Vista ReadyBoost: A look at the numbers
- Posted: Feb 08, 2007 at 2:48 PM
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Last month when I was at CES, I was handed a big green box on the way out of the Microsoft Press Tent. I almost didn't take it, but I'm glad I did. Along with a full copy of Legos Star Wars, there were some other goodies in the box including a 2GB flash drive with "Enhanced for ReadyBoost" printed on the back. I had seen the term before when plugging in other USB drives to Vista, but I wasn't sure what it was - this is a feature you need to know about. ReadyBoost and SuperFetch are ways to use the fast read speed on a thumb drive rather than the slower read speed of a mechanical hard drive.
I put my laptop into sleep often and what ReadyBoost means for me is that it pops back on in 2 or 3 seconds, much faster than waiting for the hard drives to spin up. It also means Outlook starts in 2 seconds. This is one of my favorite Vista features. Not every USB drive will work for ReadyBoost, it has to be a moderately fast drive. TG Daily did a thorough write-up on SuperFetch and ReadyBoost today, including charts and numbers.
Update: Check out the new ASUS Vista-specific motherboards with built-in ReadyBoost memory and an external Windows SideShow device.
I put my laptop into sleep often and what ReadyBoost means for me is that it pops back on in 2 or 3 seconds, much faster than waiting for the hard drives to spin up. It also means Outlook starts in 2 seconds. This is one of my favorite Vista features. Not every USB drive will work for ReadyBoost, it has to be a moderately fast drive. TG Daily did a thorough write-up on SuperFetch and ReadyBoost today, including charts and numbers.
Update: Check out the new ASUS Vista-specific motherboards with built-in ReadyBoost memory and an external Windows SideShow device.
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Would be interesting with 16 gigs rather than just 2.
A system that's idling at 800-1.2 gigs of RAM could show how ReadyBoost might be useful, but a system running media and application simultaneously demands much more than just 2 gigs.
Would be interesting with 16 gigs rather than just 2.
A system that's idling at 800-1.2 gigs of RAM could show how ReadyBoost might be useful, but a system running media and application simultaneously demands much more than just 2 gigs.
Putting your laptop to sleep should have nothing to do with the HDD, and likewise, neither should bringing it out of sleep. I think the only reason you hear the HDD click a little is loading a few small things to reactivate devices, and I doubt that Readyboost would help that much. IMHO, if Microsoft did their job correctly, any files that are needed to resume the computer should be loaded into RAM *before* putting it to sleep.
As for hibernate, that should just be reading one large sequential file off the HDD (again, if Microsoft did their job), a procedure in which the HDD will blow the flash drive out of the water as far as speed is concerned.
Putting your laptop to sleep should have nothing to do with the HDD, and likewise, neither should bringing it out of sleep. I think the only reason you hear the HDD click a little is loading a few small things to reactivate devices, and I doubt that Readyboost would help that much. IMHO, if Microsoft did their job correctly, any files that are needed to resume the computer should be loaded into RAM *before* putting it to sleep.
As for hibernate, that should just be reading one large sequential file off the HDD (again, if Microsoft did their job), a procedure in which the HDD will blow the flash drive out of the water as far as speed is concerned.
Hmm, I meant to reply to the main article...
BTW, the damn +Add post to submit the comment is still not visible. Vista, IE7. I have to drop into fullscreen to see the button to submit the comment.
Hmm, I meant to reply to the main article...
BTW, the damn +Add post to submit the comment is still not visible. Vista, IE7. I have to drop into fullscreen to see the button to submit the comment.
Of course, I new I was missing one important fact. My resolution is 1024x768.
Of course, I new I was missing one important fact. My resolution is 1024x768.
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