I'm lost...Vista/XP/32/64 ?!?!

[asintu]

I will soon be building a new system and the more I looked over the choices for an OS the more I got confused. XP is more stable/faster, Vista is more stable/faster, 32 bit is the best choice now, 64bit is the way to go...etc...etc...etc.

System will mostly be used for office/programming/video/multimedia applications.

Any suggestions as to what I should go for? Also, how much ram will i need?

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: asintu
Any suggestions as to what I should go for? Also, how much ram will i need?

Get Windows Vista HP x86 SP1, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB ReadyBoost, and call it a day... 😉

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: asintu
Any suggestions as to what I should go for? Also, how much ram will i need?

Get Windows Vista HP x86 SP1, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB ReadyBoost, and call it a day... 😉

What he said except Vista 64 so you can use all that ram and expand if needed.

 

[asintu]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: asintu
Any suggestions as to what I should go for? Also, how much ram will i need?

Get Windows Vista HP x86 SP1, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB ReadyBoost, and call it a day... 😉

ready boost? even more confused now....

 

[bsobel]

ReadyBoost is a Vista feature which uses a flashdrive to augment the page file (since flash has no seek time it can be much faster for pagefile type access). He's suggesting 4 gig of actual memory and a 4 gig Vsta ready flash drive as well.

 

[asintu]

Originally posted by: bsobel
ReadyBoost is a Vista feature which uses a flashdrive to augment the page file (since flash has no seek time it can be much faster for pagefile type access). He's suggesting 4 gig of actual memory and a 4 gig Vsta ready flash drive as well.

are people actually using the readyboost thing? is it popular? what does it speed up? just the start up time or the loading time of everything in general

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: asintu

Originally posted by: bsobel
ReadyBoost is a Vista feature which uses a flashdrive to augment the page file (since flash has no seek time it can be much faster for pagefile type access). He's suggesting 4 gig of actual memory and a 4 gig Vsta ready flash drive as well.

are people actually using the readyboost thing? is it popular? what does it speed up? just the start up time or the loading time of everything in general

Speeds up access to data that has been paged out. Given you can get a RB drive for about 40bucks or so, its cheap to have (I have mine on an internal usb connector so I dont even need to see it, and I have 32gig of ram).

 

[asintu]

i've read some more and it seems the more ram u have the less the performance increase from readyboost..so if i have 4gb of ram..would i really need the minimal performance given by an extra 4gb readyboost stick?

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: asintu
...would i really need the minimal performance given by an extra 4gb readyboost stick?

When you start using Windows Vista, the first thing you'll notice is your HD going crazy!

In the vernacular, this is called "disk grinding"... and it will drive YOU crazy!

"Minimal performance" gains aside, one of the ancillary benefits of running ReadyBoost is it will quiet down your drives, so...

Yes, IMHO, you really need the extra 4 GB ReadyBoost card! 😉

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: asintu
Any suggestions as to what I should go for? Also, how much ram will i need?

Get Windows Vista HP x86 SP1, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB ReadyBoost, and call it a day... 😉

Hell no.

Vista HP x64 SP1, 4 or 8 GB RAM, & no Readyboost.

x86 is good for today, sure...as in yesterday maybe.
I understand that people are still scared of x64 for largely incorrect reasons, but the only reason to stick w/ x86 is if you actually have certain software titles that don't work in x64, which is highly unlikely.

Or if you prefer being tied down & limited to less than high performance amounts of RAM, & being stuck w/o a realistic upgrade path.

Originally posted by: VinDSL
When you start using Windows Vista, the first thing you'll notice is your HD going crazy!

In the vernacular, this is called "disk grinding"... and it will drive YOU crazy!

"Minimal performance" gains aside, one of the ancillary benefits of running ReadyBoost is it will quiet down your drives, so...

Yes, IMHO, you really need the extra 4 GB ReadyBoost card! 😉

Not needed IMHO.

I used my Readyboost drive for quite a long time...but really, you really don't see any benefits once you get a lot of RAM IMO.

I have it sitting around unused now actually...i suppose i could plug it in for a theoretical performance improvement...

I'd rather recommend people put that money into more RAM.

8 GB RAM on x64 is a far better way to waste money than 4 GB + 4 GB Readyboost on a 32 bit crippled system, sorry 😉

Just my opinion...those of you are welcome to enjoy your x86 experience.

Actually, heck, let's go high end here.
Just cause, even though you'll see zero improvement from the ReadyBoost drive.

How about 8 GB + 4 GB Readyboost? 😀

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: n7
Vista HP x64 SP1, 4 or 8 GB RAM, & no Readyboost...

8 GB RAM on x64 is a far better way to waste money than 4 GB + 4 GB Readyboost on a 32 bit crippled system, sorry 😉

How about 8 GB + 4 GB Readyboost? 😀

Um...

Originally posted by: asintu
System will mostly be used for office/programming/video/multimedia applications.

Kinda overkill, don't you think? 😀

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: asintu

Originally posted by: bsobel
ReadyBoost is a Vista feature which uses a flashdrive to augment the page file (since flash has no seek time it can be much faster for pagefile type access). He's suggesting 4 gig of actual memory and a 4 gig Vsta ready flash drive as well.

[...] and I have 32gig of ram).

what !??!?!

 

[Bateluer]

I've been using Vista 64 with 4GB of RAM now for a few months. Couple days ago, I stuck my old 1GB memory stick in and set it to be used for ReadyBoost. Haven't really noticed too much, though I do see the activity light flashing on it periodically.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: n7
Vista HP x64 SP1, 4 or 8 GB RAM, & no Readyboost...

8 GB RAM on x64 is a far better way to waste money than 4 GB + 4 GB Readyboost on a 32 bit crippled system, sorry 😉

How about 8 GB + 4 GB Readyboost? 😀

Um...

Originally posted by: asintu
System will mostly be used for office/programming/video/multimedia applications.

Kinda overkill, don't you think? 😀

Possibly. But still better to be on V64 so he can add the 4 extra gig if he needs them than stuck maxed out with x86.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I've been using Vista 64 with 4GB of RAM now for a few months. Couple days ago, I stuck my old 1GB memory stick in and set it to be used for ReadyBoost. Haven't really noticed too much, though I do see the activity light flashing on it periodically.

I agree Vista x64 HP with 4GB is way to go, more ram will obviously give you a better performance increase then any ReadyBoost device,I have used a 4GB ReadyBoost device with my 4GB of ram and to be honest I can't say there's any noticable improvements apart from the ReadyBoost device actually getting used.

 

[Scotteq]

Another vote for Vista x64. Especially if you're doing heavy video - You can run as much RAM as your Mobo will handle (8GB for most consumer mobos).

But be advised that if you have a lot of older equipment/applications (2yrs+), there are potential issues getting it all to work if there's a newer version the maker wants to sell you instead. What happens is they don't bother writing device drivers for the old stuff in order to make you buy new.


Regarding HDD activity - Vista indexes everything on the drive for faster searching (as fast as you can type - really), so there's a lot of hard drive activity until it completes that process.

 

[bsobel]

Regarding HDD activity - Vista indexes everything on the drive for faster searching (as fast as you can type - really), so there's a lot of hard drive activity until it completes that process.

Yep and ReadyBoost doesn't provide any benefit in that scenario, regardless of what was claimed.

 

[VinDSL]

I base my *recommendation* of 4 GB RAM & 4 GB ReadyBoost on my multimedia lappy.

Bear along...

You get a totally different view of things when your rig (case, keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.) is on your lap, sitting on the 'Family Jewels'! 😀

Before I bought my Toshiba A215 lappy, a friend of mine owned the same identical model, and warned me about it. He suffers from Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy and had to return it because the palm rests got so hot, he felt like his fingers were on fire!

As a matter of fact, Toshiba actually warns you about this (scan of my shipping bag).

Underneath the left palm rest is the RAM - under the right palm rest is the HD...

I'm here to tell you - after I 'discovered' ReadyBoost and installed it on my lappy - the right palm rest (HD) is now stone cold, and the left palm rest (RAM) is barely warm - really!

LoL! This is NOT my imagination!

The HD is working less hard with ReadyBoost (once it loads), generating almost no heat, and my battery lasts longer between charges.

4 GB of SODIMM RAM cost me $175 - 4 GB SDHC Flash card cost me $20.

The increase in performance afforded by going from 2 GB RAM -> 4 GB RAM was about the same as going from '0' ReadyBoost -> 4 GB.

While the benefits of going from 2 GB RAM/'0' ReadyBoost -> 4 GB RAM/4 GB ReadyBoost is barely perceptible at times - the benefits ARE there!

I'll leave it to you to judge which was the more cost-effective purchase! 😉

 

[lxskllr]

I'd go with Vista64 also. As cheap as ram is now, I think it's worth getting loaded for even marginal benefits. I could have 8gb of ram now for less money than I spent on 4gb in my rig.

 

[bsobel]

I'm here to tell you - after I 'discovered' ReadyBoost and installed it on my lappy - the right palm rest (HD) is now stone cold, and the left palm rest (RAM) is barely warm - really!

More likely Vista finished indexing your system so things stablized. But its simple to tell, post your latest event 1015 stats from the readyboost event log (e.g.)

Summary of ReadyBoot Performance:
Io Read Count: 14797
Io Read KB: 230502
Cache Hit Count: 1519
Cache Hit KB: 7120
Cache Hit Percentage: 10.2655943772386
Cache Fragmentation: 9.46839587557518
Compressed Data Size KB: 1761188
Raw Data Size KB: 3027132
Compression Ratio: 1.71880117284469
Cache Size KB: 713775
Boot Prefetch Time us: 0
Boot Prefetch Bytes Read: 0
Boot Timestamp (UTC): 4/22/2008 3:36:20 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (UTC): 4/20/2008 7:23:26 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (Local): Sun, Apr 20 08, 12:29:31 PM

Bill

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: Bateluer

I agree Vista x64 HP with 4GB is way to go, more ram will obviously give you a better performance increase then any ReadyBoost device,I have used a 4GB ReadyBoost device with my 4GB of ram and to be honest I can't say there's any noticable improvements apart from the ReadyBoost device actually getting used.

I agree.
There is no either noticeable increase or even decrease in performance.
All we need is some benchies to prove it.
Back to topic, Vista 64 is the way to go.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Summary of ReadyBoot Performance:
Io Read Count: 14797
Io Read KB: 230502
Cache Hit Count: 1519
Cache Hit KB: 7120
Cache Hit Percentage: 10.2655943772386
Cache Fragmentation: 9.46839587557518
Compressed Data Size KB: 1761188
Raw Data Size KB: 3027132
Compression Ratio: 1.71880117284469
Cache Size KB: 713775
Boot Prefetch Time us: 0
Boot Prefetch Bytes Read: 0
Boot Timestamp (UTC): 4/22/2008 3:36:20 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (UTC): 4/20/2008 7:23:26 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (Local): Sun, Apr 20 08, 12:29:31 PM

Heh!

You're using less than a gig... 😀

 

[n7]

The 8 GB + 4 GB Readyboost was sarcasm.

4 GB is fine for the majority of Vista users, & for the OP i'm sure.
If he wants a boost, adding more RAM would be his best bet.

I love the concept of Readyboost, but i would always prioritize buying more RAM, then Readyboost if so desired.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: n7
I love the concept of Readyboost, but i would always prioritize buying more RAM, then Readyboost if so desired.

Gotta agree!

ReadyBoost just saves your hard drive(s), and your sanity... 😉

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: bsobel
Summary of ReadyBoot Performance:
Io Read Count: 14797
Io Read KB: 230502
Cache Hit Count: 1519
Cache Hit KB: 7120
Cache Hit Percentage: 10.2655943772386
Cache Fragmentation: 9.46839587557518
Compressed Data Size KB: 1761188
Raw Data Size KB: 3027132
Compression Ratio: 1.71880117284469
Cache Size KB: 713775
Boot Prefetch Time us: 0
Boot Prefetch Bytes Read: 0
Boot Timestamp (UTC): 4/22/2008 3:36:20 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (UTC): 4/20/2008 7:23:26 PM
Last Boot Plan Timestamp (Local): Sun, Apr 20 08, 12:29:31 PM

Heh!

You're using less than a gig... 😀

What a surprise, you failed to answer the question. Again, why dont you post your event log information, we can see how much less your drive is chugging...