[MLStrand56]

Ref: 32bit Win7 Ultimate

I'm going to try Ready Boost. I have an unused 2Gig SD card. Previously I used this card in a dig-cam, so it has to be formatted before I can even try to use it for Ready Boost.

Ques. #1: For Ready Boost, Do I format the SD card with NTFS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT? I'm guessing NTFS. What is exFAT?????

Ques. #2: What is the BEST Allocation Unit size for Ready Boost? Options are: 572bytes, 1024bytes, 2048bytes, 4096bytes, 8192bytes, 16Kbytes, 32Kbytes, 64Kbytes.

I'm not even sure what an "Allocation Unit Size" is. Obviously I want to use ALL 2Gig of this 2Gig mem. card. There is no "Allocation Unit Size" of 2048Meg or 4096Meg (for a 4Gig mem card).

If I can make Ready Boost work with this 2Gig card, I'll buy 2 different types of 4Gig mem. cards & use them with my internal Flash reader (which uses 2 USB mobo headers (ckts).

Reason for trying Ready Boost: My 64bit Win7 Ultimate Video Editor computer (Asus P5GC mobo, E6800 CPU, 4Gig RAM) is already Maxed out at 4Gig RAM. Maybe Ready Boost will help speed up video conversions. If not, it only cost me $20 to test 8Gig of Ready Boost, & the mem. cards can still be used in dig. cams.

MLStrand56

EDIT: typo correction

This post has been edited by MLStrand56: 25 November 2011 - 11:48 PM

[waldojim]

Quote

If you aren't already using a device for caching, and the new device is between 256MB and 32GB in size, has a transfer rate of 2.5MB/s or higher for random 4KB reads, and has a transfer rate of 1.75MB/s or higher for random 512KB writes, then ReadyBoost will ask if you'd like to dedicate up to 4GB of the storage for disk caching. (Although ReadyBoost can use NTFS, it limits the maximum cache size to 4GB to accommodate FAT32 limitations.) If you agree, then the service creates a caching file named ReadyBoost.sfcache in the root of the device and asks SuperFetch to prepopulate the cache in the background.

Source: http://technet.micro...istakernel.aspx

This means that Ready boost was designed to handle Fat32 limitations, while supporting NTFS as well. I don't think you have a lot to worry about here. Understand that Ready Boost is designed to facilitate faster access to SMALL reads - about 4-8KB. Anything larger, and Ready Boost becomes a moot point. The USB card can retrieve data quicker if it is small enough, but the sustained read rates are considerably slower.

[LiveBrianD]

Ultimately, more ram will help the most. 4GB might be ok for video editing, though 8GB is preferred (windows will toss out the cache stuff first, then if necessary go to the pagefile). With ram prices as cheap as they are, I'd get more ram. If not, use FAT formatting (NTFS is for hard drives and has more read/writes, not good for flash memory), and the default allocation size. In the drive's properties, you should have an option to dedicate it to readyboost.

[MLStrand56]

LiveBrianD, on 26 November 2011 - 11:21 AM, said:

Ultimately, more ram will help the most. 4GB might be ok for video editing, though 8GB is preferred (windows will toss out the cache stuff first, then if necessary go to the pagefile). With ram prices as cheap as they are, I'd get more ram. If not, use FAT formatting (NTFS is for hard drives and has more read/writes, not good for flash memory), and the default allocation size. In the drive's properties, you should have an option to dedicate it to readyboost.

OK, I'll try to format the SD card with FAT & default allocation size. I'll let you know how it goes.

The mobo that I really want to try Ready Boost on, is an Asus P5GC (6 x PCI slots). That's the mobo in my 64bit Win7 Ultimate Video Editor. Asus isn't even sure how much Ram the mobo can handle. One Asus document says Max is 2Gig. Another Asus document says the Max is 4Gig. I've never found anybody who's tried 8Gig in this mobo. Currently the mobo has 2 x 2048 DDR2 sticks. There are two more empty RAM slots. If I can find 2 more identical 2048 sticks, I'll try running the mobo with 8Gig.

A newer mobo really isn't an option, as nobody makes a new mobo with 5-6 PCI slots, which I need.

MLStrand56

[waldojim]

MLStrand56, on 26 November 2011 - 04:32 PM, said:

OK, I'll try to format the SD card with FAT & default allocation size. I'll let you know how it goes.

The mobo that I really want to try Ready Boost on, is an Asus P5GC (6 x PCI slots). That's the mobo in my 64bit Win7 Ultimate Video Editor. Asus isn't even sure how much Ram the mobo can handle. One Asus document says Max is 2Gig. Another Asus document says the Max is 4Gig. I've never found anybody who's tried 8Gig in this mobo. Currently the mobo has 2 x 2048 DDR2 sticks. There are two more empty RAM slots. If I can find 2 more identical 2048 sticks, I'll try running the mobo with 8Gig.

A newer mobo really isn't an option, as nobody makes a new mobo with 5-6 PCI slots, which I need.

MLStrand56

If you have 4GB of ram, then likely Ready boost will do nothing but hurt performance for you.

[LiveBrianD]

MLStrand56, on 26 November 2011 - 04:32 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 26 November 2011 - 11:21 AM, said:

Ultimately, more ram will help the most. 4GB might be ok for video editing, though 8GB is preferred (windows will toss out the cache stuff first, then if necessary go to the pagefile). With ram prices as cheap as they are, I'd get more ram. If not, use FAT formatting (NTFS is for hard drives and has more read/writes, not good for flash memory), and the default allocation size. In the drive's properties, you should have an option to dedicate it to readyboost.

OK, I'll try to format the SD card with FAT & default allocation size. I'll let you know how it goes.

The mobo that I really want to try Ready Boost on, is an Asus P5GC (6 x PCI slots). That's the mobo in my 64bit Win7 Ultimate Video Editor. Asus isn't even sure how much Ram the mobo can handle. One Asus document says Max is 2Gig. Another Asus document says the Max is 4Gig. I've never found anybody who's tried 8Gig in this mobo. Currently the mobo has 2 x 2048 DDR2 sticks. There are two more empty RAM slots. If I can find 2 more identical 2048 sticks, I'll try running the mobo with 8Gig.

A newer mobo really isn't an option, as nobody makes a new mobo with 5-6 PCI slots, which I need.

MLStrand56

Try the Crucial ram scanner - for instance, my x120e officially only supports 4GB RAM, many say 8GB works, other machines with the same chipset and cpu support 8GB, and Crucial's ram scanner says 8Gb works.

It supports 2GB/slot, 2 slots, so 4GB total. It looks like you're maxed out. However, that board only has 2 PCI slots, as well as one PCIe x16 and one PCIe x1, so what are you talking about with 6 slots? I can't find any version of the board that has that much.

[MLStrand56]

LiveBrianD, on 26 November 2011 - 08:58 PM, said:

It supports 2GB/slot, 2 slots, so 4GB total. It looks like you're maxed out. However, that board only has 2 PCI slots, as well as one PCIe x16 and one PCIe x1, so what are you talking about with 6 slots? I can't find any version of the board that has that much.

It sounds like you are referring to the Asus P5GC-MX mobo. My mobo is the Asus P5GC. It has 6 x pci slots, & 4 x DDR2 slots.

http://www.asus.com/...ocket_775/P5GC/

MLStrand56

[LiveBrianD]

Oh I see now - I was having trouble finding the exact one you mentioned. It looks like that one can only support 4GB total, 1GB/slot if single-sided modules or 2GB/slot and only 2 slots if dual-sided modules. Basically, you're maxed out.

[Dellinsp531]

The ready boots will not give you much better performance with video converstion plus the ready boot will slowly start to damage the SD cards since it will be reading and writing a lot of data to it.

How much of the 4GB are you currently using?

If you are usign all 4 GB that you must be running a lot of programs that hog the ram. The suggestion would be close any programs that you do not need. Also take a look and see which programs are using a lot of memory.

Also do you have 32 bit or 64 bit? You mentioned both. If it is 32 bit, you are not using all 4 GB since windows can only use about 3.2GB. If 64 bit, than it is using all 4 GB.

[MLStrand56]

Dellinsp531, on 28 November 2011 - 08:55 AM, said:

The ready boots will not give you much better performance with video converstion plus the ready boot will slowly start to damage the SD cards since it will be reading and writing a lot of data to it.

How much of the 4GB are you currently using?

If you are usign all 4 GB that you must be running a lot of programs that hog the ram. The suggestion would be close any programs that you do not need. Also take a look and see which programs are using a lot of memory.

Also do you have 32 bit or 64 bit? You mentioned both. If it is 32 bit, you are not using all 4 GB since windows can only use about 3.2GB. If 64 bit, than it is using all 4 GB.

I'm trying Ready Boost on a POS Temp. puter with 4Gig Ram BUT 32bit Win7. Currently that puter is using 2.53Gig of the approx. 3.5Gig Useable of the 4Gig. If I see a performance increase, I'll try Ready Boost on my 64bit Win7 Video Editor. The POS Temp. puter can't really handle video editing, but I do manage a little bit. When doing vid. editing, I always close all programs not necessary. That frees up enough RAM that the POS can do basic vid. editing without crashing to often.

The 32bit video editor uses XP MCE 2005, so no Ready Boost there.

I'm not worried about the read/write stress that Ready Boost puts on the mem. card. 4Gig SD cards are only about $10 here, & easy to find.

I keep the auto-loaders to a min. (on all my computers) with WinPatrol.

MLStrand56

[Dellinsp531]

You can try but there will not be much performance increase.

[LiveBrianD]

I don't think readyboost writes much to the card, just read (also, it's the same thing as what's on the HD, so you can unplug it whenever you want and it won't cause issues. I doubt it'll be an issue.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:13 PM, said:

I don't think readyboost writes much to the card, just read (also, it's the same thing as what's on the HD, so you can unplug it whenever you want and it won't cause issues. I doubt it'll be an issue.

It can't read something without writing first.

And Ready boost is designed to use the cards to read small bits of data from the card that can help reduce latency caused by hard drive lag.

[MLStrand56]

LiveBrianD, on 27 November 2011 - 12:12 PM, said:

It looks like that one can only support 4GB total, 1GB/slot if single-sided modules or 2GB/slot and only 2 slots if dual-sided modules. Basically, you're maxed out.

There is also an Asus document that claims that the P5GC's max RAM is 2Gig. So even Asus doesn't know how much Ram the mobo can handle.

MLStrand56

[waldojim]

That is actually more common than you might think. That usually happens when they cannot test a product out to verify if it works that way. This would be like manufacturers testing current Intel chips with 16GB ram modules. Sure, Intel may have controllers that can do it (in the 2011 chips, or even the Xeon), but that doesn't mean they have any way of testing that at the moment.

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 29 November 2011 - 10:25 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:13 PM, said:

I don't think readyboost writes much to the card, just read (also, it's the same thing as what's on the HD, so you can unplug it whenever you want and it won't cause issues. I doubt it'll be an issue.

It can't read something without writing first.

And Ready boost is designed to use the cards to read small bits of data from the card that can help reduce latency caused by hard drive lag.

What I mean is that it copies over a bunch of files initially, and then from then on MAINLY does reading, which doesn't affect a flash drive's lifespan all that much. (mainly reads)

waldojim, on 30 November 2011 - 10:44 AM, said:

That is actually more common than you might think. That usually happens when they cannot test a product out to verify if it works that way. This would be like manufacturers testing current Intel chips with 16GB ram modules. Sure, Intel may have controllers that can do it (in the 2011 chips, or even the Xeon), but that doesn't mean they have any way of testing that at the moment.

With my x120e, lenovo claims you can only put 4GB RAM in it, but all the other E350 machines out there support 8GB, and lots of people have reported success with 8GB in that model.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 30 November 2011 - 03:28 PM, said:

With my x120e, lenovo claims you can only put 4GB RAM in it, but all the other E350 machines out there support 8GB, and lots of people have reported success with 8GB in that model.

While I am sure it is possible, I can't see the usefulness of 8GB ram on a dual core 1.6Ghz chip... maybe I missed something?

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 30 November 2011 - 05:23 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 30 November 2011 - 03:28 PM, said:

With my x120e, lenovo claims you can only put 4GB RAM in it, but all the other E350 machines out there support 8GB, and lots of people have reported success with 8GB in that model.

While I am sure it is possible, I can't see the usefulness of 8GB ram on a dual core 1.6Ghz chip... maybe I missed something?

Honestly, I'm not sure why people are buying 8GB RAM and SSDs for their x120e laptops. I'm fine with the stock 320GB 7200RPM HD and 4GB RAM. The main place where I find 8GB RAM useful is on a quad-core desktop where I run virtualization software sometimes.

[Senior]

This article was useful to me and recommended by a friend, it explains the differences achieved by the various formates and how that is accomplished for ReadyBoast.


http://en.wikipedia....wiki/ReadyBoost

This post has been edited by Senior: 14 May 2012 - 08:29 AM