Vista ReadyBoost may be ready but is it boosting?
We have been all over trying to enhance the performance of Vista on our mobile PCs here at jkOnTheRun and if you look around you’ll find all kind of things we’ve done, some successful and some not so much. One of the new features of Windows Vista is the ReadyBoost feature that uses external memory like a USB flash drive to cache stuff and speed up your system. I have tried ReadyBoost on the Fujitsu P1610 and on an HP tc1100 Tablet PC and quite frankly I’ve never seen a performance enhancement and I couldn’t understand what all the hoopla was about. According to PC World it’s no surprise that I haven’t seen what the big deal is because according to their analysis ReadyBoost is another of those "looks good on paper" technologies that falls short on delivery.
Windows Vista’s Windows ReadyBoost sounds too good to betrue, and based on our extensive lab tests, it is. The technology promises tolet you speed up Windows by plugging an inexpensive USB flash drive into yourPC. But we found that while ReadyBoost may speed up Vista a tiny bit, it canalso slow it down in some instances.
Their findings match my own experience trying to get a boost from ReadyBoost. In my case I used a couple of SanDisk Cruzer "enhanced for ReadyBoost" 2 GB USB drives.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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If you have a fast enough hard disk drive you get lesser results. But if you have a 4200 rpm 1.8″ disk drive, like that found in a LE1600, you really see the Boost from Ready Boost.
And of course benchmarks are only artificial tests. My LE1600 is like a new machine and that’s what counted for me.
Almost forgot, where are the battery boost tests? I’ve noticed my LE1600 hard disk doesn’t spin up as often with Ready Boost.
I noticed a slow down while using a 1GB Sandisk memory stick on my UX280P. Not the “boost” I was looking for.
Well, I haven’t run any benchmark tests, but I felt like my UX280 was running a little faster with the memory stick. Plan to try it with the p1610 and an SD card, but maybe it is TOO good to be true.
well after comming out of sleep – readyboost takes about 3-5 min. to re-sync where my disc runs intensivly
From a clean battery that is a difference on my X60t
After boot without readyboost – 96% battery left when all software is loaded.
With readyboost after readyboost finishes 89% power left. So I loose 7% using readyboost.
for more read my post : http://kaz911.blogspot.com/2007/04/windows-vista-power-hungry-monster.html
I have tried at least 6 different SD cauls in the P1610. None of them work – I believe the SD drive is not fast enough for ReadyBoost.
I goy ReadyBoost to work in the SD slot of my P1610 by using a Kingston 1GB Micro SD in an adapter, a tip I got over on the leog forum. Two keys: it HAS to be 1GB, the 2GB doesn’t work (I’ve tried), and it has to be a card made in Japan. But it absolutely DOES work. Now, as to whether it HELPS, well, I just can’t tell!
From the tinkering I’ve done I only really noticed a huge difference when I’ve had at least a 1:1 ratio of flash to RAM. Anything less than that does not seem to help much, if at all.
I think I will hold out for the 64gig SSDs