run off of ram INSTEAD of hard drive

[darren]

i have very basic understanding of computers but this seems logical to me:

with ram prices coming down so hard, we can buy 1.5GB ram for a few hundred dollars. then if someone could design some device that can use ram as a hard drive that would be awesome.

is this feasible?

 

[gimps]

Well, only if you keep your computer on 24/7. All data is erased from RAM once you shut off the power. Would need some kind of battery backup for it.
But also remember, the OS itself will still use RAM, and varying amounts depending on what's loaded up.
This would be a good idea, but 1.5GB just really wouldn't be enough for more than your OS.

 

[BuddyHolly]

There is a such thing as a RAM drive...where you load specific programs into your RAM instead of the hard drive. Did it a while back with the Team Fortress Classic mod. Great way to beat everyone into an internet game...

 

[JarG0n]

And with the new ATA/100 compatable harddrives and motherboards, you might as well be running off a few GB of ram, they are very fast.. I just upgraded to an IBM Deskstar 40 GB drive and I've fallen in love with it's performance, I will NEVER buy another Maxtor or Western Digital drive.

The IBM Deskstar Series is KING !

 

[JarG0n]

Oh, and did I mention the Deskstar drives are so quiet I can only hear them spinning when I put my head up to my case.

Super quiet!

 

[CTho9305]

uh, I STRONGLY disagree that you "might as well be running from ram".... even the fastest of HDs (RAID arrays included) are orders of magnitude slower than ram. Think about this: HD bandwidth is at most 100mb/sec, where as ram is over 1 GB/sec. And the access /seek time is on the order of nanoseconds, vs. milliseconds for HDs