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

I think that people are missing the point.  He's asking the question, "How best to use my 2nd drive, which is a 16GB SSD." 

While its true that you don't need ReadyBoost if your OS/Applications drive is an SSD, ReadyBoost CAN be useful to speed up your slow OS/Applications HDD (spinning drive). 

In fact, I just started a job, where my work PC has fast CPU, 8GB memory, but a fairly slow HD.  Upgrading the HD is not really an option at this point.   

To speed it up, I bought a 120GB Samsung 830 SSD, and hooked it up using eSATA to my work PC.  When I plugged it in, it prompted me if I wanted to use ReadyBoost on my external eSATA SSD.  I said yes, and allocated 32GB initially, which I've dropped to 20GB. 

ReadyBoost on the eSATA SSD has helped the slow main HDD a lot.  Visual Studio 2010 now launches in 1 second, versus 4 or 5 seconds before. 

I'm exploring whether I should move my pagefile.sys to the SSD also.  Haven't done it yet.  But, bottom line, don't be afraid to hook up an extra SSD to your system as a 2nd drive, and enable ReadyBoost.

Answer 2

Have you updated the ssd firmare? the latest provides a boost

There are other ssd's that provide significantly better performance in large file read/writes

Are you actually seeing any real world performance increase when working with data, or is this simply a lab test exercise?

16gb readyboost is not going to make one iota of difference

Answer 3

if you want fast ,raid o two same sise ssd`s . or use a ram drive .