[spot]

Since speed seems to be of interest here, has anyone tried installing their operating system to an i-RAM SATA DDR Hard Disk Drive? Gigabyte make one with 4 DDR slots, you can pretty cheaply install XP into 4GB. It claims to boot into XP in 1/13th the time of a standard 7200rpm unit.

If not, why not?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-RAM discusses it.

[Carbon]

I can boot into XP in about five seconds with my current setup on a regular 7200RPM disk. The slow write times and high cost turns me off to solid state. If I was creating a server or a comp that did a constant read application 24/7, I'd consider it, but even Raptors are a better deal for the money atm.

[Cew27]

but then again with a server you would also need fast read times, which solid state has, why not have a ssd thats big enough for your os and then use a hard drive for all the files, fast boot but also fast write

[Carbon]

That's what I said in my post :p If I was going to do that, I'd get a Raptor with similar or better price per GB, no worry about volatile storage, and with faster write speeds. But like I said, I boot into Windows in 5s or less anyway so it doesn't matter.

[philthomas]

Haven't used one myself yet, like Carbon ... the price is still a deterrent.

I would be interested to know more, especially on reliability ..... if they come down in price, which no doubt they wiil, I may have a little dabble.

[spot]

Come on, this price excuse is pretty naff. You can do this for £150, that's the price of a return train ticket to London these days.

[Carbon]

I could also buy two more monitors, or a 8800GT, or...

Not going to pay that kind of cash for a couple seconds off loading times.

[philthomas]

LOL .... you're being ripped off m8y ..... Manchester to London £12 with Virgin - £24 return trip.

Have you tried one yourself ? .... or are you hoping to find some guinea pigs ?

[spot]

Good lord, guinea pigs of course. This entire rig cost me less than sixty quid. All my software's legal too. The i-RAM caught my eye, I thought it sounded neat, and this is after all a site for dedicated speed freaks.

[philthomas]

.... I think I'll pass on this one

[Gazmondo]

How much does this type of storage cost?

[spot]

Check on eBay, I reckon you can pick up 4GB of DDR2 for £60 and the bare i-RAM for another £80. My £150 was a maximum guess. It just sounds a fun toy to effectively have your entire operating system at RAM speeds already when you apply power to the computer, with no seek overhead at all. The cheapest DDR2 is adequate, the device is limited by the SATA-1 maximum transfer rate.