General Discussions

So there is new piece of tech (new to me anyway) that I have opted to give a go this week. The software is called RAMDisk, and as you likely can infer it creates and manages a RAM drive. Now I've paid attention to this "innovation" for a bit now, and had been meaning to attempt application of the program to see if it was really as expedient as many reports and reviews claimed that it was.

You will have to bear with me as I did not use the simulated storage for any game, nor did I ever intend to after establishing its particulars. The primary reason I am going to dump this quickly is that RAM by its very nature does not retain memory. For those of you that are not aware; when you create a RAM drive that drive is not retained in the RAM when you shutdown your system. In order to preserve the drive a disk image is saved to another drive in your rig. In order to do this the system will have to write/re-write the disk image prior to closing out. Once you start it up again that very same image must be rewritten to the RAM in order for you to use the programs and enjoy the increased speeds the technique provides.

Many of the reviews I read insisted that this tech actually performed faster than most SSDs on the market. I suppose this is what caught my attention. Supposedly putting a program such as Excel onto RAM drive would substantially improve computation time. This was a big deal as one aspect of my work often involves formulas that evaluate files that have upwards of tens of millions of cells. The one I just finished had over 20 million. At any rate, the operations for these larger files will often lock up Excel for 5 minutes, ten minutes, or more. Even a simple save of the respective file can take time.

So I created the simulated RAM drive, installed MS Office 13, and began my work. Sadly, to this point I have been nothing but disappointed. I am not noticing significant time improvements over my SSD, none at all really. Mind you I have not cracked out a stopwatch to verify time variances but the new method is taking long enough to annoy me… making it feel precisely the same as not segregating off my RAM and keeping my programs on a SSD. To make matters worse (IMO) the preserving and reloading of the RAMDisk slows the processes down to the point it rivals using a platter drive. Mind you this is quickly carrying out a write process of a 4GB drive in about 40 seconds, but it does take longer. Ultimately, I think unloading this option is the best way to go. I do not notice an increase in performance over my SSD config, and I notice longer startup and shutdown times. This ultimately makes me feel as if it is a step backward for me.

Now I am always open to the concept that I am “doing it wrong.” So if any of you think there are ways to bolster the performance of the RAM drive that I may or may not have employed… feel free to chime in as I will be waiting to see if there are any suggestions that could modify my stance regarding RAM drives.


[Edited by AdmiralP, 5/19/2015 10:47:44 AM]

Ram disk just wasnt ment to be, many have issues with it even just with games(read the reviews).
What you needs is this:Link, and I was quite surprised you didnt include it with the beast you assembled recently..

[Edited by kingkob, 5/19/2015 11:17:23 AM]

OR this beast

Link

That's kind of my thought as well. The rig I am using this for is actually my work PC (I still get to custom build it, but the budget is a bit more restricted).

Regarding the PCIe SSD... the twice the cost price point kept me out for my owns system... it was pricey enough. Next on my list for this thing is to replace the two RAM sticks I fried in the custom efforts so that I can actually utilize the quad channel.

Edit: I did just literally ask my boss if I could upgrade to the Intel one... of course he'll think I am joking (for now!)

[Edited by AdmiralP, 5/19/2015 11:35:43 AM]

RAM drives existed back in the 90s and they were rubbish then too.

Wait... it's not the 90's anymore? I best get back to my hot tub time machine!

Well that settles it for me... it's going the way of the dodo.

Yeah and it's much cheaper than the Gskill(where I live anyway) I think I'm gonna go for 400gb version when Win10 will finally come out, it will sit nice on the x99 platform.

I noticed you didn't mentioned a monitor in your hardware setup king bro, i ordered this baby yesterday , and today it was delivered, fast as hell monitor , and g-sync really works


Link