ready boost with vista and usb drive

Steve C · Oct 13, 2009

Soundguy said:
anyone got the skinny on this?

now that I got a vista PC.. I just noticed when I stick a usb drive in, one of the options is to 'increase speed with ready-boost '

so.. what does it actually do?

add usb drive to ram?

use usb drive as cache?

etc?

are all the usb drives on the market pretty much useable this way?

are there certain features that won't get sped up etc?

for instance.. if aI'm playing a video game. or doing a spread sheet.. can I assume one might get more 'noticed' boost than the other.. ( I assume the spread sheet won't be taxing hte computer very much.. etc.. .. thus no boost noticed.. ) etc?

thanks

if it's worth while.. seeings as how usb drives in the 2g-4g range can be had for under 20$.. might be ok to have a dedicated drive just for performance?

soundguy

Now that you have pointed it out to me I have tried it. I have 4 gig of ram and am running a dual core Athalon with SATA hard drives. Even using a little 1 gig memory stick seems to perk up the way this thing operates. Yesterday I used a 2 gig stick and got great results but today Vista doesn't like that one any more. Go figure.....Vista has a mind of its own....

Soundguy · Oct 14, 2009

I have 4g of ram and am using a verbatim 4g usb drive that was 'certified' to work as readyboost.. so far it's working fine and windows automatically redetects and uses it when it powers up or it is inserted. I tried it on some hdd and video intensive stuff last night and it seems to cut initial hdd seek times.. heck.. for 17$.. if it helps any.. I'm for it..

soundguy

MossRoad · Oct 15, 2009

Soundguy said:
I have 4g of ram and am using a verbatim 4g usb drive that was 'certified' to work as readyboost.. so far it's working fine and windows automatically redetects and uses it when it powers up or it is inserted. I tried it on some hdd and video intensive stuff last night and it seems to cut initial hdd seek times.. heck.. for 17$.. if it helps any.. I'm for it..

soundguy

I wonder if there is any benchmark software that you could run before and after to see if there is really a measurable performance boost?