Anyone using a RAM disk?

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

Has anyone here used a RAM disk? I haven't seen any over 4 GB, but have read that if it's used as the windows drive, most everything speeds up by a huge amount, and they are cheap (sub $100), plus ram prices have dropped by 1/2 within 6 months. The drawback is that most only have a battery life of 12 hrs or so, which leads to the next question... is that 12 hours of unplugged time, or 12 hr of "off" time? You'd obviously want to ghost the OS install.

Any opinions or experience? I'm also wondering if high-performance RAM makes a difference... thx.

Agility · Jun 11, 2007

Lol been ages since i've heard of a RAM disk. I remember gigabyte having a PCI type with 4 DDR2 slots.

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

Agility said:
Lol been ages since i've heard of a RAM disk. I remember gigabyte having a PCI type with 4 DDR2 slots.

Yea, they were the first... the reviews showed it really sped things up, especially on sustained transfer and access delay:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6200&page=5

however laughable given memory prices - but that part of the picture has changed. There are a few others out there as well...

I think I had seen this a while back (promting this post in the first place): http://www.techpowerup.com/?32342

Deleted member 3 · Jun 11, 2007

Gigabyte wasn't the first, Alec for example had a rocket drive. And I recall the Gigabyte driver using DDR1.

Either way, RAM drives are easily bottlenecked by the interface, which means they're lightning fast and have very low response times.

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

DanTheBanjoman said:
Either way, RAM drives are easily bottlenecked by the interface, which means they're lightning fast and have very low response times.

That was a non-sequotor... They say the drive is bottlenecked by the SATA 150 interface -not too many traditional drives meet that performance.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6200&page=6

With memory cheap, it sounds like an interesting proposition... hence the post.

Deleted member 3 · Jun 11, 2007

Sasqui said:
That was a non-sequotor... They say the drive is bottlenecked by the SATA 150 interface -not too many traditional drives meet that performance.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6200&page=6

With memory cheap, it sounds like an interesting proposition... hence the post.

The newer models are SATA300, still bottlenecked of course. However 2 of those in RAID0 = really fast.

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

DanTheBanjoman said:
The newer models are SATA300, still bottlenecked of course. However 2 of those in RAID0 = really fast.

Indeed... I've only found a few models out there searching on "ram disk" or "DDR2 ram drive" in google. Can you think of any other search terms?

ktr · Jun 11, 2007

The benches are the ram drives are impressive, but its seems for practical when you use it to page/cache files.

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

ktr said:
The benches are the ram drives are impressive, but its seems for practical when you use it to page/cache files.

I'd opt for the system drive - it get's hit more frequently than any other.

Wow... I just looked at my windows directory - 3.8 GB!!!

ktr · Jun 11, 2007

Sasqui said:
I'd opt for the system drive - it get's hit more frequently than any other.

Wow... I just looked at my windows directory - 3.8 GB!!!

that seems quite high, perhaps the win dir has some temp files, or old data. Also, system restore takes some space also, and every win update has some bloat with it (uninstaller, backed up files, etc).

Sasqui · Jun 11, 2007

ktr said:
that seems quite high, perhaps the win dir has some temp files, or old data. Also, system restore takes some space also, and every win update has some bloat with it (uninstaller, backed up files, etc).

Yea, totally... this is my work machine. Here's the twist - I use it so much, it's difficult to find time to do the sensible maintenance. It's easy to find time to post on TPU though, :toast:

Deleted member 3 · Jun 12, 2007

Perhaps I should just get more RAM and use software to create a RAM drive. Would cost about the same.

Grings · Jun 12, 2007

saw a review of the gigabyte in this months custompc (uk) and theyre still ddr1 drives, im thinking of getting one, as i have 4gb of ddr1 'just lying around' lol

Wayward · Jun 12, 2007

DanTheBanjoman said:
Perhaps I should just get more RAM and use software to create a RAM drive. Would cost about the same.

I always wanted to try that. I'll research some software later, and try it on a spare system I've got lying around. Did you have any particular program in mind?

Deleted member 3 · Jun 12, 2007

Wayward said:
I always wanted to try that. I'll research some software later, and try it on a spare system I've got lying around. Did you have any particular program in mind?

Windows comes with a driver.

Wayward · Jun 12, 2007

DanTheBanjoman said:
Windows comes with a driver.

Well you learn something new everyday. Thanks, I'll get on that and see how it goes.

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Half-fucked overclockedd
Processor	Intel Core i7 2600k 3.40Ghz @ 4.20Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte P67 UD7 B3
Cooling	Antec Kuhler H2O 920
Memory	G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 8GB X2 1866Mhz (Model F3-2133C9D-16GXH)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte AORUS 1080Ti Extreme Edition
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256GB / Western Digital Black Cavier 2TB X2
Display(s)	Dell U2715H 2560X1440
Case	NZXT Phantom
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional
Power Supply	Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W
Mouse	Logitech G510
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum
Software	Microsoft Windows 10 Professional

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

Anyone using a RAM disk?

Sasqui

Agility

Sasqui

Deleted member 3

Sasqui

Deleted member 3

Sasqui

ktr

Sasqui

ktr

Sasqui

Deleted member 3

Grings

Wayward

New Member

Deleted member 3

Wayward

New Member

Processor	R7 5800x3D
Motherboard	MSI x570 Tomahawk
Cooling	XSPC Raystorm Edge,EK QS P420M,EK D5pwm Revo Res
Memory	32gb Corsair Vengeance RT 3600 cl16
Video Card(s)	Zotac 3070ti Amp Extreme
Storage	Samsung 980pro 1tb x2
Display(s)	MSI MPG321QRF QD
Case	Corsair 7000D
Power Supply	EVGA 1000 P2
Mouse	G900
Keyboard	Corsair k60 RGB PRO
Software	Win 11

Processor	Core 2 Q9450 775/Yorkfield @ 3.2Ghz
Motherboard	DFI Lanparty DK P35-T2RS
Cooling	Zalman CNPS 9700 NT
Memory	4x2GB Corsair XMS2-DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon HD4870 1024MB GDDR5
Storage	Seagate 7200.10 500GB SATA2
Display(s)	2x 19" LG LCD
Case	Raidmax Scorpio (modified)
Audio Device(s)	Audigy2 ZS Platinum
Power Supply	Kingwin Mach 1 1220w