Vista extra RAM

Has anyone used an SD card or other memory card to speed up your RAM on Vista?

I didn't know it was possible but when I inserted an SD card to read it, it gave me an option to speed up my system. Sounds cool if it works, I might have to go out and buy a 2 gig card, some cost less than $20 now. Or even a 4 gig those are online for about $20.

Am interested to know too.

actually the feature does not speed up your ram. These sd cards are not as fast and Ram or DDR. They technology is that any information that is cached to your harddrive would then be cached to your added card therefore causing lag in performance due to the head movement in your harddrive to be less. It not only improves those function but also saves wear on your harddrive. If your actually gonna go out and spend money on a new card I'd suggest getting a usb flashdrive which is faster then most cheap sd cards. Hi speed card and flashdrive will sometimes be marked for this type of use called Ready Boost. Hope this helps.

Macs Rule

Thanks for the info. I am looking online and I found an 8 gig SD card with USB card reader (supports readyboost) and it's only $36.

How do I find out if my card reader is "HDSC"?

Just to test it out I used a 2 gig micro SD card with an adapter that I purchased to use for something else. The readyboost really works well. I just ordered a 4 gig SD card online for $17 to use as readyboost.

I looked into getting a thumb drive, but you have to buy one that is ready for readyboost. I also read bad reviews of one USB drive where it adds spyware and erases info when you update.

I'm sticking with XP for now. It always takes Microsoft a couple of years to work out the kinks in their major releases.

ME, too.
I am sticking with XP64 for now due to Vista Turdiness and the fact that the developer of the only software I run on Windows has thus far been unable to figure out a way to get it to run on Vista....

I also Run Macs...

I have to say that every major OS release for my Macs have been absolutely painless and transparent.
Even the new 64 bit Intel Macs... Apple crafted an OS update that runs an emulator for older 32 bit software that operates in the background without the user even needing to know its there.

The old software runs flawlessly, the new stuff runs flawlessly...

It astounds me that Apple can write an OS that is so vastly superior to that produced by the single most profitable software developer in the world.

Microsoft's products are invariably the worst in every category.

SD card will slow down down your computer just buy more memory and everything off your hard drive you dont need. use only 25% of your hard drive so it will be fast.

Haven't played with "ReadyBoost" as I'm still shunning Vista for being the turd that it is, however I will say it smacks of a really bad Microsoft marketing ploy.

Dig it- same here for me about Vista. I don't know what this extra RAM is supposed to do, unless somebody really thinks that it will increase performance and thus clear up the problems.

Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive.

No, it's misguided folklore related to people not knowing the difference between memory and disk storage. Windows will automatically allocate the disk space it needs for it's paging file, although it should be manually adjusted upward if you add more RAM. The most common disk-related performance hit you can take is due to file fragmentation.

Quite true. Although it's advisable not to run a disk right up to capacity.

A more effective way of speeding up a Wintel system is to have a dedicated physical drive for the OS, another for paging and another for apps and data. The benefits obtained will depend on the use to which the machine is put of course, for most 'home use' it will often make little difference.

Typically the simplest way to speed up a home PC is to add more RAM, followed by a faster (regularly defragmented) drive. Changing cluster size can help, and there are other things one can do too. The CPU speed is seldom the real bottleneck in current systems.

Server configurations (especially database servers) are typically set-up like this, with the OS, database application, its data and logs all residing on separate physical drives (or arrays of drives).

I wouldn't agree Vista is a total turd. But it can certainly come close enough unless set up correctly on the right hardware. That applies to any OS of course, but Vista especially so. SP1 helped some, caused trauma for others.