32GB

[sm625]

Lets say I have a hypothetical system with 32GB of RAM, a 32GB CF card with Windows 7 installed, and a 2TB media/programs HDD.

Is there some software I can use to cache at least 16GB of my most commonly accessed HDD data so that it is available instantly? Sort of like SSD caching, only for RAM. Forget SSD speeds. I want instant.

In a nutshell, I am looking for software that will turn my CF card into a speed demon, using cheap RAM and the cheapest CF card, and no expensive SSD. I am familiar with Flashfire, but it is for win xp. I love flashfire btw.

Note: I was an early adopter of Gigabyte's i-RAM. I used it back in ~2005 to cache a 1 GB game folder. It worked ok. The system I mentioned is hypothetical, but I would seriously consider it if I had this software I want.

 

[deimos3428]

If you find out, let me know!

It's hard to find reliable and accurate information on this but in my limited understanding, Windows 7 should be doing what you describe by default. You hit the CF once, and then the data should be in RAM for any subsequent requests provided you have sufficient RAM.

Most articles on the subject seem to involve *limiting* this caching behavior so as not to exhaust precious limited system RAM; you have the opposite problem and want to ensure it is caching and not hitting some artificial threshold. Perhaps there are some tweaks out there to ensure the OS's algorithm is caching aggressively enough, but I couldn't find anything.

 

[dbcooper1]

CF access is likely going to be too slow for this; you want an SSD up to 64GB. Windows 7 can make use of it the way you want without additional software.

 

[moriz]

yep, it exists:

http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/fancy-cache/

using this program, my WD caviar green 640GB managed 6GB/s sequentials. i primarily use it as a buffer space for fraps recording.

 

[KentState]

There isn't much benefit to this when limiting yourself to CF. Even Readyboost gives very little performance increase beyond using slightly less power.

 

[Costas Athan]

But RAM is volatile memory even if a program like this exists the data should be reloaded after each boot up.

Besides the operating system is responsible for using the computer's memory hierarchy in the best way to ensure performance. The best way to speed up a PC is to upgrade the speed of the most slow device in the above mentioned hierarchy and that device is the hard drive. A SSD will do the trick very well and it will be even better in the future...

 

[boochi]

You could create a very large ramdisk with ramdisk plus http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php
The Ramdisk will load at boot but would add a couple minutes to the boot process. If you wanted the ramdisk to save at shutdown a delay would be added as well. I used to install games to ramdisks and I would always have the fastest level loads.

 

[R4in]

Some people were mentioning a program called fancycache to cache with RAM.