RAM disk or cache?

Dec 06, 2007 4 Replies

Anyone using a RAM disk or disk cache of some type to improve IO operations with SW on XP? Vista ReadyBoost doesn't count, for so many reasons.


I would suspect that if you installed a RAM disk and set the registry option to tear down the cache on shut down this would work real nice. I have wanted to try a RAM disk for non-linear FEA for many years.

TOP

TOP wrote in news:e6cc2192-768e-40a0-818b-b2aabb2044a7 @y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

What is this registry option? It wipes Windows' disk cache? I've never heard of that.

I did find a couple free ones that might be useful for testing before investing in more memory and fully featured RAM disks:

formatting link
formatting link
Fully featured trialware:
formatting link
Interesting alternative to RAM disk:
formatting link
I was hoping someone could report some experience with something like these, but I guess I'll have to come up with my own experience. Hopefully I can get some meaningful information with only 2GB of RAM.

Any suggestions for things to test? The IO score from SPECapc SW2007 seems obvious. Is there a way to time my own load and save times without using a stopwatch or writing my own macro?

TIA

"Some users think that because they have a large virtual memory, it will allow them to make a large RAMDisk. These people should not play with sharp objects for a multitude of reasons." - Cenatech RamDisk configuration instructions

That registry setting is found somewhere in MSofts KB. I don't recall where, I just look it up when I need it. It does slow down logging out. It is there for security because after you log off there is a copy of many things you were doing in the cache.

You might find it on a tweakers forum too.

TOP

Ah yes, now I know what you mean. I ran across it several times while I was hunting around. There seems to be a lot of interest in using RAM disks to accelerate and eliminate temp files, especially for browsers. I'm only interested in I/O performance, so I was trying to figure out how wiping the cache would help performance. Oops.

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