[expert][tip] Using a RAMdisk to speed up your HDD - and/or reduce SSD trashing

[Nosada]

Thanks for the info, but I have an instant question:

Is it possible to make a ramdisk, install something on it and have it write the files to disk on shutdown? Imagine you could install a game on there, have it load from HD to ramdisk on boot, and be able to use it like that, without having to reinstall every time?

I've been looking for a solution like this for a long time, this would do WONDERS for constantly loading games like MMO's.

 

[Mussels]

Thanks for the info, but I have an instant question:

Is it possible to make a ramdisk, install something on it and have it write the files to disk on shutdown? Imagine you could install a game on there, have it load from HD to ramdisk on boot, and be able to use it like that, without having to reinstall every time?

I've been looking for a solution like this for a long time, this would do WONDERS for constantly loading games like MMO's.

i said this a few posts ago, some of the softwares do exactly that - they move the data to a HDD on shutdown, and restore it on powerup.

 

[Nosada]

i said this a few posts ago, some of the softwares do exactly that - they move the data to a HDD on shutdown, and restore it on powerup.

>.<; ... don't mind me, I'm old, deaf, blind and senile

/goes out to buy more RAM

 

[Mussels]

here you go

 

[lemonadesoda]

Be aware that most modern games are massive and probably wont fit on your ramdisk... unless you have a 16GB machine and allocated 8GB to the ramdisk...

I you want to speed up your game load times... google a bit. Depending on the engine there are tricks. Games normally compress their map data, so not only is the PC loading the data of HDD, it also has to decompress it. With Quake engines... you can actually "unzip" the game data manually. The game takes about 2-3x as much HDD space... but the load times are very very fast esp. if your games are on a separate partition that you keep defragmented.

@mussels,

check the two boxes: "create TEMP directory" and "disk label RAMdisk"

@all

in mussels example, install your applications, opera, firefox etc. on the RAMDisk. Make sure you "save disk image at shutdown" and also "load at startup". Then reboot. Now lock your img file and turn off the "save at shutdown" option... You will have nicely locked the applications, saved shutdown speed, and of course you dont save all the temp stuff.

 

[Mussels]

oh i know lemonade, i've done all this before. i was providing that merely so that people know where to find the options

(and i have many, varied, portable programs - firefox, Iron (its a variant of chrome), etc)

 

[lemonadesoda]

Sorry, mussels, the info was more rhetorical for others reading your post, rather than the message being directed at you.

Bah! I cant get the PAE option working on my workstation without a crash ... it would really help out since it is HDD based and running 32bit OS, so 4GB of RAM is unused... so, yesterday, I saw a Gigabyte RAMdrive loaded with 4GB on ebay, and bought it! All temps and scratchfiles will be moved to the RAMdrive. Should speed things up a bit.

 

[Mussels]

PAE is fairly incompatible, which is why its hidden away and not enabled by default on desktop OS's

 

[Odin Eidolon]

for those interested, Ramdisks have been introduced in the linux kernel since kernel 2.4.

I'll be testing the Ramdisk option with 512mb when i get my notebook (corsair p64, p8700, 4gb ddr2 800, 64bit) under Arch.
Do you think that 1gb vs 512mb would make any difference?

 

[Velvet Wafer]

with romex, i was able to do a 1000mb ramdisk, in the OS invisible memory... so far no crash

 

[lemonadesoda]

with romex, i was able to do a 1000mb ramdisk, in the OS invisible memory... so far no crash

LUCKYBASTARDSCHWEINHUND! Grrrr

 

[Velvet Wafer]

LUCKYBASTARDSCHWEINHUND! Grrrr

HÖLLENHUND,my friend

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Minimum transfer rate goes up consistently at 4 GBs vs 512 MBs.

 

[somebody]

PAE is fairly incompatible, which is why its hidden away and not enabled by default on desktop OS's

AFAIK all windows 32-bit client OSes since XP SP2 silently enable PAE by default unless your CPU doesn't support the nx bit. It's the memory that is remapped by the BIOS above 4GB that is hidden away, or just plain ignored.

Another RAMDisk software is superspeed http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php It can also use the memory 32-bit windows ignores but it's not free.

 

[Fitseries3]

 

[Fitseries3]

holy fuck... this is 10k+ higher than ive ever gotten

 

[3dsage]

Im really amazed by this, just this afternoon. I was blown away by my new SSD ( Warp V2 32GB) and now this just eclipses it in benches.
But I noticed it useses alot of cpu percentange, amazing nonetheless.

BTW this ramdrive is on some OCZ DDR 400 2.5-3-3-7 1T
Also im using Dataram ramdisk on Vista 64, for reference.

 

[niko084]

Old but good way to gain some speed.

Glad you brought it up.

For most use, it wont make major difference in what you see, because of the way it works it's going to throw benchmarks for a complete loop, worse than physx points in 3dmark. :LOL:

Good use for those that have SSD's or 8+ GB of ram!

 

[Mussels]

one downer: i cant remove the damn thing.

you cant disable the ramdrive without a reboot as it "cant end the service"

 

[Velvet Wafer]

one downer: i cant remove the damn thing.

you cant disable the ramdrive without a reboot as it "cant end the service"

you use romex? it works fabolous for me, my drive is in the hidden memory, and i can enable/disable like i want. really easy ;-)

 

[Mussels]

you use romex? it works fabolous for me, my drive is in the hidden memory, and i can enable/disable like i want. really easy ;-)

i used the dataram one.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

i used the dataram one.

use romex.if youre lucky, you will be very pleased

 

[Mussels]

well thats lame... romex free only works in x86 operating systems.

 

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

hmmm, time to put some of my 8 gigs of ram to use

 

[Asylum]

I use the SuperSpeed RamDisk Plus.
Seems to do the best job out of the bunch.