Author Topic: Running AH from a USB RAM drive (Read 398 times)

AKFokerFoder+ · « **on:** August 14, 2005, 05:35:30 PM »

I was wondering if there is any information about running AH from a jump drive.

I think Costco has a 2 GB USB RAM stick for about $80.00

I was wondering if a clean version of Windows XP wouldn't help in getting better performance.

There is also supposed to be some program out there that will turn off a lot of stuff before you run your game.

But I think that a USB RAM drive may have some potential

BTW · « **Reply #1 on:** August 14, 2005, 07:26:25 PM »

Now that sounds cool, but isn't usb a little slow for ram? It would be great if you could add ram that way.

Kev367th · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2005, 02:23:24 PM »

Yup USB is too slow, even USB2.

Giagbyte had an interesting board that was supposed to be $50, ended up $150 that took ram (DDR) and acted as a ram drive. Even kept its contents after power off.

AKFokerFoder+ · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2005, 09:13:55 PM »

I think I was misunderstood.

I mean running the game from USB rather than the hard drive. The USB RAM is ever so much faster than a hard drive.

I did not mean adding more RAM by adding a USB drive, that would be way slow for RAM.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 16, 2005, 06:45:05 AM »

The USB bus has an incredible amount of CPU overhead involved as there is no DMA channel for the USB bus, so the CPU has to manage it all.
The bus was not intended for high data demand devices.

AKFokerFoder+ · « **Reply #5 on:** August 16, 2005, 08:02:04 PM »

Thank you for the reply

I was just hoping for a way to improve game speed.

All in all my system does OK, but I am always looking for improvements

bloom25 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2005, 04:29:00 PM »

The flash memory used in most USB keys is slower than a fast hard drive, especially in write speeds. It also is generally only good for a limited number (though typically at least 25000) write cycles. It probably wouldn't last too long put to use in this manner.