RAMDisk FAQ and info thread

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EnderW

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Seems like lots of people are using RAMDisks, but there isn't a lot of info about them. I'm interested, but would like to learn more.
A tutorial on configuration would be great.
First question: what specific benefits do you see when using one?
 
The benefit of a RAMdisk is simple. A HDD section with the speed and access times of ram. Triple channel DDR3-1600 is 38.4GIGAbytes per second. HDDs are around 100-120 MEGAbytes per second. SSDs around hitting 200MB/s. So a slight difference.

My dream gaming build (I have a lot of time on my hands) would be 4 SSDs in R0 backing up a 16GB ramdisk. An 8GB game would transfer to the ramdisk in seconds.

In normal usage, the best use for ramdisks are any temp or scratch disk/directories.
 
GLSauron said:
The benefit of a RAMdisk is simple. A HDD section with the speed and access times of ram. Triple channel DDR3-1600 is 38.4GIGAbytes per second. HDDs are around 100-120 MEGAbytes per second. SSDs around hitting 200MB/s. So a slight difference.

My dream gaming build (I have a lot of time on my hands) would be 4 SSDs in R0 backing up a 16GB ramdisk. An 8GB game would transfer to the ramdisk in seconds.

In normal usage, the best use for ramdisks are any temp or scratch disk/directories.
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I'm aware of the incredible throughput, but since they aren't bootable, what specific benefits do you see?
 
EnderW said:
I'm aware of the incredible throughput, but since they aren't bootable, what specific benefits do you see?
Click to expand...

Just wait for Joe Average to poke his head in, I know from previous threads he has alot of good stuff to say about SuperSpeed's RAMDisk product.

I for one have tried setting a 2GB RAMDisk up and putting Photoshop's scratch disk on it. Massive 200+ tiffs open instantly, its really quite remarkable and would greatly increase productivity if you work with large images, etc..
 
Well I use SuperSpeeds RamDisk Plus in my rig.

I have14gb of my 22 allocated for use as a ramdisk. This leaves 8gb for the OS.
I moved the Pagefile to Ram, the benefit of this is like before programs can access the page file much quicker. Contrary to popular belief turning the pagefile off does not force the programs to use the ram. Some programs require the use of a pagefile and will still use the pagefile even if it is turned off in your settings. Don't believe me? Turn it off and reboot, use your computer for a while and check the size of the pagefile.

I have also move my temp files for IE/Firefox/Chrome to the ramdisk.
I occasionally demux parts of a Bluray disk and will write a stream or two to the ramdisk as it makes this much faster.

Another thing it is great for is scratch disk space for programs such as Adobe products, video editing, etc.

Some people install games, and other programs like photoshop for insane load times.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Well I use SuperSpeeds RamDisk Plus in my rig.

I have14gb of my 22 allocated for use as a ramdisk. This leaves 8gb for the OS.
I moved the Pagefile to Ram, the benefit of this is like before programs can access the page file much quicker. Contrary to popular belief turning the pagefile off does not force the programs to use the ram. Some programs require the use of a pagefile and will still use the pagefile even if it is turned off in your settings. Don't believe me? Turn it off and reboot, use your computer for a while and check the size of the pagefile.

I have also move my temp files for IE/Firefox/Chrome to the ramdisk.
I occasionally demux parts of a Bluray disk and will write a stream or two to the ramdisk as it makes this much faster.

Another thing it is great for is scratch disk space for programs such as Adobe products, video editing, etc.

Some people install games, and other programs like photoshop for insane load times.
Click to expand...
I need more RAM. Can you do anything with 4GB OS and 4GB RAMDisk?
 
4gb ramdisk you could move temp storage there.
You couldnt move your page file there cause it would be too small, but you could have windows make a second pagefile there so programs can access it at the same time its accessing your hard drive.
 
nitrobass24 said:
4gb ramdisk you could move temp storage there.
You couldnt move your page file there cause it would be too small, but you could have windows make a second pagefile there so programs can access it at the same time its accessing your hard drive.
Click to expand...
how much would I need to move the page file?
 
I wonder what file transfers would be like to ram disk over a gigabyte network. :D

Be curious to see it vs a raid setup and so forth.
 
I dunno, i guess its kinda relative I like to have a large pagefile, cause I do a lot of multitasking, and video conversion.

Technically you could move it, but you would just have to decide for yourself if you thought it performed better or not.
 
I can tell you that my 6x WD 320AAKS RAID0 on a Dell SAS 5/iR pulled about 230MB/sec. My 4GB RAMDisk using SuperSpeed RAMDisk Plus was in excess of 2300MB/sec. And that was on crappy DDR2 ECC Registered on a dual AMD Quad Core Opteron setup. Similar Dual Intel Quad cores with DDR2 PC2-6300 FBDIMM were pulling 3000MB/sec+ with under 1ms latency. I never did achieve the awesomeness of 16GB on my dual quad setup (sold it off) to really test game installs to RAMDisk, but I ca tell you that SuperSpeed RAMDisk Plus is a very sweet program.

It has the ability to restore a RAMDisk on reboot, and copy files from spinning disk back to the RAMDisk. This is a great feature because you can install a game or other program to the RAMDisk, and set it up so that the program will be copied back after a reboot. Optionally, you can do manual copies back to/from disk/RAM manually. You have lots of options in your configuration. I'd suggest you try it out.
 
Yea but I dunno that is a lot of money.
I grabbed a server board cause I knew it could hold 64gb of memory.
I mean 12gb is by no means small but 64gb would be insane.

DDR3 would be faster but when your talking 2300MB/s vs 3500MB/s are you gonna be able to tell? Id rather have the space.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Yea but I dunno that is a lot of money.
I grabbed a server board cause I knew it could hold 64gb of memory.
I mean 12gb is by no means small but 64gb would be insane.

DDR3 would be faster but when your talking 2300MB/s vs 3500MB/s are you gonna be able to tell? Id rather have the space.
Click to expand...
yeah but don't those FB-DIMMs have horrible latency?
 
I am presently compiling "The RAMdisk Manifesto" finally... just trying to slap together another quad box with 8GB of RAM in it, with 2 80GB Velociraptors on order (almost) from a certain Mod around here as soon as I can find someone with a PayPal account... :)

When I'm done with the testing, which is fully expected to last me a week, this will be the single most comprehensive guide on getting, installing, tweaking, and utilizing a RAMdisk on the entire planet.

At least that's the hope. :D

Hmmm... maybe I should charge for this... 'cause it's almost going to be a damned book, seriously. ;)
 
Post it in GenMay and put a link in your sig.

That way only the [H]ardest can read it.
 
Joe Average said:
I am presently compiling "The RAMdisk Manifesto" finally... just trying to slap together another quad box with 8GB of RAM in it, with 2 80GB Velociraptors on order (almost) from a certain Mod around here as soon as I can find someone with a PayPal account... :)

When I'm done with the testing, which is fully expected to last me a week, this will be the single most comprehensive guide on getting, installing, tweaking, and utilizing a RAMdisk on the entire planet.

At least that's the hope. :D

Hmmm... maybe I should charge for this... 'cause it's almost going to be a damned book, seriously. ;)
Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to it. :D

nitrobass24 said:
Post it in GenMay and put a link in your sig.

That way only the [H}ardest can read it.
Click to expand...

+1 for GenMay
 
Well somebody buy me a GenMay sub and I'll see what I can do... :D

I've "peeked" into that area in the past when Kyle opened it up for a day or so to see what I/we non-subscribers are missing... honestly I didn't see anything that interested me, really. Go figure...

(I say the thing about the sub because I don't have a PayPal account - those fuckers ripped me and my Wife years ago so I'll never use their services again...)

Minor update: just bought a Q6600 brand new in the box for $175 (yeah, a little steep considering its age but dammit, it's the only quad I care about). Now I need a decent P45 based board and 8GB of decent RAM... wonder if Fry's has anything that's actually NEW IN THE BOX and not some damned returned product five times over... *ugh* I hate trying to find a new mobo out there so much.

Oh, and as for those 80GB Velociraptors:

The seller said:
i got the payment, your drives will go out tomorrow priority mail to the address provided
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:D
 
I'm really looking forward to this guide of yours! :)
And I hope it will be posted for everybody to learn from...

Will there be any mention of Supervolume and its features compared to Ramdisk?
Like which one should be better for installing apps on?

Thanks!
Info on all this is pretty slim...
 
Joe Average said:
Well somebody buy me a GenMay sub and I'll see what I can do... :D

I've "peeked" into that area in the past when Kyle opened it up for a day or so to see what I/we non-subscribers are missing... honestly I didn't see anything that interested me, really. Go figure...

(I say the thing about the sub because I don't have a PayPal account - those fuckers ripped me and my Wife years ago so I'll never use their services again...)

Minor update: just bought a Q6600 brand new in the box for $175 (yeah, a little steep considering its age but dammit, it's the only quad I care about). Now I need a decent P45 based board and 8GB of decent RAM... wonder if Fry's has anything that's actually NEW IN THE BOX and not some damned returned product five times over... *ugh* I hate trying to find a new mobo out there so much.

Oh, and as for those 80GB Velociraptors:

:D
Click to expand...
here is a decent deal if you don't mind the rebate
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006082

really looking forward to this guide, I think it could be the start of something legendary :)
 
Is there any RAM disk software that works on Vista 64 that is free or relatively inexpensive?
 
Well, I had a 486 (msdos 5 maybe) state-of-the-art, and
Arachne was the forefront dos-based browser (vs windows 3.1).
Slow as usually expected for that platform until I put it into a ramdisk
(I don't recall, maybe a 8 > 16 mb ram upgrade too). then it FLEW,
comparable to maybe 3.0 P4 (given 9600 or 56000 or something modem)
..........
seemingly of course
............
I've since run it on this p4 2.4 but it takes a bit of setup.
 
Ended up getting 8GB of Patriot "Viper" DDR2 1066 RAM at Fry's earlier today. Funny thing is that since it runs at 1066, I figured that would be a good match for the Q6600 which has an FSB of 1066 - boy was I wrong. The RAM:FSB ratio is coming up as 1:2 so I'm kinda weirded out about it but I understand it, was hoping it would balance out to 1:1 for the best bandwidth for this testing I'm about to undertake.

But, I'm happy the whole thing is working. Q6600 stock, the 8GB of RAM, a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L board, the LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD/DVD combo drive, etc... should prove interesting to say the least. ;)
 
As I understand it, you ARE getting 1:1. actual FSB is 1/4 what you see, 266Mhz. DDR is 1/2 what you see, or 533Mhz. Thus 1:2 FSB:DDR is 1066:1066 effective.
 
Q6600 = FSB1066 = DDR2/533
? = FSB2132 = DDR2/1066

In other words, if you want 1:1 underclock your RAM, or overclock you CPU.
 
64 bit ramdisk program for win7, anybody? RD+ complained that it cant be used after vista when I tried it.
Just put in another 4GB of ram ($25aMIR), want to use it.
 
I'm not sure about Windows 7 but cheap - and with 64 bit support is the one I use. http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/RAMDisk/ramdriv001.htm

It's not quite as "polished" as the superspeed product but it does have all the same functionality. I've been using it for a couple of years. I work with massive images (2GB+ file sizes) daily. Running a Dell Precision 690 with 32GB ram - I currently have 24 dedicated to the ram drive. Have the windows page file, photoshop scratch disk, and flexi signs temp pointed at it. The performance benefit is phenomenal compared to it being disabled.


Ravynmagi said:
Is there any RAM disk software that works on Vista 64 that is free or relatively inexpensive?
Click to expand...

GLSauron said:
64 bit ramdisk program for win7, anybody? RD+ complained that it cant be used after vista when I tried it.
Just put in another 4GB of ram ($25aMIR), want to use it.
Click to expand...
 
drgnfang said:
Q6600 = FSB1066 = DDR2/533
? = FSB2132 = DDR2/1066

In other words, if you want 1:1 underclock your RAM, or overclock you CPU.
Click to expand...

Was easier than that: I just pushed the FSB to 400 so the CPU is at 7 x 400 = 2.8 GHz while the RAM sits squarely on an MCH 2x multiplier... so now I'm 1:1 with a nice boost in RAM bandwidth too... :D
 
So you overclocked the CPU (though dropped the multiplier so as to not burst it into flames) like I said :)
I reached 1:1 by running my E8400 @ 3.6ghtz (400x9) and leaving my RAM at stock DDR2/800.
 
Well yeah, but, I could drop it to 6x and still be running at 2.4 GHz and keep the 1:1... :D
 
True, guess better way to put it is that you are overclocking the FSB so that the CPU and Memory are running in a 1:1 ratio.
 
7x400 is actually pretty conservative for a Q6600. I've owned three, and all three have run 3ghz on stock voltage right out of the box since the day I got them with nary an issue. Granted I run mine at 9x333 with 5:6 FSB:DRAM as I haven't personally seen any tangible real-world benefit from higher bus speeds or 1:1 ratios.

Very much looking forward to your ramdisk guide. I've been running 8GB for almost 6 months now, but I almost never bother with RAMdisks because I can never find a useful purpose for them that Vista's Superfetch doesn't already handle. I know working with extremely large image files is often cited, but I don't do that :p

Oh and to whomever asked about ramdisk copying over a gigabit network, my brother and I have tested that theory before, and you can indeed max out the connection (though we tested with nearly ideal conditions: copying iso files over a gigabit switch with identical GbE-equipped motherboards and RAMdisks on each end.)
 
Yah, the RAMdisk guide is on the skids again, so to speak... free time for such lengthy and involved testing configurations is pretty tough to come by. It might seem like I post a shitload of stuff here whenever I can but, it's a brief peek/post here, brief peek/post there. ;)

As for what you can do with a RAMdisk, well, a lot actually, and now is one of those brief peek/post times when I can't get into it. I'm sure others can offer up info just as well if not better than I can...
 
Well, I shouldn't "never" as I have noticed that moving the Firefox cache directory to a ramdisk provides a nice little added "snappiness" when loading pages that have already been cached. But of course this is such a small benefit that it borders on placebo.
 
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