Super Talent thumb drives work with Vista's ReadyBoost

One of the many benefits touted in Windows Vista is ReadyBoost, a new feature that allows the OS to use flash drives as pseudo-RAM in order to increase performance. However, in order for this to work, you have to use certain types of high-speed thumb drives. Today, Super Talent announced some of the first drives compatible with ReadyBoost: the $30 RBST-1GB and $60 RBST-2GB. The company says in a press release that the flash drives will begin shipping early this month -- which should be, like, any day now.

[Jarod @ Nov 7th 2006 5:57AM]

WOOHOOOO!! A faster way to crash Winblows and to breach Microsofts tight tight "security" improvements. I can't wait!!!!

[Gil @ Nov 7th 2006 6:10AM]

Let me get this straight: you're complaining that your computer will work faster?




I need to start reading the comments section with a bottle of tequila on hand...

[Intrepid @ Nov 7th 2006 6:25AM]

I am using it and it is very good. BF2142 loads up at twice the speed!

[par @ Nov 7th 2006 6:32AM]

yeah but when are the secret agent 007 ones coming out?

[Scott @ Nov 7th 2006 7:07AM]

What about the Reports of ReadyBoost Frying Cheaper Flash Drives?

[Joshua Cartu @ Nov 7th 2006 8:31AM]

What about it? You're not supposed to use flashdrives that aren't fast enough. Here's an idea, try installing XP on your 60 gig iPod and see how long the drive lasts.

[Matt Hadder @ Nov 7th 2006 8:23AM]

USB2.0 can handle up to 127 devices, no?
How much more performance would one get with 254gigs+ of highspeed flash??

Seriously though, would this possibly aid older systems in meeting requirements to run Vista?

Also how fast is highspeed flash compaired to RAM? Megs/second if anyone can tell me.

[NeoteriX @ Nov 7th 2006 8:28AM]

Eh? So USB 2.0 is faster than a hard drive?

[Andre @ Nov 7th 2006 8:30AM]

Should we be concerned about write limits (erase cycles)? The flash drive should not function exactly like RAM, otherwise it would have an excessive amount of writes, I think. Maybe they are betting newer flash memories will endure more erase cycles (anyone know where they are now?)

[Derrick @ Nov 7th 2006 9:11AM]

Andre,

Most if not all flash sold in the last few years has built in wear leveling so this shouldn't be a problem, unless the system is using some type of low level interface.

[par @ Nov 7th 2006 9:50AM]

USB 2.0 is not faster than an IDE/SATA hard drive. What am I missing here? An average hard disk has a read transfer rate of 50 MB/s while a 10,000rpm one can do more than 60MB/s. And that is average not maximum.

USB2.0's 480 Mbits/s translate to about 60 MB/s and that is a maximum value. There's no way it can be reached nevertheless sustained by any USB device to make it an average read transfer rate.

[Wonderboy @ Nov 7th 2006 10:44AM]

It'll act as bonus memory, not bonus HDD space... Now I don't know speeds of memory access, but I would imagine they would use a smart allocation tool for this. Any high-access/priority memory data would be sent to the on-board memory with lower-priority being funneled to the thumb drive. No doubt a 2GB drive added to a 2GB system wouldn't double your capabilities, but there would be a definite boost. And for the price, not much to complain about since a GB of internal costs around $100, and the thumb drive is being offered at $30.

[Nick @ Nov 7th 2006 10:23AM]

Yah the transfer rates may be similar but what about the access times. It takes a HD time to spin up and find the sectors. A solid state devise is much faster at that. On top of that it could hypothetically work in parallel with the hard drive or any other storage device.

[Alex Holst @ Nov 7th 2006 10:31AM]

In my testing, Vista RC2 has been able to use any type of solid-state storage attached to the computer, including SD cards, CF cards and USB drives.

[Rob Stevens @ Nov 7th 2006 11:02AM]

Here's how ReadyBoost really works ...

ReadyBoost is basically a cache, it's NOT virtual memory. Frequently accessed documents, DLLs, and other small bits of data are stored on the ReadyBoost device for quick retrieval. Basically, it leverages the quick I/O speed of these devices. It's all about how quick it can find the data and get it into main memory, not throughput speed.

You do NOT need a ridiculously fast (read: expensive) USB device to use ReadyBoost. All that matters is the I/O speed for small bits of data, not how fast the throughput is. In fact, cheaper memory cards and USB drives might even work better, since they aren't optimized for throughput. I'm using a $30 2GB Memorex USB stick at home, and a $20 2GB Kingston SD card in my laptop, and both of them are working great.

Also, since the data is mostly being READ, and not written, a ReadyBoost device should last the life of the computer.

[Tim S. @ Nov 7th 2006 12:39PM]

So we're putting the disk cache on a disk? I may be wrong, but isn't that pointless?

Linux is far more efficient with ram, so if you have any decent amount of memory it can put the necessary parts of the operating system, any running programs (up to a reasonable limit, or course), and a *HUGE* disk cache all in memory where it belongs. Macs are famous for being shipped without a lot of ram, but OS X plugs along just fine -- fancy gui and all -- without being a resource hog. Why can't Windows do that?

[Mark D. @ Nov 7th 2006 1:57PM]

Joshua:

The 60gb iPod uses a HDD, so it'll probably last as long as any other small hard drive. Your comment doesn't make much sense in the case of flash storage read/write lifespan.

[scott @ Nov 7th 2006 2:13PM]

whats the big deal? 95% of all USB2.0 flash drives (larger than 256mb) are compatible with ReadyBoost. This is just a company touting a compatibility common to MOST drives just to spur sales.

It's like a tire company selling tires that can drive in the rain.

[Stephen @ Nov 7th 2006 3:50PM]

Here the Readyboost Q&A right from the people that developed it!
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx

It's a very well designed feature but many people don't seem to know what it is for or how it works.

[mark m @ Nov 7th 2006 6:12PM]

i use my psp (with 1Gig) and it works great, i think it works like a mid point between RAM and the hard drive, it works well and BF2142 works really gd as well,Intrepid

[Hugh Jass @ Nov 7th 2006 8:24PM]

This is BS. Any USB drive of decent quality will function with ReadyBoost. Shame on you for falling for such a pathetic marketing ploy, Engadget.

[Bob @ Feb 11th 2007 9:18PM]

Well I purchased a Super Talent 2 GB drive and Vista shot it down. It received the same poor performance report as two other drives I've tried. The ReadyBoost feature has not impressed me.....