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In search of ... RAMdisk opinions
barney:
If nothing else, you'll learn what not to do - and also how to recover a borked system. 8) :Thmbsup
-40hz (September 25, 2012, 07:58 PM)
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Hee, hee. Been doin' that for the last twenty (20) or thirty (30) years ;). What can I say, I'm a slow learner :P.
IainB:
I've been following this discussion thread with interest but without so far being able to contribute much that I thought could be of real use/help to it, until, perhaps, this last couple of weeks.
The subject could perhaps be more accurately restated as a general "Making greater use of available RAM for efficiency and performance iprovement", rather than just focussing on one approach to doing this - ie., RAMdisk.
The main advantage of a RAMdisk (or RAMdrive) is performance improvement. Though I had used memory optimisers and the IBM DOS RAMdisk in laptops since years ago, I have trialled them but not really used them (seemed too kludgy or flaky or of no real advantage) in later Windows GUI operating systems. In DOS they certainly did have a noticeable effect on performance, largely because they could reduce latency by reducing the HDD read/write activity in HDD TEMP and paging operations, and they also took advantage of any unused "upper memory". So, I knew that RAM drives could offer real potential performance benefits under some circumstances.
For some time I have coincidentally been trialling potential performance-improving tweaks - hardware/software. The single most significant performance improvement achieved so far in this (and which I posted about in detail in the DC Forum as Test: Does latency reduction via RAM upgrade lift software performance?) came about after bumping up the DDR3 RAM to the max 8Gb (on available slots) on two laptops.
Suffice it to say that the performance improvement was significant in terms of raising the WEI (Windows Experience Index) "Memory operations per second" subscore, but not the overall Base Score (which is determined by the lowest subscore).
However, from a user perspective
..."everything seems to run faster"...I have also now turned on (previously turned off most) all the settings for max graphics quality - on both laptops - which, theoretically should place extra load on the CPUs. However, the user experience is that display quality/resolution has improved and there has been no perceptible waiting/latency from any processes.
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Thus, as a general rule, anything you can do to push operations requiring physical HDD activity into RAM are going to reduce latency and enable an improved real speed of operation from the user perspective.
The laptops are:
* a DELL Inspiron with an AMD Phenom II X3 N850 (triple-core) CPU and a 5,400RPM HDD, OS Win7-64 Home Premium.
* an HP ENVY 14 with an Intel i7 (4x2=8-core) CPU and a 7,200rpm HDD, OS Win7-64 Home Premium.
With all that extra RAM, I have been trying to apply the above general rule by seeing what other operations I can push into RAM - for example, having the Firefox cache in RAM:
* refer post: Speed Up Firefox by Moving Your Cache to RAM, No RAM Disk Required
* refer post: Speed up Firefox page loading time without using a RAM disk
* refer group discussion: moving cache to RAM instructions making the rounds
I have long ago dispensed with the disk cache as it just slows things down, and overworks my HD. I have 4GB of RAM, and seldom use more than half of it for everything that is running. I have always deleted the disk cache after a session anyway as I don't want old data. Some of us don't WANT to restore a session.
Bottom line, this is an advantage (the hack) for many users, not so much for others. May slow some users, or have other repercussions, but I haven't seen any, yet.
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So much opinion! So, in the absence of facts, I take a suck-it-and-see approach. My HP ENVY's Firefox about:config thus currently has been (and is still being) tweaked to something similar to these trial settings for RAM/disk caching utlilisation: (caveat - might not suit everybody's needs though)
Also, over the last couple of weeks, what I have been doing (in piecemeal fashion, because it is "when I have the time") is trialling the standard Windows ReadyBoost facility in Win7. This was prompted by my reading @Stephen66515's very informative post (displaying most of the Windows Help file details on ReadyBoost): Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer.
There are several other posts in the DC Forum referring to the ReadyBoost Windows feature.
Whilst I have so far made no objective measures of the effects of using ReadyBoost, I can report that it certainly seems to work as it should, and that it seems to provide some latency reduction, though I do not yet understand how to make the most of this. Presumably the max read/write speed of the USB RAM ("memory stick" or whatever you might call it) is a constraint, and so measuring that would seem to be useful.
Gaining a better understanding of the constraints/limitations should enable me to better understand how to take best advantage of any ReadyBoost potential benefits.
NB: Whilst one of the potential disadvantages of a RAMdisk or RAM caching might be (for some) the loss of the RAM-based contents on power-down (Shutdown), it is not necessarily so relevant for laptop users who keep the laptop in "Sleep mode" most of the time when not using it, rather than Shutdown. Also, for those that might want it, there will probably be ways to make a backup HDD copy of files in a RAM disk/cache - if necessary - before terminating the process or before Shutdown. (Though I haven't played around with this yet.)
barney:
There seem to be, basically, two (2) facets of the RAM question. And not just on DC - I've seen this semi-battle for a decade or better.
Some say to hold it in reserve, save it for a rainy day, so to speak.
Others say to use it, max it out. Unused RAM is a waste.
I don't know that I agree with either camp. The opinion here on DC seems equally divided: do it, don't do it, and don't know. However, barring catastrophic failure, four (4) weeks - two (2) each - should provide at least some decision points.
I hope :P.
[Sidebar]
It took an inordinate amount of time to do this on a Nexus 7. If tablets are to replace PC/Laptop units, a vastly improved input system will have to be devised :o - and voice is not always a viable, much less preferable, choice :huh:.
[/Sidebar]
Curt:
..., I take a suck-it-and-see approach. -IainB (September 28, 2012, 09:58 PM)
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Unless one is an arctic monkey, the term is suck in and see.
Thank you for the link to explaining Ready Boost - I never got it to do anything noticeable for me. Instead I have been using eBoostr, and is satisfied with this. Of course only because I merely have 4GB RAM - on my next PC I sincerely hope to access much more memory.
IainB:
..., I take a suck-it-and-see approach. -IainB (September 28, 2012, 09:58 PM)
--- End quote ---
Unless one is an arctic monkey, the term is suck in and see.
Thank you for the link to explaining Ready Boost - I never got it to do anything noticeable for me. Instead I have been using eBoostr, and is satisfied with this. Of course only because I merely have 4GB RAM - on my next PC I sincerely hope to access much more memory.
-Curt (September 29, 2012, 05:46 PM)
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The term I used was correct use of English for the purpose intended:
suck it and see
UK informal
Definition
to try something to find out if it will be successful
I'm not sure whether this paint is the right colour for the bedroom - we'll just have to suck it and see.
(Definition of suck it and see from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/suck-it-and-see
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I don't think I had heard of the Arctic Monkeys' song of the same name before.
Thank you for the mention of eBoostr - I don't think I had heard of that before, either. Am doing some research on it now...
EDIT: 2012-10-01 1552hrs (NZT)
With all this talk of "sucking", I wonder if it is worth referring also to the old adage about "Teaching your grandmother to suck eggs."?... :P
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