Win 7 Ready Boost advice

ExpressCard 2.5GB/s against SATA 150MB/s. That means that and ExpressCard drive will always be faster than any internal drive! So, I could buy an ExpressCard SSD/Flash and use it instead of my internal HDD, even for my OS, right? And I could also reserve a little 6GB portion for readyboost? Right? Cool! I can completely substitute my HDD with an ExpressCard… didn't know!

ExpressCard 2.5GB/s against SATA 150MB/s. That means that and ExpressCard drive will always be faster than any internal drive!

to be honest i don't know for sure exactly what speed you'll get from your express card slot , i think the 2.5Gbs is the theoretical max, but the speed you actually get may depend on other things inside the pc (it'll also depend on the speed of the express card ssd, i think internal ssd's may have a lot faster read/write speeds) so it may be you get exactly the same speed from that connection as you get from your internal sata connection or in a worst case scenario even slower.

So, I could buy an ExpressCard SSD/Flash and use it instead of my internal HDD, even for my OS, right?

don't see why not.

And I could also reserve a little 6GB portion for readyboost? Right?

don't know but digerati said readyboost is turned off if the os is installed on an ssd (think that's what he said/meant anyway.) and i can understand why that would happen, because i doubt there'd be any speed gains of using readyboost reading from external medium than just reading the info from the ssd would offer, unlike if you had a slow mechanical hard drive and a fast usb3 connection with a flash drive connected used for the readyboost, then this may offer you some slight speed advantages.

like i said before not 100% sure exactly what readyboost is or how the os makes best use of the feature, from what digerati and ztruker have said tho, i wouldn't be thinking it's going to give you any speed gains that just using the ssd alone ( either express card or internal ) is going to give you.

i think i'd leave the os on the internal hard drive and test readyboost on the express card ssd (if possible) and then put the os on the express card ssd and run some more tests, i think you'd find the os on the express card ssd with no readyboost would offer you the best speed, but just so you know this is all total speculation and guess work on my part, i have no actual experience or any test results to back up my thinking.



i also edited my ssd link to a different one in my previous post just in case you missed it.

don't forget first thing is always make good backups/images of everything, os/programs/data. images are especially good speed wise for restoring everything, and you could always put the image of your old hd onto the new internal ssd ( if that's the way you go and as long as it's large enough ) and be up and running with the laptop exactly as it was before installing the internal ssd but now only faster.

So, I could buy an ExpressCard SSD/Flash and use it instead of my internal HDD, even for my OS, right?

Does your BIOS allow you to boot through the ExpressCard port? Notebooks are not near as flexible as PCs as they are very proprietary (and Sony a leader in that area) and like things they way they come out of the box. I am not sure I would try booting from an expresscard connected drive on a notebook.

Do you use this notebook as a portable computer? I don't know of any road warrior who wants to lug around another device (and maybe power supply) - especially through security.

ExpressCard 2.5GB/s against SATA 150MB/s. That means that and ExpressCard drive will always be faster than any internal drive!

Well, in theory - but only because the specs for that notebook (that I can find) only say "SATA", and not SATA II (3Gbit/sec), or SATA III (6Gbit/sec). Plus the internal drive, like many notebooks, is only a 5400RPM drive - not known for speed but used for longer battery life.

Also, there are two types of ExpressCards, USB and PCIe. And I am pretty sure the PCIe version is via the PCIe x1 stot - and that tops out at 250Mbit/sec.

Frankly, it sounds like you are trying to bring your aging notebook up to current standards and notebooks just don't let you do it. If you've maxed out your RAM and you are still not satisfied with the performance, adding a ReadyBoost drive or some external drive is not going to satisfy your needs. It may appease you for a couple days, but once the placebo affect is gone, any extra gains will still be small.

If you need mobility, you need a new notebook. If not, you need a new PC. There is just no substitution for real RAM - and lots of it - running in dual or triple channel mode in a 64-bit environment at full CPU bus speeds.

I think it is important to remember that today's computing environment is very much (and more and more) "cloud based", and getting less and less disk based. And today's computing environment is very graphics oriented too. The more capable your graphics solution (GPU horsepower and dedicated graphics RAM) the more tasks your CPU can hand off to the graphics solution and it takes very little horsepower to hand off tasks. So for most computer users, the majority of the data processed by our computers comes via our network connection, not our drives and a very large percentage of our computing horsepower is consumed crunching graphics data - and not for reading and writing to disks.

Your Sony has a limited amount of RAM, and a large chunk of that has been stolen for use by the graphics solution. There's your biggest bottleneck and limiting ceiling you can never get past with that notebook. Sorry, but that's what shelves in the basement are for - to hold perfectly good but old, obsolete electronics.

Do you use this notebook as a portable computer? I don't know of any road warrior who wants to lug around another device (and maybe power supply) - especially through security.

not sure if you've ever seen an express card ssd digerati but there's a pic of one installed in a mac book pro in this link :- http://www.macworld.com/article/1145185/mbpssdcard.html
as you can see it makes no difference to the laptops outline.

must admit like you tho, my first choice would be a new laptop but if he's happy then an ssd is definitely the way to go.



speeds of expresscard slot :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

480 Mbit/s (USB 2 mode)
5.0 Gbit/s (USB 3 mode)
2.5 Gbit/s (PCI Express mode)

not sure if you've ever seen an express card ssd digerati but there's a pic of one installed in a mac book pro :- http://www.macworld.com/article/1145185/mbpssdcard.html
as you can see it makes no difference to the laptops outline.

Right. But that is just an interface and I understand you can just leave it inserted all the time and still stuff the notebook in a travel case. But you still need to then lug around and pack a drive of some sort. Now I understand there are some very small portable storage devices so it is not like lugging around full sized 5lb external drive enclosure but it is still another device to keep track of while on the road. Not a problem for many - but for many it is.

Right. But that is just an interface and I understand you can just leave it inserted all the time and still stuff the notebook in a travel case. But you still need to then lug around and pack a drive of some sort. Now I understand there are some very small portable storage devices so it is not like lugging around full sized 5lb external drive enclosure but it is still another device to keep track of while on the road. Not a problem for many - but for many it is.

don't think you understand digerati, that is not just an interface, that is it full stop. that's the ssd drive itself inserted into the laptop there is nothing else to carry around.

My apologies. I'm awake and following now.

i quite liked the old express card slot's they were so versatile, but you just don't see them any more and the price for the hardware was way expensive just because people never used them. personally i'd get in order of preference a new laptop, an internal ssd, an express card ssd. the internal is going to be way way cheaper and have more space than what you could probably get an express card ssd for, but the express card is so so much simpler to install. your concern over booting is a good one tho, and if it's not available to boot from the bios i'd think there'd still be a way to boot the internal hard drive and hand off to the ssd at a slightly later stage.

I toyed with this idea myself for my laptop not long ago (has an express card slot), but considered the potential problems / cost / heat issues (and everything that involves) and decided that to own a fast horse, it's wise to buy one, as trying to turn a donkey into one inevitably results in a mule Cheers, Lee

Guys, THANKS! Your posts are really a wealth of precious info for me and whoever will read them. I am glad that I was pointed here as I am getting so much juice from every thread which I posted that I can't believe how I never came across this forum before! It's not only the quality of the replies that helps, but the speed and - more surprisingly - the interest which are remarkable! I'm really curious: how many members/guests does this forum list? And how many of them are "senior" or "habitual" posters?

@ digerati and Terry1966 - THANKS ! Your exchange has basically really cleared my mind. I'll drop the Readyboost idea and go with the SSD. Now all I need to check is my BIOS.

This thread might need to be moved into different section of forum as now we're getting very much into HW, pls advice. 1) @ digerati, BTW: - Terry1966 is right about Express Card and PCMCIA card. Both can actually SSD/Flash drives & sit flush inside their sockets. - My HDD is SATA 150 (So I guess SATA 1). POINT 2) @ digerati & Terry1966: So, which will be faster in real life use? Internal SSD on SATA1 or an Express Card SSD?. POINT 3) I checked my BIOS: - I set all connectors/boot options to ALLOW before internal HDD. - Reboot w/ Memory Card (SD) inside ExpressCard adapter. - BIOS went through PXE (v 2.1) - Yukon card PXE v. [removed] - This gave 2 lines error message: >>> PXE - E61 Media Test Failure - check cable >>> PXE - MOF Exit PXE ROM - System froze & I had to power OFF/ON. - Removed all expansion devices (including express card) - Reboot - Same PXE message flashed (1 second) but then OS came up, normally. From this info, do you think that my BIOS boot from Express Card? It certainly detects the media in it, since it gets stuck if it doesn't find a proper media (or OS). What do you think? BTW, just FYI, the reason why I don't replace my laptop is bcs I like to wear things down until either defunct or new requirements come up, to justify spending for the best money can buy when I chose.

point 2:- i really don't know without testing ( would lean towards the express card as the faster tho. ) but would think the difference wouldn't be noticeable in real terms unlike going from a slow mechanical hard drive to an ssd hard drive, don't forget the ssd you use needs to be capable of read/write speeds equal to/greater than the connection to maximise potential, so i think the biggest factor would be what are the speeds of the express card ssd you can buy compared to the internal ssd.

size/price could also be a big factor, i've only seen express card ssd's up to 128GB where as the internal can be much larger for less money, also if you do update at a later time, the internal could also be used on a newer laptop/pc where as i doubt a newer laptop would have an express card slot.

point 3:- pxe is not your express card, it's to boot the device over a network so is using your internet connection port.

i always disable pxe boot option on my pc's.

this link explains it better. :- https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showt…ure-check-cable

will it boot from the express card? i really don't know , but the option is either going to be under hard drives (if the device plugged in is seen as a hard drive.) or under removable media or something like it.

also just because it may boot from your sd card doesn't mean it will boot from an ssd drive, the express card ssd drive may need drivers to be installed ( unlike an internal ssd ) before it will work, some do some don't.

@ digerati & Terry1966: So, which will be faster in real life use? Internal SSD on SATA1

Can you physically mount a SSD internally? SSDs and HDs are not the same physical size. You would need some sort of mechanical adapter.