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Thread: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

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    SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    Hi all,

    I've got a Kingston 4GB Class 6 SDHC card hanging around doing nothing, and since I have a card reader built into my monitor, I was thinking of using it for ReadyBoost on my Windows 7 RC x64 desktop (has 4GB RAM already). My question is, though: will the performance be inferior to that of a standard USB drive plugged directly into the case? Should I look to buy a simple 4GB USB drive to use just for ReadyBoost instead?

    Thanks,

    Leggie

  2. #2
    Splash
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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    I vote for the third way - you have no real need for Readyboost, so you'll see no benefit.

    Readyboost was aimed (in my eyes at least) at people running crappy low end laptops at Vista release where they only had 1Gib of RAM. Readyboost was a cheap and easy way to give more "RAM" to these. At 4Gib you're already at the sweet spot - if you want more addressable RAM then you might as well just splooge on more RAM, but Readyboost will make such a small impact on your system that you'd be tying up an otherwise valuable USB port for next to no reason.

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    YUKIKAZE arthurleung's Avatar
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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    Most monitors switch off USB when powered down. So it is unlikely to work with ReadyBoost.
    There are many USB Thumbdrive that is much faster than the Class 6 card (note Class 6 = 6MB/s write, although some cards are faster). Look at the description.

    IMO Readyboost is not very beneficial unless you have exhausted all other methods of speed up your system.
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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    I've wondered about this, is ReadyBoost simply a marketing tool then?
    "Don't wanna see your face, don't wanna hear your voice . . ."

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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    Once you hit 4GB RAM on Windows 7 it won't let you enable readyboost.

    Says it all really.
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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    I'd also say don't bother with it - it will make very little difference, if any, to your PC's performance - I think I've also read reviews where it actually slows PCs with large amounts of RAM. As posted I think it's for low end hardware with hardly any RAM - it does help with 512MB. However, there's often very little difference in price between a flash drive and a RAM upgrade, which would make much more of a difference. My advice would be only use Readyboost if you have a very small amount of RAM and even then, only use a drive you already have lying around - if you want to spend money, buy RAM (unless your PC is maxed out already with hardly any RAM, that is).

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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    Quote Originally Posted by watercooled View Post
    I'd also say don't bother with it - it will make very little difference, if any, to your PC's performance - I think I've also read reviews where it actually slows PCs with large amounts of RAM. As posted I think it's for low end hardware with hardly any RAM - it does help with 512MB. However, there's often very little difference in price between a flash drive and a RAM upgrade, which would make much more of a difference. My advice would be only use Readyboost if you have a very small amount of RAM and even then, only use a drive you already have lying around - if you want to spend money, buy RAM (unless your PC is maxed out already with hardly any RAM, that is).
    Agreed. With the price of RAM these days, there's no excuse to have to use readyboost.

    Unless, of course, you don't own the PC (at work, etc), in which case it might be worth a shot.

    I'd err on the side of USB drive, plugged in to a motherboard port, rather than a monitor or hub. Personally I saw absolutely no noticable benefit with 2GB of RAM, and the drive's activity light barely flashed unless I loaded a particularly memory-demanding app.

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    Re: SDHC card vs. USB drive for ReadyBoost

    Yup i agree with splash, go the third way.
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