What to do with 4Gig of RAM using XP 32bit

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loyukfai · #31 Post by **loyukfai** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:46 am

Good to hear feedback... Below are my observations and comments...

thormdac wrote:-placing all temp internet files to ramdisk makes you lose all cookies, obviously! when logging in a pain, elsewise nice!

Not so for IE. The cookies are kept separately from the cache, and so stay on the main drive.

thormdac wrote: -around 30s after e reboot, intensive access to the hdd takes place for about 20s--laying all stuff into ramdisk??- after that heat spreads massively through the machine

Not so for me. Did you setup any scripts to put files or load an image on the RAM disk when it's created...?

thormdac wrote: - aint any faster than with my tweaked xp!

The impact, as far as I can tell, is not so strong on the X61T but more so on the X41T.

But then, it probably depends on your usage. Say if you use Photoshop and put the scratch disk on a RAM disk...

basketb · #32 Post by **basketb** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:54 pm

loyukfai wrote:Good to hear feedback... Below are my observations and comments...

thormdac wrote:-placing all temp internet files to ramdisk makes you lose all cookies, obviously! when logging in a pain, elsewise nice!
Not so for IE. The cookies are kept separately from the cache, and so stay on the main drive.

...

Firefox 3 doesn't store cookies in the temp/cache folder either.

loyukfai · #33 Post by **loyukfai** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:50 pm

Just a little update...

Picasa seems to complain if there's less than 512MB (unverified) of TEMP space available
Adjusted the pagefile settings a bit
- Reduced the max. size on the RAM drive, so more space is available for TEMP/TMP usage (Ramdisk - pagefile - browser cache = TEMP/TMP)
- Brought back the pagefile on the main drive, just in case a memory-intensive app needs to address that much memory. Windows by default should use the faster drive (i.e. the ramdisk).

Besides, this article over petri.co.il seems informative about pagefile.

loyukfai · #34 Post by **loyukfai** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:59 am

loyukfai wrote:
thormdac wrote: -around 30s after e reboot, intensive access to the hdd takes place for about 20s--laying all stuff into ramdisk??- after that heat spreads massively through the machine
Not so for me. Did you setup any scripts to put files or load an image on the RAM disk when it's created...?

Further observations... It's also happening on my Vista box... According to Resource Monitor, the box is busy handling the Readyboost cache... Maybe it also builds cache for the files on the RAM drive and so need to "clean up" when the RAM drive is re-built as well...?

The XP box has no such problem.

Unaware of any method to exclude drives and/or directories from Readyboost cache through.

loyukfai · #35 Post by **loyukfai** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:09 am

To follow-up on my own... I've since changed to only holding a fixed size swap file and the browser cache on the RAM disk, as the TEMP folder is seldom used but once in a while, a program will demand a huge space out of it exceeding the size of the available RAM disk.

adrianaitken · #36 Post by **adrianaitken** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:50 am

Well, I don't use a swapfile - if any program needs that much memory it's just badly written and I'm not giving it a crutch (and I do graphic manipulation stuff on mine).
Using XP and Server 2003 (on my homebuilt web server), I never have any stuff running after boot up. The Ramdisk is empty except for the auto-created TEMP directory. When I use IE, the temp internet cache directory is automatically created.
Only when I downloaded the demo server 2008 ISO from Microsoft did I have to point the temp internet folder to the c: drive since the ISO are approx 2 Gig. I also have "clear temp internet folder on exit" set on IE.

All in all, the Ramdisk is useful if it suits how you use the computer and what software you use.

loyukfai · #37 Post by **loyukfai** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:58 am

I do wonder if the swapfile is actually touched at all but anyway, I probably will keep this config until the next HDD upgrade, maybe it will be a spindle-type or SSD-type and that will affect the config scheme.

adrianaitken · #38 Post by **adrianaitken** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:39 am

Samsung have announced new 64 and 128 Gig SSD with a 256Gig by the end of the year.
Seems to use the 'slow' MLC chipset but reads 90M/s and writes at 70. That is way faster than curent MLC ones today !

begood2 · #39 Post by **begood2** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:57 am

Do not use RAMDisk it does the opposite effect, as the author of this thread intended.
I tried it and any memory allocated is taken from the 3GB OS allocation not 4GB physical. It will show as memory used in task manager, although not allocated to a specific process.
When I boot with 1GB Ramdisk, task manager put used memory at 1.6GB when I boot without it is 0.6.

Not only that, some applications (like IE & outlook) increases their absolute memory requirements as total memory increases, so the outcome of this hack is that the computer runs out memory quicker than if you only had 2GB of physical memory (because it has 2GB and behaves as if it has 3GB).

adrianaitken · #40 Post by **adrianaitken** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:23 am

begood2, did you use the same Ramdisk (by Gavotte) and did you use the PAE switch telling it to use the 'high' 1Gig that Windows can't normally use ?
I take it you are using a X61 series and not a X60 series laptop since that also is a requirement for PAE to work.

loyukfai · #41 Post by **loyukfai** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:03 am

adrianaitken wrote:Samsung have announced new 64 and 128 Gig SSD with a 256Gig by the end of the year.
Seems to use the 'slow' MLC chipset but reads 90M/s and writes at 70. That is way faster than curent MLC ones today !

Seems the speed increase is mainly brought by updated controller and firmware technology, instead of a significant improvement in MLC NAND.

See http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-slc-mlc-notes.html for more information.

artic_squirrel · #42 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:02 pm

adrianaitken wrote:begood2, did you use the same Ramdisk (by Gavotte) and did you use the PAE switch telling it to use the 'high' 1Gig that Windows can't normally use ?
I take it you are using a X61 series and not a X60 series laptop since that also is a requirement for PAE to work.

can you explain what is pae and when it is necessary to enable it ?

i do have the 1500M/3000M display problem in the task manager
(1500M instead of 500M)

and i enabled 1gig via gavotteramdisk

adrianaitken · #43 Post by **adrianaitken** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:52 pm

PAE = Physical Address Extension
If you goto Control Panel,System. It should say at the bottom 2.99Gig Ram then PAE.
With Gavotte's latest Ramdisk dated 1/1/08, there was a .Reg file. You needed to double click that and reboot. This only works with 4Gig of real RAM and setting the Ramdisk to 1Gig.

artic_squirrel · #44 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:46 am

ok i didn't have the latest version

but what this reg file do ?

isn't that just a lure ?

edit: and i can't go to hibernation mode anymore, because'' ramdisk driver ''prevent me from doinf it

adrianaitken · #45 Post by **adrianaitken** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:07 am

The reg file is just

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters]
"UsePAE"=dword:00000001

But you have to use the current Ramdisk (.sys version dated 3rd Jan 08)

My hibernation also doesn't work but I never use it anyway - there's another posting about my startup/shutdown times since I got a SSD. Startup from cold in under 20 seconds,shutdown in under 8 seconds.

basketb · #46 Post by **basketb** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:34 pm

I've been using this ram disk for nearly two months now on a T61p w/4GB without problems (other than hibernation not working, but that I can live with). However, today I received an Advanced Dock and other than the power the T61 would not recognize anything on the dock (e.g., didn't see the extra HD in the dock, or even give the "Undock Computer" option in the Start menu). After disabling the ram disk, the dock is now fully recognized. Oh well, it was fun using it as long as it lasted

.

loyukfai · #47 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:12 pm

Thanks for bringing me up to attention to this again... : )

I also found there seem to be some stability issues after setting up the ramdisk for IE cache, especially on the X41T, whereas IE just completely freezes from time to time... Maybe some compatibility issues but I cannot tell...

Anyway I've removed the ramdisk and move the IE cache back to the HDD... Tried using the SD card but the browsing experience is just pathetic... Probably because the SD's small write performance is also... Pathetic)

Below are some rough benchmarks... They're not carefully controlled so take with a heavy grain of salt...

Ramdisk

img]http://www.4freeimagehost.com/resized/d72aa40f1ed3.jpg[/img]

ADATA 150X SD card in X61T SD slot

img]http://www.4freeimagehost.com/resized/acbff30c768e.jpg[/img]

HDD

img]http://www.4freeimagehost.com/resized/fb43a30455db.jpg[/img]

adrianaitken · #48 Post by **adrianaitken** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:13 pm

blast from the past !!!!

I'm still running it on my X61 (4Gb, using high 1Gb) and my X60 (3Gb, using 1Gb of the standard RAM), XP SP3, IE7, all patches etc and have had no issues at all and I do like surfing

Anyone else using it and would like to chip in with their setup and any issues ?

Also,good to see the bench marks. I ran a program (can't remember which one but it's speed figures only showed upto 99,999 Mb/s (was 5 LCD style digits) and the Ramdisk overloaded it !!!

loyukfai · #49 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:20 pm

Ooops... The img tags have broken... Maybe I broke the images rules and a moderator helped me to remove them...? Should have used the text copy feature of CrystalDiskMark through.

To Gavotte Ramdisk's defense, I didn't do a careful study on what caused the IE freezes... They could have caused by other things... Although they did happen after using the ramdisk, it's possible that the fault lies somewhere else...

Anyway, I'm now thinking whether to try a SD card with faster small write performance for the IE cache... The Toshiba white card seems to be good... Read some places that its random write 4KB performance is >0.15x MB/s, while still slow even compared to the HDD, it's already 5 times the performance of the current card... And with the lower access time, maybe it can provide a more smooth browsing experience while the main disk is busy with something else...

One thing I worry through is that, whether the SD reader on the X4x and X6x series can handle the card and the speed, and if it will cause (too) high CPU usage...

http://hobby11.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/dc ... 4330828/22
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kentsfield/20080326

loyukfai · #50 Post by **loyukfai** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:53 pm

In case anybody is interested, below is the benchmark results on the X41T... Again, not really carefully controlled...

Note the high CPU usage, and faster write than read for the internal SD slot.

Ramdisk

Code: Select all

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.1 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
     Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

   Sequential Read :  871.200 MB/s
  Sequential Write :  494.939 MB/s
 Random Read 512KB :  873.813 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :  460.529 MB/s
   Random Read 4KB :   41.825 MB/s
  Random Write 4KB :   41.124 MB/s

         Test Size : 50 MB
              Date : 2008/08/23 23:56:23

Toshiba 2GB SD (Blue) in X41T SD slot

Code: Select all

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.1 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
      Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

   Sequential Read :    3.065 MB/s
  Sequential Write :    4.380 MB/s
 Random Read 512KB :    3.050 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :    1.286 MB/s
   Random Read 4KB :    2.346 MB/s
  Random Write 4KB :    0.025 MB/s

         Test Size : 50 MB
              Date : 2008/08/24 0:00:31

HD Tune:  Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 2.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 2.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 2.9 MB/sec
Access Time           : 0.5 ms
Burst Rate            : 2.8 MB/sec
CPU Usage             : 100.0%

ADATA 150X 2GB SD in X41T SD slot

Code: Select all

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.1 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
      Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

   Sequential Read :    3.065 MB/s
  Sequential Write :    4.808 MB/s
 Random Read 512KB :    3.050 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :    1.894 MB/s
   Random Read 4KB :    2.326 MB/s
  Random Write 4KB :    0.026 MB/s

         Test Size : 50 MB
              Date : 2008/08/24 0:08:01

HD Tune:  Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 2.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 2.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 2.9 MB/sec
Access Time           : 0.5 ms
Burst Rate            : 2.8 MB/sec
CPU Usage             : 97.7%

1.8" 40GB HDD

Code: Select all

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.1 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
      Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

   Sequential Read :   14.193 MB/s
  Sequential Write :   14.854 MB/s
 Random Read 512KB :   10.004 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :   10.860 MB/s
   Random Read 4KB :    0.237 MB/s
  Random Write 4KB :    0.562 MB/s

         Test Size : 50 MB
              Date : 2008/08/24 0:11:41

HD Tune: HTC426040G9AT00 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 19.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 15.0 MB/sec
Access Time           : 21.2 ms
Burst Rate            : 69.4 MB/sec
CPU Usage             : 4.2%

adrianaitken · #51 Post by **adrianaitken** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:27 am

Best resource for SD card performance is Rob Galbraiths site - he does CF and CD (for cameras admittedly but you get to see the different cards compared on similar spec machines) - http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_ ... =6007-8531 shows SD cards in a Nikon D80 camera. Sandisk are the leaders !!!!

loyukfai · #52 Post by **loyukfai** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:32 pm

Thanks for the link I'm aware of that resource...

However, like some other benchmarks, it doesn't seem to take into (much) consideration of small write operations... And so it's not a good indicator for my case.

Although it didn't seem to work out for me, this RAM disk program is indeed a good utility IMO, especially if you have >3GB of memory on a 32-bit platform... There seem to be other RAM disk programs out there but they're not free.

Cheers. : )

artic_squirrel · #53 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:46 am

loyukfai wrote:Just finished setting up on 2 boxes... X41T + XP and X61T + Vista...

X41T+XP 2GB RAM: 640MB RAM disk; 128-512MB pagefile; 50MB browser cache

X61T+Vista 3GB RAM: 1GB RAM disk; 256-768MB pagefile; 50MB browser cache

A few observations...

- Setup was easy; Uncompress and run "ramdisk.exe" (use "Run as administrator" under Vista); Click "Install" and wait; Then choose a size and drive letter, click "OK" and wait
- Move pagefile to the RAM disk
- Change the TEMP and TMP variables to the RAM disk
- Change the browser's cache folder to the RAM disk
- Reboot

- Had to configure Wallpaper Cycler to cycle once at logon; Because it stores the wallpaper in the TEMP folder and now it's lost when PC is reboot
- The speed improvement is quite noticeable, more so than installing eBoostr
- Hibernate and standby so far seems to work without problem
- Vista warns when the pagefile is set to below <200MB

hey loyukfai,

could you tell me what version do you use ? i cant go to hibernation mode

do you applied the patch for using PAE ?

can you upload your version on the web ?

thx

loyukfai · #54 Post by **loyukfai** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:51 am

artic_squirrel wrote: hey loyukfai,

could you tell me what version do you use ? i cant go to hibernation mode

do you applied the patch for using PAE ?

can you upload your version on the web ?

thx

IIRC, it's 1.0.4096.4. I don't have the program anymore, but you may download it from http://www.badongo.com/en/file/7601855 or http://ifile.it/2s9y6n4

I didn't enable install the PAE patch because my box has only 3GB of RAM. IIRC if you have >3GB of RAM, enabled the PAE patch, and used the extra memory for ramdisk, then the hibernate function will not work.

Hope this helps. : )

artic_squirrel · #55 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:30 am

yes it is good if i dont enable the pae

thx

loyukfai · #56 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:46 am

eBoostr has just announced a new public beta, which supports using the 3.25-4.00GB range for caching purpose.

http://beta.eboostr.com/news/announcing-version-4-beta/

What to do with 4Gig of RAM using XP 32bit

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