Ram drive - ever heard of this or used one?

[jbslow]

My uncle keeps telling me I should set up a Ram drive since I have 256 megs of ram *shrugg*. I have no clue what this is he says it makes the ram store more info so you sytem wount need to look in the HDD for the said info.

Anyone know what this is , if yes have you used it before is this even practical on the power house sytems of today?

[ken257]

Ram Disks, you know the last time I used one of them was back in the days of the 8088. I had one with 768k of ram but only 640k was usable by dos so I made a ramdisk with the rest. For most things today it is better to have the free system memory then use a ram disk. A ram disk is a chunk of your memory set aside to act like a hard drive, a real fast one at that! It will show up as a drive in your computer. This can be usefull for things that are very disk intensive, if you transfer the stuff to the ram disk it will speed things up a lot an example would be a scratch disk for photoshop.

[warlok]

ya way back in the day of the 8088xt...and even earlier the 8088pc...i had 640k mem card...i used to set a ram drive with the particular videogame i was using...inter galactic battles...it was called...the 5 1/4 drives were so slow to operate...i used dos and made the igb game bootable..and auto installed into the automatic ramdrive... i set up the disc like that so i didnt have to run the progs over and over...funny you mention that i was gonna set up windows in a ram drive after i got more ram...yes the whole wack of it...i think 1.5 gig ought to be enuff for that...anyways...i swear by ramdrive ... although im not sure how to set one up with win9x....grrrr i hate that virus...ramdrive is very usfull if you leave your computer on all the time...cause well it will decrease your opperating time...as what ever program you are using is already in mem...

[JigPu]

Ram drives are usefull in situations where you need something to read data off a drive quickly, or when you have so much data to read, it takes a long time. One solution for all us windows users is RamDisk98. They have a new version out called RamDisk2000 or something, but it should be essentialy be the same.

With RamDisk98, you can have it auto-backup the ramdisk to your hard drive every X seconds, and save an image automaticly on shutdown. With 256Mb of RAM, unless you run stuff REALLY memory intensive, I'd make one for something that could benifit from the extreme access times. At 512Mb, I don't see how you could EVER use up all that RAM running stuff.....

JigPu

[flaming gerbil]

i use a ram drive a lot for audio editing. a full sixteen to 24 track mix of audio can easily consume 1.5 gigs. right now due to my 815 chipset i'm limited to 512 megs of ram. i can only use the ram disk for stereo mixes. soon i'll be getting a dual proc system which allows 4 gigs of ram. i'll fill it up, that's how cool the ram disk is. example to load stereo mix with a raid hard drive set-up takes about 30 seconds with a ram drive about 3 seconds! note all of the applications are stored on my ramdrive. i haven't tried installing the os on the ramdrive, don't think it would be possible as you'd probably need windows in order for the ramdrive to be recongnized, anybody know?

[warlok]

flamin gerbil...that is a good idea...i never thought of using a ramdrive for recording...i think that just saved me oodles of time...it takes too long for the prog to add effects..etc...what prog do you use???and what sound card...i got to get a good one for recording

[flaming gerbil]

it works great, but there is a downside to consider. remember that ram is volatile memory, i.e. it loses all information once it's turned off. so each time you start your computer your ramdrive has to be reloaded. it's being stored on your hard drive. also the reverse is the same, if you want to save your information you have to wait for it to shut down. however, i think the speed boost you gain while editing is worth it. i just flip my computer on earlier than i normally would and shut down is no big deal: i'm usually going to sleep anyway. right now my ramdrive is about 256 megs and it takes a few minutes to load. i'm using a mark of the unicorn mk2 2408 as my main sound card and a turtle beach santa cruz for more mudane stuff. i've heard some really great sound cards recently though and am thinking about losing the 2408.

[warlok]

well i was trying to get away from sound blaster ...im told it is the best...and i believe it is for those people who dont "record albums"...but i think that is more of a general/videogame/stereo type sound card...i had a more special purpopse card in mind any thoughts on maybe the hercules...or other manufacturer i havent heard of ??? i use cool edit pro...for soft ware...i got this cakewalk program...700 frieken dollars...on the last computer it kept making my machine hang...cakewalk support said i had an irq problem with my sound card..i told them if it was an irq prob id have no sound..havent heard from them since...dont get cakewalk...it sux bad

[shy-boi]

anyone ever use a product called rocket drive (http://www.cenatek.com/rocketdrive2.html) ? its made by cenatek (http://www.cenatek.com/)


Mmmmm, rocket drive....drool:D

[warlok]

hye rocket drive looks cool enuff to buy...i think i will thanks

[JigPu]

WOW! I could actually USE my ramdrive! The audio mixing thing is a great idea! Sometimes, I try to open .wav files that are huge to edit with sound recorder (yeah, I know... but I only wanna hear it backwards, sped up, ect....). It takes forever to load anything over a minute long from disk.

About sticking windows on a ramdrive, you technically could if you managed to find some DOS software that supports imaging your ramdrive, auto-backup, and can deal with all the memory that windows will no doubt take up.

JigPu

[typhoonmike]

Yeah I'd like to use a RAMdrive but I just can't think of anything I could really use it for. I know some people manage to use it for games or something but not sure exactly how they do it. I'd love to be able to use it for something like Everquest to speed up zone times but I don't think I could possibly squeeze all that information into a RAMdrive. Of course if anyone has any ideas on it then let me know. Have 512mb in my computer so I have some to spare.

[warlok]

you can use a ram drive for almost anything...you got 512...so if you need windows virtual memory could be very very busy...you could use ram drive for say virus scanner...mbm5...sisoft...any of those things that are always running all the time would be good usage for ramdrive..id say...even your web browser..netscape...explorer or what ever...check it out and see...the posibilities are limitless :)
hey flaming gerbil you are right about the "instablility" of a ram drive...but hey..who shuts down there computer nowadays anyway..most of them just sleep

[flaming gerbil]

warlock, if your really interested in doing "record" quality recording, multiple tracks, etc. avoid the soundblaster, hercules, etc. these are consumer audio cards. they're great for playing back sound, but not for multiple track recording. the card i use is great, the motu, but it will set you back about $900. it's got 8 channels both in and out of balanced 24-bit convertors, 16 channels of optical ins and outs, headphone jack, stereo 24 bit main outs 4 channels of spdif digital out and 2 channels of spdif digital in. this is just an example of a higher end cards. you might want to look at cards made by echo, the lexicon core 2 is good (however i beleive it does no support direct x) and sonorus also makes good cards. these are in the mid-price range and will set you back from about $200-$400. you want to look for 24-bit convertors, 96khz sampling is nice but not necessary. (remeber a standard cd is 16 bit 44.1khz) balanced ins and outs, and a built in preamp is nice. hope it's enought to get you started.

[warlok]

thanks flaming gerbil...i never knew they made multi track sound cards...last time i recorded on my computer i just plugged into the pa sys...then from there to the stereo input of the sound blaster...no room for error this way...but it worked...as for multi tracking not that way either..i had to set the pan...active/passive eq's...multichannel effects...for the quality sound...it took about a dozen attempts before i got the balance of the vocals guitars etc set right for the recording...8 track input that is a dream...spending money is no real big deal..motu sounds like the deal for me...i dont suppose that the input/output jacks would be on a front pannel for this card ???or are they all behind the computer...now do you know if this card has any built in effects or do i have to use the ones on my program...speeking of programs for recording what do you use ???cakewalk sux...cool edit pro aint bad..at least it works...any sugestions there??? oh one more question...what company makes the motu card...or is the company name motu??? id like to check the spec's on this if possible...thanks

[flaming gerbil]

motu is short for "mark of the unicorn" which is the company that makes it. it comes with a pci card and a break-out box that attaches by firewire to the pci card. the break out box is rack mountable. also the pci card has 2 extra fire wire ports and simply add another break-out box for more ins and outs. it will accept up to three. the box without the card is around $500. therefore you could have up to 24 ins and outs plus 64 simultaneous digital ins and outs for about $2000. myself i have two adat rrecorders so i can hook up optically and use the convertors on my adats so with my one card i get 24 simultaneous ins and outs. the card has an adat sync port so you can transfer digital copies from adat to the computer. it also has word clock input to sync with digital mixers, and other digital devices that can accept word clock. also it has tascam tdif ports to sync with tascam mdms. pretty sweet! also check out their new box it has for preamps with phantom power and 8 channels of ins and outs. these preamps will be way better than what is available on your p.a. system so you may want to go this route. note this card does not have the optical connectors but you probably don't need them anyways. high quality preamps are very important for multi-tracking. remember for each track the sound degradation multiplies so once you get to 24 tracks all the sound degradation compiles and the tracks that once sounded great to you don't so great anymore. this is why high-bit rates and good preamps are important. myself i use rack-mountable external preamps that i then plug into the motu. i paid $1000 for only two channels of tube preamps! and this is the lower end! you can still do very good recordings with less though. i use "logic audio" and "cubase" as my recording software. the motu does come with a great audio sequencer but it only works with mac. good luck, let me know how it goes.

[warlok]

hey cool...i used cubase a little and it seem quite the unit...user friendly so to speek..for those of us who have an idea about that stuff anyway..yip motu...that is the route...i assume your price comes from state side ??? if so i can mark up another 60% but that is no biggy for me :)...as far as tascam...well i used tascam 8 track casette recorders and found it to be quite formidable...and yes you are correct about the multi track "recording distortion"...low quality if you will...however in my experience..if you are not doing lots of bouncing with the tracks then this lower quality ratio is almost nonexistant...and as for myself i only need 4 tracks to succeed with my task..but 8 tracks is the way to go without the bouncing :)as far as my pa sys...well i dont get any amp cliping until 100 watts into 8ohms...for each internal amp...(there are two stereo amps)...and into 4 ohms 160 watts before amp clipping starts...i never use output power from the pa though..just active/passive eq...and of course input gains...thanks again sir i really apreciate the info...