Intel Turbo Memory Not Working w/ready boost and ready drive

I found this article and was wondering what you guys thought about it...

http://news.com.com/HP+says+no+to+Intels+Turbo+Memory/2100-1004_3-6188531.html?tag=nefd.top

I just bought a t61 with ready boost (and obviously I will be waiting for a few weeks) and was wondering if anybody had any experience with not being to use external memory for ready boost in a system that already had the Intel Turbo Memory. This is the first that I've ever heard of this and I can't find a lot of information to back hp's claim...but their claim makes sense. Obviously if this is true then the advantage of Intel's Turbo Memory over using an external device for Ready Boost is that the machine would boost faster because Ready Boost doesn't improve boot time from what I understand. (In other terms an external device is only good for Ready Boost but Intels Turbo Memory is good for Ready Boost as well as acting as a replacement for a ReadyDrive type like device.)
So...

If using an external device for Ready Boost instead of Intel Turbo Memory would you see an increase in battery life...?

Ready Boost is restricted to the speed of the flash drive or memory card...I assume Intel Turbo Memory is restricted to the speed of the memory...?

Can you disable the Intel Turbo Memory driver or can it be turned off so I could use an external device instead...?

So which one is better...?

I have a 4gb flash drive along with media cards...up to 1gb that would fit in perfectly with the media card reader I got as an option...what would you recommend for me to do...?

Thanks...

 

Unfortunately there are no benchmarks for turbo cache that I've seen. The benchmarks of ReadyBoost show little or no improvement in battery life or system performance. I think the general feeling about turbo cache is that's equally as ineffective as ReadyBoost. So I would pass on ReadyBoost and Turbo Cache for now. You might look into getting a hybrid hard drive.

 

Actually Readyboost supports up to 4GB in flash memory, so you wouldn't just be limited to the 1GB Robson's if you used a USB flash drive.

The Corsair Voyager GT supposedly gets read speeds ~35MB/s and write speeds around ~30MB/s? How does that compare to Turbo Memory?

 

I believe readyboost and turbo memory is only good for severely memory constrained machine running Vista(say 512M), where you need to go to the HD most of the time. Base Vista takes up about 500M.

Given how low the cost of DDR2 RAM is nowadays(I read that it dropped by 70-80% comparing with same time last year), I just don't see any need for them in newly purchased ones which may be the reason why HP don't buy it as 1G is almost the standard now. Now if DDR2 RAM goes back to its price as last year, that may be a completely different situation.

 

Arent they (Intel and Microsoft) plan to release driver that fully utilize the use of this memory?

 

Even if they do it's only 512 mb instead of the full 1gb...that's why I'm wondering if it would be better to just use a large external device for Ready Boost.

 

Well I already have a use for the expresscard slot, and it's annoying having a huge stick (corsair voyager gt for example) sticking out the side of the laptop all the time - that makes the laptop less portable.

Why can't they just give us a 4GB Intel Turbo Memory chip?

 

You can use more then one Readyboost device. So using 1GB Turbo Memory and 2GB SD-card would work. Not sure if you will benefit.

The biggest advantige of Turbo Memory is that it uses ReadyDrive and not REadyboost. Readyboost starts working once Vista finished booting and not before. ReadyDrive on the other hand starts working right after the Bios has started and can speed up start time. USB sticks and SD card can not be used with Readydrive and cant speed up boot time.

 

Under "Similar Threads":

ready boost sucks...... lkjhhjkl Windows OS and Software 5 03-05-2007 01:58 AM

I think that answers the question.

 

Intel turbo memory card is a 1 GB NAND flash with a speed of about 35 MB/s.
Once you install the driver, 512 MB are used to create a buffer between system memory and the hard drive (Readydrive), and the other 512 MB are used to create a hidden partition that is used for Readyboost.
Although the performance gains are difficult to measure, the flash chips used on Intel Turbo Memory are way faster than most of the USB drives and memory cards out there. And, what's the important thing on a notebook, it's a small internal card.
I'm running now with a Turbo Memory card intalled and I'm monitorizing it using perfmon.exe. I'm seeing speeds of 30 MB/s, on read and write, when I launch something that has to do a lot of disk access.
In a notebook it's interesting because:
1) Notebook harddrives are usally 5400 rpm, this NAND flash is faster on sequential and random access.
2) The readydrive buffer means that if I'm not doing a lot of file copying, all the disk I/O can go to flash, and the HDD can go to sleep, saving a few watts of power.
3) It lets you have a high speed readyboost drive without having to attach a USB thumb drive.

In case you want to use a USB flash memory, you can disable readyboost on the Intel card. I tried that but my external flash drive only reachs 6 MB/s.

 

This was just discussed in more detail here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=161881&highlight=readyboost+readydrive

I discussed in that thread in more detail that I am using Turbo Memory for ReadyDrive and a 4GB SDHC card for ReadyBoost. So you don't have to choose between having Turbo Memory and ReadyBoost... you can have them both.

 

@Stallen,
What were the steps to set up the Readyboost from SD and ReadyDrive from turbo memory chip? After I set the sd to ReadyBoost the turbo memory disappears. If you wouldn't mind a light tutorial would be appreciated.

 

Probably the greatest feature of installing a dedicated Intel Ready Boost/Turob Cache memory card in that unused PCI slot in that new notebook is to be able to say you have (in my case...)... "My notebook has 4 Gb of memory". I have 3 Gb RAM plus the 512/512 Intel ReadyBoost/Turbo Cache memory card. Unfortunately I've found it's also about the only thing it's good for. Is there any perceptable difference in performance? Tough to tell... it doesn't benchmark any different (SiSoft Sandra 12). Doesn't feel any faster... They don't cost a lot for the chip.... $30 delivered. But save youself some money and just fold a $20 bill into fifths and slip it in that little slot. You'll get the same benefits and save yourself $10... Maybe it's just a lack of proper driver support. The idea sounds good... I think it's more a matter of poor implementation as are a lot of other things, when it comes to Vista. Maybe someday it'll start doing something worthwhile. Until then... I'd say, save your money and pass on this technology for now. My 2 cents...