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    Are there any possibe use of the memory card slot to improve performance?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by NumLock, Sep 13, 2011.

  1. NumLock

    NumLock Notebook Evangelist

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    having the MBA 13" with an empty memory card slot and a spare 4gb SD card at hand; I was wondering if it is possible to keep the memory card inside and let the OS use it.

    sort of like "ready boost" for windows or maybe moving the /tmp folder there... or maybe where my browser stores all the browsing history, cookies, etc.

    Thoughts? suggestions?
     
    NumLock, Sep 13, 2011
    #1
  2. wave

    wave Notebook Virtuoso

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    there is no ready boost for osx.

    You can run firefox and other programs from the SD card. Just check if there is a portable version of some of the apps you use.
     
    wave, Sep 13, 2011
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  3. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    i'd say it's not worth it to put browsing data on a memory card with the idea that you'll get some performance boost out of it. It hardly gives any benefit in windows. Just use the memory card for storage.
     
    masterchef341, Sep 13, 2011
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  4. Lieto

    Lieto Notebook Deity

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    i was asking about it a while back and people told me that sdxc (or whatever its called) is actually SLOWER then hdd. So if anything you can fraps there but thats about it.
     
    Lieto, Sep 13, 2011
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  5. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    overall bandwidth might be slower, but seek time will be faster.

    either way, it's certainly not going to make any significant difference and it isn't worth it.

    note: when i say "not worth it" i don't mean that it isn't worth it because of the cost of the SD card- i'm talking about the inconvenience of just having that slot occupied and having to carry that thing around. however marginal that inconvenience is for you, the performance difference would be just as marginal.
     
    masterchef341, Sep 13, 2011
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  6. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    Plus with the SSD in the MBA, there is hardly a need for a "ready boost" type feature anyway. I see the potential when booting from a 4500RPM hard drive or slower but OS X would boot in about 45 seconds on the 5400RPM hard drive that came with my MBP (hardly anything to fuss over) and now takes 12 seconds to boot with my SSD (with similar boot times from the 2011 MBA's).
     
    kornchild2002, Sep 13, 2011
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  7. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    oh yeah, you're on the mba, i thought you were on a macbook pro with a regular hard drive.

    the memory card slot is slower, ignore what i said earlier about seek time. performance would go down. the SSD is fast already compared to an SD card. it's better to have things cache on the SSD than a memory card.
     
    masterchef341, Sep 13, 2011
    #7