Hybrid Hard Drive & ReadyBoost

So I've been using ReadyBoost for a few years now (4GB stick formatted in exFAT file system seems to work nicely). And now I'm upgrading my system to a hybrid hard drive (was going to do SSD but 750GB with 8BG flash cache was cheap as heck compared to SDD).

I'm looking for someone with real experience running a hybrid setup, does it benefit to run both a hybrid and readyboost? I can see where it possibly makes sense, but then again I can also see where the technology might conflict and cause readyboost to be chosen over the hybrid when its faster, anyone have any real results or comments? Or have you seen any sites that compare with this type of setup?

Hello Josephur, to Windows 7 Forums,

It actually depends on how much RAM you're running on your system.
If you're running 6Gb's of RAM or higher, then using ReadyBoost can actually slow it down, you also have to remember that USB devices are limited to a 2.0 bandwidth.
ReadyBoost has to encrypt everything because it's assuming removable media, whereas the hybrid solution has no such constraint.

I had 3Gb's RAM running Win 7 w/Patriot Razzo 8Gb's for ReadyBoost and it ran pretty fast, then I upgraded my RAM to 6Gb's leaving ReadyBoost on and I actually noticed a slowing on some programs, I removed the ReadyBoost and the speed returned and maybe a little faster, it also took me a while to figure it might be the flash drive.

Hope this helps
Don

With that hybrid HDD, there's no need for ReadyBoost at all. That HDD will conform to the user's computing habits & get faster over time. I was actually considering buying one for my notebook, as it's hard to find a regular HDD for these systems with a 32MB cache.

But after seeing the recent nosedive in SSD's, many now on promo for less than $1 per GB, my eyes are on a Crucial M4 128GB. Much faster, longer battery life, extremely fast boot times.

As far as ReadyBoost itself goes, it's mainly useful to those who has 2GB or less RAM. I did notice a difference in speed when I had 2GB RAM on 64 bit Windows 7 Pro, but once I upgraded to 4GB RAM, saw no difference at all. Other users may have different experiences, but that was mine.

Good Luck with the new HDD, I hope that it works well for you.

Cat