Ram drive?

JackNSally · 06-17-09, 01:42 PM

I am currently running 8 gigs of ram and would like to start using a ram drive. Anyone have any recommendations on what program to use? I would prefer something that is free/open source but it doesn't have to be.

Chris_F · 06-17-09, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackNSally

I am currently running 8 gigs of ram and would like to start using a ram drive. Anyone have any recommendations on what program to use? I would prefer something that is free/open source but it doesn't have to be.

What OS do you have?

Jon · 06-17-09, 02:48 PM

I tried a few from here a while back. There was one available from Cenatek that was quite nice, but I can't hit their site any longer.

JackNSally · 06-17-09, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris_F

What OS do you have?

XP X64

hangten · 06-18-09, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackNSally

I am currently running 8 gigs of ram and would like to start using a ram drive. Anyone have any recommendations on what program to use? I would prefer something that is free/open source but it doesn't have to be.

http://www.dataram.com/products-and-services/ramdisk

This works like a charm.
I have it set for 2.5GB out of my 6. plan to get more ram on my
EVGA X58 for a total of 12GB. 32GB seems way crazy "Using its 50 nm technology, Samsung has made the world’s first 4 Gb DDR3 DRAM chip. "We have leveraged our strength in innovation to develop the first 4Gb DDR3, in leading the industry to higher DRAM densities," said Kevin Lee, vice president, technical marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc." This was posted in January 2009!

Foolios · 09-29-09, 08:32 PM

How much better performance have you experienced by putting your pagefile onto a ramdisk?

I saw the DataRam Ramdisk. Looks interesting.
http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk

But what is this?
http://www10.atwiki.jp/gavotterd/

I had been wanting to use a ram disk for pagefiling for like forever but didnt know it was being done. I am really surprised that after doing a search that there isn't more interest in this. Is there any experience doing this, or is it that this is no longer needed?

Thanks in advance.

hansen · 10-03-09, 08:52 AM

Putting the pagefile onto a ram-drive won't do any good. You just take away usable ram from the OS.

The exception is if you are using a crippled Windows that doesn't go above 4GB and you have more RAM than that. Using RAM above 4GB for the pagefile will speed it up.

Foolios · 10-04-09, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hansen

Putting the pagefile onto a ram-drive won't do any good. You just take away usable ram from the OS.

The exception is if you are using a crippled Windows that doesn't go above 4GB and you have more RAM than that. Using RAM above 4GB for the pagefile will speed it up.

What is a crippled Windows? You mean like how XP only uses 4gb, but xp can't use over 4gb right? How do you have a crippled xp then, would seem that all xp are crippled...

But what about Vista? I use Vista and have 4gb of memory. I believe I can put 8gb onto this motherboard, so maybe I should upgrade the memory and test out the ramdrive pagefile. But does Vista still use a pagefile?

hansen · 10-04-09, 04:16 PM

32bit XP/Vista/Win7 cannot use mroe than 4GB because Microsoft made it that way (this is purely a software restriction). Some ram drive software supports memory above 4G, on which you can then place your pagefile.

denz_1 · 10-04-09, 04:56 PM

^ Its not a software restriction, its a restriction made by the fact its 32bit which means its can only address 4gbs, but you can often only see 3.25,3.5,3.75 because the memory bandwidth is being taken up by other things on the bus.

hansen · 10-04-09, 05:12 PM

That is a common misunderstanding. 32bit systems can easily address more than 4GB

amer1337 · 10-04-09, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hansen

That is a common misunderstanding. 32bit systems can easily address more than 4GB

with or without PAE ?

hansen · 10-04-09, 06:32 PM

Yes, PAE is one of those addressing modes. PAE is supported by Windows and is what gives a ram drive easy access to memory above 4G.

amer1337 · 10-04-09, 08:17 PM

do you still get the same performance of say a 64bit os using 4gb as opposed to a 32bit os with PAE using 4gb ?

Airbornederekc · 10-04-09, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hansen

That is a common misunderstanding. 32bit systems can easily address more than 4GB

I am sorry to say but you are severely mistaken on this part.

A 32-bit address register meant that 2 (power of)32 addresses, or 4 GB of RAM, could be referenced

The emergence of the 64-bit architecture effectively increases the memory ceiling to 2(power of)64 addresses, equivalent to approximately 17.2 billion gigabytes, 16.8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM.

it is not easy by any means to get more than 4gb out of a 32 bit OS.

Bobnova · 10-04-09, 11:21 PM

It may or may not be easy, but it is done in 32bit server OS (including windows) situations, PAE is one way (if i remember correctly XP32 even has PAE built in but turned off).

64bit processing increases performance (with 64bit os and software, obviously) by 5-10%, and allows very easy access to >4gb ram.
So no, you don't get 64bit performance in 64bit apps. In 32bit apps i would imagine performance is about the same.

hansen · 10-05-09, 12:32 AM

#15 It does not matter how much a register can hold. Windows is running in paging mode, and thus the physical address is located in a data structure hold in memory. This structure can easily be more than 32 bits wide.

#16 The PAE kernel is there. And since XP/SP2 it is loaded by default.

Bobnova · 10-05-09, 10:51 AM

Loaded and unused i guess. That's annoying.

Not that i've ever used even close to the 3gb of ram i actually get to use in xp32, but it's the principle of the thing!

One thing that i've done with a ramdrive that i really like is locate the firefox cache on it (ubuntu has a ramdrive folder by default). If you're a folding type person you never reboot (or rarely) so the cache doesn't get flushed often, and loading pages from a ramdrive cache is fast, essentially instant really.
If you do reboot then firefox has to re-download everything of course.
I haven't worked out how to add a step in the shutdown process to copy the ramdrive to the HDD, and then load it back up when it starts.
That might actually be easier in XP, i think there's a shutdown script somewhere.

hansen · 10-05-09, 11:01 AM

If you choose the right ram drive software it will save the content for you and reload it on next reboot.

ratbuddy · 10-05-09, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hansen

If you choose the right ram drive software it will save the content for you and reload it on next reboot.

Have any suggestions?

06-17-09, 01:42 PM	Thread Starter #1
JackNSally Join Date: May 2005	Ram drive? I am currently running 8 gigs of ram and would like to start using a ram drive. Anyone have any recommendations on what program to use? I would prefer something that is free/open source but it doesn't have to be.
	QUOTE Thanks

06-17-09, 02:48 PM	#3
Jon Just Another Retired Moderator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Lawrenceville, GA	I tried a few from here a while back. There was one available from Cenatek that was quite nice, but I can't hit their site any longer. __________________ theHTPC.net CheapCritic.com
	QUOTE Thanks

09-29-09, 08:32 PM	#6
Foolios Member Join Date: May 2006	How much better performance have you experienced by putting your pagefile onto a ramdisk? I saw the DataRam Ramdisk. Looks interesting. http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk But what is this? http://www10.atwiki.jp/gavotterd/ I had been wanting to use a ram disk for pagefiling for like forever but didnt know it was being done. I am really surprised that after doing a search that there isn't more interest in this. Is there any experience doing this, or is it that this is no longer needed? Thanks in advance.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-03-09, 08:52 AM	#7
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	Putting the pagefile onto a ram-drive won't do any good. You just take away usable ram from the OS. The exception is if you are using a crippled Windows that doesn't go above 4GB and you have more RAM than that. Using RAM above 4GB for the pagefile will speed it up.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-04-09, 04:16 PM	#9
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	32bit XP/Vista/Win7 cannot use mroe than 4GB because Microsoft made it that way (this is purely a software restriction). Some ram drive software supports memory above 4G, on which you can then place your pagefile.
	QUOTE Thanks

Ram drive?

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10-04-09, 04:56 PM	#10
denz_1 Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Hamilton NewZealand!!	^ Its not a software restriction, its a restriction made by the fact its 32bit which means its can only address 4gbs, but you can often only see 3.25,3.5,3.75 because the memory bandwidth is being taken up by other things on the bus.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-04-09, 05:12 PM	#11
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	That is a common misunderstanding. 32bit systems can easily address more than 4GB
	QUOTE Thanks

10-04-09, 06:32 PM	#13
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	Yes, PAE is one of those addressing modes. PAE is supported by Windows and is what gives a ram drive easy access to memory above 4G.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-04-09, 08:17 PM	#14
amer1337 Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Long Island, NY	do you still get the same performance of say a 64bit os using 4gb as opposed to a 32bit os with PAE using 4gb ? __________________ Intel i2500k // CoolerMaster 212+ Asus P8P67 16GB Geil Corsa DDR3 XFX HD6870 2x WD BLACK 640GB // Raid 0 Corsair 600W
	QUOTE Thanks

10-04-09, 11:21 PM	#16
Bobnova Air Superiority Senior Member Benching Team Leader Join Date: May 2009 Location: Humboldt	It may or may not be easy, but it is done in 32bit server OS (including windows) situations, PAE is one way (if i remember correctly XP32 even has PAE built in but turned off). 64bit processing increases performance (with 64bit os and software, obviously) by 5-10%, and allows very easy access to >4gb ram. So no, you don't get 64bit performance in 64bit apps. In 32bit apps i would imagine performance is about the same. __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." -- Einstein (maybe) How to check your PSU with a multimeter. 17bXw5t51rEBXGavJFMJsC8g7HQgThUGc7 Heatware.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-05-09, 12:32 AM	#17
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	#15 It does not matter how much a register can hold. Windows is running in paging mode, and thus the physical address is located in a data structure hold in memory. This structure can easily be more than 32 bits wide. #16 The PAE kernel is there. And since XP/SP2 it is loaded by default.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-05-09, 10:51 AM	#18
Bobnova Air Superiority Senior Member Benching Team Leader Join Date: May 2009 Location: Humboldt	Loaded and unused i guess. That's annoying. Not that i've ever used even close to the 3gb of ram i actually get to use in xp32, but it's the principle of the thing! One thing that i've done with a ramdrive that i really like is locate the firefox cache on it (ubuntu has a ramdrive folder by default). If you're a folding type person you never reboot (or rarely) so the cache doesn't get flushed often, and loading pages from a ramdrive cache is fast, essentially instant really. If you do reboot then firefox has to re-download everything of course. I haven't worked out how to add a step in the shutdown process to copy the ramdrive to the HDD, and then load it back up when it starts. That might actually be easier in XP, i think there's a shutdown script somewhere. __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." -- Einstein (maybe) How to check your PSU with a multimeter. 17bXw5t51rEBXGavJFMJsC8g7HQgThUGc7 Heatware.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-05-09, 11:01 AM	#19
hansen Member Join Date: Oct 2007	If you choose the right ram drive software it will save the content for you and reload it on next reboot.
	QUOTE Thanks

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