Use a RAMdrive to increase Windows performance and SSD lifespan.

[Lazzer408]

Well I had a great write-up going for this tweak but it fell victum to the Backspace key. (MS you #@$%suckers) Unfortunatly I'm to frustrated to rewrite it. Sorry.

Anyways...

Here's the link to Dataram's RAMdisc utility for creating the ramdrive. http://memory.dataram.com/__download...3.5.130R20.msi

Here's ghacks walkthrough. http://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/10/use...-state-drives/

The just of this is making a virtual drive in your system's memory and using it for file caching, temp storage, and security. Anything writen to the ramdrive, like cookies, will be dumped when the system is powered off or rebooted. You can point your OS, browsers, and other applications to use this drive for their temp files. This will significantly improve access speed to those files. 20x faster then an SSD. (400MB/s vs. 8000MB/s). I haven't tried putting the pagefile there because I have my pagefile disabled. Doing this will relieve an SSD from some thrashing.

Here are some claimed benifets from another retail retail ramdrive product's site. http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/

Five reasons to use a RAM disk:
1.Higher PC performance. Using a fast in-memory disk for temporary data boosts PC performance up, provided you have got a sufficient amount of RAM.
2.Reduced file system fragmentation. The file system on your disks will be far less fragmented as temporary files are never written to the disk.
3.Reduced wear-and-tear of the physical disk. As temporarily files are not written to the disk, there will be fewer read/write cycles, which is especially important for Solid State Drives (SSD) installed in some laptops.
4.Less junk on the hard disk. Often software applications create temporary files that remain undeleted although no longer needed.
5.Less noise and heat from the hard disk. The system will use the hard disk less intensively as it would storing temporary files on the disk.

[Super XP]

This is good to know, thanks

So now we know how to allocate some DRAM for some RAM Drive. I have loads of extra unused ram according to Task Manager. 16GB is a lot, and I want more for some reason lol.

[n0tiert]

added , lets see how it performs

[AsRock]

dataram's ramdrive program is sweet. Been using it for some time now with Hardlinks http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...ight=hardlinks


It's free to is you only want to use up to 4GB and was only $15 when i actually brought it as i wanted to have a dedi server in ram and it made a difference for sure as when it was hosting 20 people playing a domi mission every one was reported no issue's..

Were as some servers have issue's as they try to spit all the info out as fast as possible when the spawning happens when a town is taken over. .

[Morgoth]

would it be usefull to use a 8gb pci-e ssd as a temp storage disk? or is ramdisk allot bether?

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by Morgoth

would it be usefull to use a 8gb pci-e ssd as a temp storage disk? or is ramdisk allot bether?

A ramdisk is much much faster. 7000MB/s read, 9000MB/s write in my test.

[hat]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=107670

[phanbuey]

These have been around sine like windows 3.1, and are a bit like the "TORNADO" air intake booster for your car.

They dont really work to increase speed. At all. Edit: except maybe for the post that hat put up...

Most games and applications cache textures and commonly accessed files and such in ram, which is why you won't see a huge boost in either windows performance or in-application performance (also why having an SSD never increases FPS). The only exception is temp files, but that really is about it.

[nt300]

Is it possible to create a hardware ramdisk?

[johnspack]

I've been playing with ramdrives and ram diskcaches a lot in the last little while, since I have the ram to play with. Setting a good size ram diskcache on a game drive or partition does really help performance in loading with games. For instance, first time you load MW3, it will take the normal time, and when you load a level in the game it takes a normal amount of time, like 10-15secs or more. If you get killed and have to reload, it's instant the 2nd time. If you quit the game and decide to restart it, it's almost instant as well. I find you need at least 2gbs of ram diskcache per game you want to run off that drive/partition for maximum performance. Also, granularity(block size) and type of algorithm will impact performance, so you need to learn how to set up the cache properly. All I know is, from now on I don't go without the caches, they really do make a difference when done properly!

[Morgoth]

how the hell do i get this?

it says hit pause button but it does nothing

[daimonass]

So it is worth it only then have SSD ?

[Lazzer408]

The benefits are there for all drives.