up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I remember I saw a utility on the internet that claimed to convert an SSD drive into more RAM. It even did that with a fast USB flash drive and the total RAM amount changed in the task manager since the software acted as a driver.

The problem is, I don't remember the name of that software and I can't find it.

link|improve this question
Its something in base windows 7. I don't have windows here but if you open properties I'm sure you'll find it somewhere. – Dani Jul 30 '11 at 12:29
2  
Be warned tho: the extra memory will be extremely slow. A USB3 flash disk is about 30 times slower than DDR1066. – Dani Jul 30 '11 at 12:32
2  
It's better to use swap: place swapfile to ssd. – rvs Jul 30 '11 at 12:42
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Swap file makes more sense than ReadyBoost.

The big question is, "Why do you need more RAM?" Outside of graphics and video editing, few programs benefit from more RAM. And with video editing/graphics editing you are more likely to get more productivity by setting up a faster harddrive solution.

link|improve this answer
Sorry to nitpick, but in a Windows context it's called a page file. – oKtosiTe Jul 30 '11 at 23:39
2  
OP didn't specify Windows... – HaydnWVN Apr 12 at 10:29
@HaydnWVN This answer does compare a swap/page file with ReadyBoost, which is specific to Windows, so it's pretty safe to assume the answer is talking about Windows even if the question is not. But it doesn't really matter anyway. – Bob May 10 at 7:33
feedback
up vote 4 down vote

You might be talking about the "ReadyBoost" feature introduced with Windows Vista?

It doesn't "convert a hard drive into RAM" but uses a portion of a fast flash drive as a read cache to speed up reads from the drive Windows is installed upon. To my knowledge this feature doesn't change the amount of reported RAM from the task manager.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

It's best to use five flash drives plugged directly into the PC supplying only 100 MB to 200 MB each on a USB port.

I was running 512 MB RAM with Ubuntu Linux, and that ran smoothly playing Minecraft. But even if you have more RAM, but need more, that's the way to go for best performance, because USB ports are so fast, 200 MB to 500 MB or more, but if you put a lot of RAM on just one of those loads, it's going to lag.

With multiple USB sticks with small RAM loads, you'll experience less lag and maybe RAM speed, highly suggest turning off the RAM load for hard drive when doing this because the hard drive has a write speed of 20 MB, not very fast.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.