64 GB USB Thumb Drive (For The Filthy Rich)

[Dïscfärm]

Kanguru 64GB Flash Max Drive
...The Kanguru Flash Max is a high strength, high capacity USB 2.0 flash drive that stores up to 64GB!...

A steal at US$2799.99 <cough>


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2074958&Sku=I46-2060

 

[P5-133XL]

I am impressed, in more ways than one.

 

[Mercutio]

If you have Vista 64-bit edition, that's one hell of a lot of extra memory.

 

[ddrueding]

If you have Vista 64-bit edition, that's one hell of a lot of extra memory.

?

It's not fast enough to be usefull for memory, is it?

 

[Handruin]

I believe I've heard vista can make use of USB flash drives for caching purposes...maybe that's what Mercutio is referring to?

 

[timwhit]

This link provides a lot more info on ReadyBoost
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx

 

[Handruin]

Interesting tid-bit:

Q: What's the largest amount of flash that I can use for ReadyBoost?
A: You can use up to 4GB of flash for ReadyBoost (which turns out to be 8GB of cache w/ the compression)

Q: Why can't I use more than 4GB of flash?
A: The FAT32 filesystem limits our ReadyBoost.sfcache file to 4GB

 

[Adcadet]

Has anyone seen actual real-world data yet on how much ReadyBoost increases performance?

 

[Bozo]

I have a 1GB USB device installed on Vista.
Performance increase??? Not that I can tell. I think it's 'wishful thinking' or 'MS Spin'. :rotfl:

Bozo :joker:

 

[Mercutio]

I suppose it makes a difference if you have one of those bargain-basement Dells with 128MB RAM. Vista basically creates and uses the thumb drive for swap space.

 

[GIANT]

I have a 1GB USB device installed on Vista. Performance increase??? Not that I can tell. I think it's 'wishful thinking' or 'MS Spin'.

You probably have to configure ReadyBoost before it can be used as such (i.e. -- a Control Panel applet for memory management, etc). ReadyBoost probably has the ability to locate flash memory plugged into a USB, ATA, or FireWire port

It's not fast enough to be usefull for memory, is it?

Indeed, flash memory is vastly slower than the dynamic RAM commonly used for system memory. Such memory cannot be integrated into a typical computer's system memory (so-called primary memory). It could, however, be managed by Vista software memory management as so-called virtual memory -- which has to exist by definition on secondary storage such as disc or flash. Other uses for this flash memory might be temp file storage or disc cache.

 

[Bozo]

I set Vista up to use the USB device for Ready Boost.


Still haven't seen any performance gains.

Maybe in a laptop? My Vista install is on a Raptor with 1.5GB of RAM

Bozo :joker:

 

[time]

Q: Why can't I use more than 4GB of flash?
A: The FAT32 filesystem limits our ReadyBoost.sfcache file to 4GB

That would make it FAT16 (NT enhanced with 64kB blocks) rather than FAT32.

 

[time]

Indeed, flash memory is vastly slower than the dynamic RAM commonly used for system memory.

Indeed, it's slower than a hard disk drive, particularly as swap space. Not sure what its value as a disk cache would be ...

 

[Mercutio]

It's a trade-off. Flash drives have zero seek time. As long as the chunk of data you want is smaller that the maximum DTR of the flash module - something that's highly likely - the flash drive wins.

 

[Handruin]

Looks like they have 32 & 64 GB compact flash cards on the horizon.

 

[adriel]

You should see the 32 GB SSD review on Tom's Hardware. It has read times that are flat across the entire capacity. Not only that, but reduced power consumption, weight, and more importantly, no audible noise.

The problem with that unit is the performance is capped at an ATA66 interface.

I've waited 6 years... give it another six years and the landscape might be different.

 

[adriel]

There are 32 GB SSD available in SATA for $1800. Would seem to be a perfect replacement for a 1st gen Raptor, which I use as the OS disk.