Performance increase using SSD for paging/fetch/cache or ReadyBoost? (Win7)

Question

Hi, Have an extra 16gb SATA SSD and looking for a means of adding performance to my PC.  It would be helpful for me to free up 16gb from the main drive if possible, or perhaps speed up the system by a notch or so. Was thinking I might be able to move the paging (fetch? cache?) files to the spare SSD to increase main drive space, or designate the spare ssd as a readyboost device for a slight speed boost. Any suggestions?

SYSTEM HW/OS

Main c:\drive is gen2 Intel 160Gb SSD

Data drive is a traditional 7200rpm SATA2 drive

i7-870 CPU, 8GB of uber-fast RAM

Running Windows7 Ultimate 64bit

Also have a zippy patriot 16gb USB drive that I used to use as a readyboost device before I switched to a SSD -- any thoughts on how to make this useful?

Answer 1

Hi,

Increasing the paging file size can help prevent low memory problems, it can also make your programs run more slowly. Because your computer reads information from RAM much faster than from a hard disk (where the paging file is), making too much virtual memory         .

Ready boost is also a good option, but we need to make sure that the SSD card is compatible with Ready boost.  The core idea of Ready Boost is that a flash drive has a much faster seek time (less than 1 ms), allowing it to satisfy requests faster than a hard disk when booting or reading certain system files. It also leverages the inherent advantage of two parallel sources from which to read data.

You may also have a look into the links below:

Windows Ready Boost

Ready Boost Compatibility

Ways to improve your computer's performance

Let us know if that helps.

Regards,

Chethan Kumar.

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Microsoft Answers Support Engineer. Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 2

PREMISE/ASSUMPTIONS

all SSD drives that I know of (including Generation1 SSDs) have a 1ms or less access time, sequential read speed (similarly) is extremely fast (let's say an average speed of 225mb/s seq read). If we assume an averageready-boost capable USB drive comparatively has ~8.5mb writes and ~31.5mb reads, then SSDs should be faster in every case - and thus be disabled when using a ssd? (please let me know if there is an error to this logic)

BACKGROUND

As I understand it, readyboost is useful in speeding up systems with amounts of RAM near the stated Win7 minimum by using USB Flash memory as a type of cache for frequently accessed files with the understanding that access times and sequential reads are faster from USB flash than from traditional spinning hard drives (albiet slower than from RAM). To be forthright, I really don't understand the difference in Windows caches (superfetch, readyboost, pagefile).

QUESTION

So the questions(s) I am curious in getting answered is: in a Win7 x64 system with 12gb ram and main/OS drive=256gb gen2 SSD, and a data drive=traditional 7200rpm sata2,

• Will running ReadyBoost with the given amount of RAM be helpful or hindrance?
• Would it be a hindrance to the above system to attempt to run ReadyBoost off a USB, seeing as OS (SSD) drive speeds are far faster?
• Is it possible (via registry setting change) to run ReadyBoost off an (internal) SSD drive instead of a removable media device? Would doing so be helpful?

(let's say there is an extra 16gb SSD laying around that could be purposed for this if helpful)

NOTES

I appreciate your consideration in helping to clear up my lack of understanding. As a scientist, I can ask some pretty painfully complex and detailed questions. if I have asked something unknowable, any analysis you can provide will be welcome. Thank you.

Answer 3

i know that ReadyBoost was not designed to take advantage of an installed SSD drive.

ReadyBoost is designed to store frequently needed data on a flash-based USB device. The cache in encrypted with a key that changes with each boot of Windows. Because the cache is encrypted with a session-based key: the cached data cannot be used between reboots; nor can it be used to speed up booting, or aid SuperFetch as the user is logging on. (The cache is encrypted because USB sticks can be easily removed, while internal hard drives cannot be easily removed).

i know i can manually place a paging file on the SSD drive. i know i could manually page Photoshop's scratch files on the SSD drive. But Windows knows what data i frequently access (SuperFetch, ReadyBoot), and can place that cache on a Solid State Drive.

Does Windows 7 have any capabilities to take advantage of an SSD drive (an internal drive, without the concern of being easily or commonly removed) so that the user can have a better experience from boot to usable session?

Does Windows 7 have the ability to use use the benefits of SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, and ReadyBoost to take advantage of an SSD drive as a cache location, using it similar to ReadyDrive - but as a separate device?

tl;dr: Will ReadyBoost not encrypt itself on an internal drive?

tl;dr: How can i make SuperFetch use SSD for additional cache?

Answer 4

I read here that "hardware manufacturers" can disable encryption on "internal, non-removable ReadyBoost devices": http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff356869.aspx

I also find the particular setting here, for unattended setup:

http://207.46.16.252/en-us/library/ff715772(WS.10).aspx

It specifies an "EnableEncryption" key which defines whether ReadyBoost on internal non-removable devices are encrypted.  Unfortunately it defaults to "true".

However, I haven't been able to find out where I might be able to change the same setting on an already-installed system.  It doesn't appear to be in Local Group Policy, and I haven't been able to find something like it in the registry either.  If someone can point to where this setting might be changed, it would be really helpful.

Answer 5

I can't imagine that as you have 8GB of RAM that using readyboost will make one iota of difference to performance...