Very Odd Swap File Idea

T

Torn

Guest
Was reading the recent post about swap files and it got me to thinkin'; would it be possible to get a large thumb-drive and use THAT for your swap file? Technically it should be faster since it is flash memory, right? I mean, faster than using a HDD partition. Is this a viable idea or am I missing a crucial detail? Thanks for any input.
 
If you could get a drive large enough to accomidate the swap file, then it might work.

Problem being of course, you won't see much of a difference. :)
 
Flash memory has a limited number of write cycles before it dies. Swapfiles can get written to dozens of times a second under load. That means your thumbdrive will have a short life (see the other threads or articles on using CF or other flash media for *NIX boot drives). Secondly, remember that thumbdrives and other flash media don't handle more than a couple MB/s in traffic. Even 5400rpm drives handily beat that.
 
yeah, or, for that money just get a raptor and put your /home and swap partitons on it (keeping / on the other hard drive)- that'll be pretty fast ;)
or if you use windows, but your my documents folder on the raptor along w/ swap.
 
for the price of a 512 or 1 gig flash drive i would rather have more ram :D
 
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