SDRAM drives; are there cheap setups?

[MadRat]

I've seen some RAM drives based on SDRAM technology. The problem is they are expensive because they incorporate UPS and redundant power supplies to the modules, plus they are based on ECC technology.

Why doesn't someone push a cheaper volatile solution?

1. No UPS
2. No ECC
3. Variable memory support (PC100/133, CAS2/3)

I'd think it would be a real possibility to have 2gb RAM drives to act as a psuedo-drive cache. Even PC100 memory is 100x faster than your hard drive.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

I'd say that it'll be hard to get rid of the UPS if you're wanting to use SDRAM as a hard drive. Without it, you'd format your HD every time you restart.

That being said, I'd like to see some cheap ramdrives, considering the cheap price of RAM...

 

[MadRat]

Software could flush the RAM at shutdown.

I'm thinking this would be alot better than relying on hard drive speeds with the newer systems. I could see it having an amazing difference when coupled to cheap servers, too.

 

[Modus]

Wouldn't you achieve almost the same effect just by installing hoards of cheap RAM in a PC and running good RamDrive software? You could use Suspend-to-RAM and other ACPI features along with a UPS for the whole system, and you've got a really cheap solution.

Modus

 

[Modus]

Though I guess you'd need a chipset that supports at least 1.5G main memory. Do the VIA KTxxx have that? I can't recall.

Modus

 

[bigjon]

Yeah, 1.5gb is supported by KT133. Still, a bootable UPS-backed hardcard would be sweet, especially if you could do away with your regular hard disk At Pricewatch's current lowest PC133 price (256mb = $22) you could have a 10gig hardcard for just $880 (plus cost of supporting hardware), not bad when you compare with 15,000rpm drives etc...

 

[Thyme]

Have you checked out this?

 

[MadRat]

My idea would be to incorporate this into DDR/RDRAM systems as a boost.