I like the Idea of a USB flash used for the page file so I just did a little research, The Mushkin Enhanced Ventura Pro has read speeds of 120 Mbps Writes of 70 Mbps, USB 3 though. Their USB 2 models have reads of 32 Mbps and writes of 17 Mbps. Consair also has a quick USB 2, 34 Mbps read and 28 Mbps write.
All in all my understanding of page file is when the sys runs out of system memory it uses the page file system where it reads and writes to the hard drive, I just checked my computer, its using 14 % of the sys memory which is 6 GB. I can remember in the past increasing the amount of memory for computers that became sluggish because it had to use page file.
Carl2
Actually Carl Windows 7 doesn't allow you to put the page file on a removable drive (unless you start hacking the system) and even if it did the writes are way to slow for the job, a good USB 3 flash drive is only 70Mbps, like you said, not really any quicker than an HDD and much slower than even a low end SSD.
We have talked about it before and come to the conclusion that it's not worth it.
I would have thought with 6GB of RAM that the page file will not get used at all, but windows being the way it is still wants a page file just in case the RAM runs out, it would stop a program crashing should it run out of memory.
If you insist on not placing the swap file on your SSD (and I've read several articles now that state that there's nothing wrong with having it there), and you have the extra funds, you can always get the most RAM that your motherboard can handle, create a RAM-Drive on half of it, and put the swap file there. :) I actually did this with my Windows XP 32 bit install, using some software that created the RAM drive on the part of the memory that Windows couldn't "see", and was very impressed by the results. However, that said, with 64 bit systems, that's like cutting off one of your tes... Erm... Personal anatomy, and taping to your backside. Ok, maybe it's not like that, but it's just as silly. Sure, you're "saving" your SSD, but you're taking away half of one of the biggest performance boosters you can add to your system. Now if someone came up with an expandable PCIe card that allowed us to insert our old, outdated DDR2 ram sticks to create a RAM drive to put our swap file on, then that would be something. :)
You mean one of these??
http://www.acard.com.tw/english/fb01-product.jsp?prod_no=ANS-9010&type1_title=%20Solid%20State%20Drive&idno_no=270 (http://www.acard.com.tw/english/fb01-product.jsp?prod_no=ANS-9010&type1_title=%20Solid%20State%20Drive&idno_no=270)
That's it exactly! lol. Great find, Snowy! :)
Of course, 32GB is a bit small for anything but a swap file, or an older OS, but... It would be interesting to see something like that with XP installed on it. :)
The main problem is it's still volatile memory, even with the battery back up.
Not sure you could install windows onto it but you would have to image onto it everytime you boot. Or before you boot. Sounds like a royal pain in the ass.
Swap file would be ok but an SSD seems far more versatile.
I remember at one time Windows ( whatever version ) had something about using a flash drive for extra sys memory. As a matter of fact I remember doing something that said use the flash as memory. Page file whih a hard drive is slow as..
Carl2
The good news is most of us have enough memory in our systems to not have to worry about the page file anymore, it just doesn't get used, on my rig with 4 GIG of RAM and playing some of the latest games in maximum quality I am still yet to see windows page memory.