responsiveness.
I'm not saying readyboost won't help A LITTLE, but to truly remedy your problem you should go with the ram increase.
I'm not sure this is a valid metric, though - who cares about shaving seconds off of a boot time? I'm far more interested in whether it speeds up the machine once it is on and running.