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I've been looking at a RAM based Hard Drive - HyperDrive. As well as GigaByte's I-RAM. Are these still available?

How do these compare against the current SSD Drives?

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That type of RAM drive needs a battery to keep stored data safe, unlike a SSD. Biggest draw back I see in using them. – Moab Jul 9 '11 at 2:48
The battery is only a backup for when there is no power. If the computer is connected to the mains then these drives draw power even if the computer is off. HyperDrive has an additional feature of backing up the entire disk on compact flash card for when both the power is gone and the battery is dead – globetrotter Jul 10 '11 at 5:33
I have done research on hybrid drives in comparison to regular HDD and SSD's and there is an increase in speeds. I'm assuming that hyper drives are similar in this effect. – KronoS Jul 10 '11 at 16:35
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Yes, I could find some GigaByte's i-Ram for sale, take a look at this search on google

Don't know about the reading speed, the writing should be much faster

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I believe reads and writes are still the best out there by a good margin, but they're inherently less reliable. Odds are you're better off with an SSD for most applications. – Shinrai Jul 8 '11 at 18:19
@Shinrai Reliability would be a bit better than a Ram drive... for that price, I'd prefer to fill my computer with 4GB memories and create a RAM disk for some tasks – woliveirajr Jul 8 '11 at 18:21
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I would also just point out that the speed increase only applies if the bus you're using has the throughput. There are SATA II SSDs that are already faster than a PCI bus can handle, period. A really high-end PCIe RAMDisk could probably outrun SATA II SSDs, and maybe even SATA III, I dunno. That comes down to the specific drive. – Shinrai Jul 8 '11 at 18:33
A PCI RAM disk will do better for random reads and writes, which is pretty much 99% of the usage pattern around here. – surfasb Jul 9 '11 at 7:38
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