Extra RAM through Pen Drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drummersteve
  • Start date Start date
D

drummersteve

New member
Hi There

I have reecently found out that a USB Flash Drive/Pen can act as temporary RAM when connected through a USB socket. By going control panel> system> advanced etc, it can all be configured through there. This is on a PC.

I own a Mac. I had a little explore, to see if I could edit such settings like this, but I had no luck. I have a MacBook Running OS X. Isit possible for me to use a Flash Drive as Extra RAM? If so, how do i go about setting it up?

Many Thanks

Steve

P.S. I also heard that in order for RAM to run at its best, the two sticks (in my MacBook) must both be of the same size, e.g. both 1GB. So, having one 1GB stick and one 256MB stick would effectively "slow down" the performance overall... Is this true? Thanks!
 
I don't know the answer but I do suspect it involves a collossal waste of time and effort. Flash drives are recognized as drives. I suppose they could act as caches, but that isn't going to save the day. How abuout upgrading memory instead?
 
Using USB RAM or whatever is way too slow to do any good IMO.

Even the hard drive is faster so you'd be better off setting up a page file in Windows.

Just upgrade your RAM.
 
drummersteve said:
I have reecently found out that a USB Flash Drive/Pen can act as temporary RAM when connected through a USB socket. By going control panel> system> advanced etc, it can all be configured through there. This is on a PC.

I own a Mac. I had a little explore, to see if I could edit such settings like this, but I had no luck. I have a MacBook Running OS X. Isit possible for me to use a Flash Drive as Extra RAM? If so, how do i go about setting it up?
Click to expand...

Unless you mean the silly Vista caching thing (which doesn't have anything to do with memory), what you're talking about is called virtual memory. Mac OS X uses the hard drive for VM storage as needed.

While it is probably possible to make Mac OS X store swap files on a USB flash drive with some really nasty command-line funkiness, it's not a very good idea because A. flash drives have a limited number of write cycles, and B. it would probably be slower than your hard drive, given that paging tends to do read-ahead, thus pulling in several pages at once....


drummersteve said:
P.S. I also heard that in order for RAM to run at its best, the two sticks (in my MacBook) must both be of the same size, e.g. both 1GB. So, having one 1GB stick and one 256MB stick would effectively "slow down" the performance overall... Is this true? Thanks!
Click to expand...

In theory, yes, optimal performance requires matched parts. In practice, no, it's not enough difference to worry about, judging from what I've read.
 
Thats great. I will be upgrading my ram to 2GB, but I am planning on running a few programs which will require a lot of RAM eventually, so i was exploring the different possibilities of getting more RAM, thats all. Any other ways of getting more RAM efficiently without having to buy bigger RAM sticks? the 1GB stick was enough as it is! Thanks.

Steve
 
drummersteve said:
Any other ways of getting more RAM efficiently without having to buy bigger RAM sticks?
Click to expand...

No.

The next-fastest thing is a page file on your hard drive. Windows will do this automatically if you run low on RAM. It's still a performance killer.
 
no way around getting more ram than just buying ram.

i like www.dealram.com

there you search for your system and it links you to all the competitors and their pricing. i've done business with 18004memory a couple times now.

also, there are those sellers who sell new ram for macs on ebay, which you might want to try, although one seller first sent me the wrong ram and it took a while to get it right..

im up to 3 gigs in my powermac and i really don't need more. take a look, most software can only utilize up to 2 gigs anyway, but some do go to 4.

good luck.
 
Ok, thanks alot. I was hoping there might have been a cheaper alternative, thats all.

I'm mianly concerned because i will be running two programs which i think will need a lot of RAM. Firstly, Logic Pro 7, and along with that East West Symphonic Orchestr Gold Sample Library. But if the only way to go is by getting more RAM, then i guess thats how it should be done!

Again with the non-matched pairs with RAM sticks, if I was to have one 1GB stick and one 2GB stick, would this still not matter too much? as there is more RAM involved, I want to make sure the effect of having non-matched pairs wouldn't increase? Thanks!
 
It's usually best to use the same size, but usually you won't have any problems.

Just try and get the same brand/speed of RAM that you have in there now. ie, if it's PC 333 then get some more PC 333 but a different size. It should say on the back of the RAM stick.

I've run a computer that had one 128 stick and another 512 stick and it worked fine. Both were the same brand/speed RAM though.
 
sizes dont matter, but the order you put them in might.

with my powermac, i have (doubled of course) 1GB, 256M, 256M, and it works fine, of course thats x2 since they have to be installed in pairs, totaling 3gb. it did say to put the higher sized sticks at the top and work down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top