T60p Win7 on board ReadyBoost?

[nwaves]

I have a T60p 8743 (15.4") with 4 GB RAM running Win7 64bit. My RAM is in the 90%+ most times and the hard drive WD500GB 7200rpm is trashing way too much so laptop becomes unresponsive for 2-3 minutes, sometimes even longer. I tried using a 4 GB SD card on ReadyBoost and found that hard drive trashing almost disappeared. Problem is the card reader is in the external USB port and I'm afraid I'm going to brake it. So I'm looking for a cheap internal solution to the problem. I'm thinking of the following options:
1. Use a MR04 or MR15 card in the WWAN Mini PCIe slot. Might need to flash the BIOS to the one of the hacked versions. Not sure if any available for my machine
2. Use an ExpressCard/34 SD card reader ($10 Sandisk expresscard on ebay) in conjunction with a Startech ECBRACKET2 34mm to 54 mm stabilizer ($9 @newegg).
3. Find a small SDHC or microSDHC USB card reader, house it under right side of the palmrest and then run a cable and solder it to the USB circuit.

Anybody can think of a better way of doing this?
I'm looking to spend $30 or so for the mod. I have plenty of SD/microSD cards laying so that's not an issue.

Thanks in advance.

[SafeHarbor]

My T61p came with a factory-installed 1-GB "Robson" card. In fact, it's still in there but I don't think Win 7 or 8 will use it. It also doesn't appear in Device Manager. Read the Wikipedia entry on "intel turbo memory" if you're interested in the rise and fall of the technology. From what I've read over time, people have experimented with one to four GB and haven't noticed any improvement. Since this runs from a mini-PCI slot, it should have been fast enough, yet it was panned for not improving the user experience.

I've never seen my 7K320 start thrashing (even with only 2 GB) so can't help there. I wonder if mounting another drive in the CD-ROM slot and putting the swap file there might help?

[RealBlackStuff]

Your T60p may have 4GB RAM in it, but it can use only 3GB from that! (hardware chipset limitation).
Don't do too much multitasking under 64-bit with only 3GB RAM.

[nwaves]

Your T60p may have 4GB RAM in it, but it can use only 3GB from that! (hardware chipset limitation).
Don't do too much multitasking under 64-bit with only 3GB RAM.

I know it only uses 3GB and since I'm doing a lot of multitasking and I use Photoshop a lot lately, I'm looking for a way to speed up the machine. ReadyBoost seems to do the trick but the external USB is prone to break, that's why I'm looking into a way to move this inside the case.

[nwaves]

My T61p came with a factory-installed 1-GB "Robson" card. In fact, it's still in there but I don't think Win 7 or 8 will use it. It also doesn't appear in Device Manager. Read the Wikipedia entry on "intel turbo memory" if you're interested in the rise and fall of the technology. From what I've read over time, people have experimented with one to four GB and haven't noticed any improvement. Since this runs from a mini-PCI slot, it should have been fast enough, yet it was panned for not improving the user experience.

I've never seen my 7K320 start thrashing (even with only 2 GB) so can't help there. I wonder if mounting another drive in the CD-ROM slot and putting the swap file there might help?

T60 can't use the Turbo Memory card and I'm not sure Win7 can see it but ReadyBoost does seem to make a difference, at least in my case.
I thought about buying an SSD and use it as a boot drive and use my HDD in the ultrabay but T60p has a PATA interface for UltraBay, and since I use the HDD storage a lot in Photoshop, that would slow down the data transfer even further. Moreover T60 can only use Sata I at 1.5 GBps so that trims down potential SSD speed gains. I could still see some speed improvement overall with the SSD on board but not sure how much and if it's worth the cost and the time to reinstall all the programs I use frequently.

[ajkula66]

Moreover T60 can only use Sata II at 1.5 GBps so that trims down potential SSD speed gains. I could still see some speed improvement overall with the SSD on board but not sure how much and if it's worth the cost and the time to reinstall all the programs I use frequently.

The biggest gain from a SSD comes from its response times. Not to mention the fact that spinning drives in most cases can't saturate a SATA I interface in real life.

With the prices of SSDs going down, I'd suggest getting one for that T60p of yours. You'll feel the difference.

Your ThinkPad, your call.