Anyone use a ramdisk?

[annualpurge]

My specs:

 

What's weird is that when I try to clean with CCleaner, it slows down when it comes to the Temp folder. You guys think it's worth it to use Ramdisk? I barely even use 16GB when on full load.

[VileTouch]

40 minutes ago, annualpurge said:

My specs:

 

What's weird is that when I try to clean with CCleaner, it slows down when it comes to the Temp folder. You guys think it's worth it to use Ramdisk? I barely even use 16GB when on full load.

they have their uses... in general, you want to put in the ramdisk anything with very high (constant) write activity. some databases fall into this category. even some games (minecraft comes to mind).

 

you would think browser caches would be a pretty good candidate for this, but it's really not needed. at least firefox has it's own ramdisk (needs some configuration). chrome does that automatically (actually, it writes both to the hdd and to it's ram space) and internet explorer will break if you move the cache out of it's default location, so don't even try.

 

to figure out what you need to put in it, you first have to analyze the disk activity. if you see a huge list of rapid writes, that's a great candidate. then you have to figure out IF you can atually move it.

 

for reads... it's not really worth it. it's not going to be faster than a current SSD, for instance, and reading doesn't cause any harm to SSD either. so that's it.

 

oh one very important thing!. do not, I REPEAT, DO.NOT. PUT WINDOWS PAGE FILE IN A RAM DISK. there is no benefit whatsoever and you will break it.

[Sylence]

RAMdisk for the usage you're considering is useless. using RAMdisk alone is only good for specific purposes such as video production, rendering and stock exchange.

 

what you're experiencing will be solved by a clean Windows installation or using a newer version of Windows which resolves bugs and problems available in previous versions.

 

that said you can still use RAMdisk as your Hard Disk's cache. the cache is probably something around 32 to 64 MB right now but with a big cache made of RAMdisk everything will be faster, a lot faster than any SSD. considering that you can dedicate at least 24GB of your RAM to it.

 

see this: http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supercache.php

[DKT27]

I have used it a few times for browsing for example. While it did feel relatively fast - must mention, I do not own an SSD, but, I felt the problems outweighed the benefits. In addition, as VileTouch said, I think browsers these days handle the cache better I feel.

 

I think people should try all the options, Ramdisks, software like this, even SuperCache mentioned by saeed_dc would be useful - I have heard about it before on the internet and probably on our forums too.

[CODYQX4]

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[franco46]

I use Softperfect ram disk (freeware). During installation , it says there is a conflict with CCleaner. I uninstalled CCleaner and use another application with similar function.

 

Quote from Softpefect :

Five very good reasons to use the RAM Disk:

1. Higher PC performance. Provided you have a sufficient amount of RAM, using a fast in-memory disk for temporary data will boost the computer performance.
2. Reduced file system fragmentation. The file system on your hard disks will be far less fragmented as the temporary files will never be written to the hard disk.
3. Reduced wear-and-tear of the physical disk. Because the temporarily files are not written to the hard disk, there will be fewer read/write cycles, which is especially important for prolonging the life of Solid State Drives (SSD) often installed in laptops.
4. Less junk on the hard disk. Many software applications create temporary files that remain undeleted although no longer needed. The contents of RAM disks is cleared every time the computer is restarted or switched off, so the unneeded files won’t clutter your HDD.
5. Less noise and heat from the hard disk because the system will use the hard disk less intensively.

 

 

[Sylence]

5 hours ago, franco46 said:

I use Softperfect ram disk (freeware). During installation , it says there is a conflict with CCleaner. I uninstalled CCleaner and use another application with similar function.

 

Quote from Softpefect :

Five very good reasons to use the RAM Disk:

1. Higher PC performance. Provided you have a sufficient amount of RAM, using a fast in-memory disk for temporary data will boost the computer performance.
2. Reduced file system fragmentation. The file system on your hard disks will be far less fragmented as the temporary files will never be written to the hard disk.
3. Reduced wear-and-tear of the physical disk. Because the temporarily files are not written to the hard disk, there will be fewer read/write cycles, which is especially important for prolonging the life of Solid State Drives (SSD) often installed in laptops.
4. Less junk on the hard disk. Many software applications create temporary files that remain undeleted although no longer needed. The contents of RAM disks is cleared every time the computer is restarted or switched off, so the unneeded files won’t clutter your HDD.
5. Less noise and heat from the hard disk because the system will use the hard disk less intensively.

 

 

 

I think they exaggerated a bit there.

1. sufficient amount of RAM actually means more than 8GB, the price sorta equals to a 120GB SSD.

2. temporary files better be written to the disk or else any sudden restart or system crash leads to loss of data. the best option to use RAM disk with softperfect or supercache is to use that feature which makes a delay between read/writes of data on harddisk, can't remember what it's called.

3. modern SSDs have the writing capacity of more than 500GB per day lasting for 10 years.

 

[mikie]

19 hours ago, VileTouch said:

internet explorer will break if you move the cache out of it's default location, so don't even try.

.

 

I've used IE cache to datarams RAMDisk for a few years.   Works fine.  IE is my main everyday choice of browsers.

Wish IE was configurable to cache to ram... I move a lot of bytes here per day online IE  ... they do add up to lots of gb's for hdd/ssd use,  if not in the ramdisk.