Which is faster? SSD on SATA3 or through the PCIe lanes on a card?

[Ladamyre]

And a couple of thoughts complicate the question...

1) Could the reintroduction of the old RamDisk program we used to use back in the old DOS 5 days be used to insert the boot data into memory?

2) And would it be faster to load that from the SATA3 port, taking it through the SB, or would it be faster coming through the PCIe lanes?

3) Or could this be a moot question if the new RamDisk technology can be used to just load the boot sector into memory, and when we reboot we're booting from memory?.

 

[RetiredChief]

Not sure what you are tring to accomplish. And Yes I use to use a ramdisk back in the day's of 386SXs.

SSDs - If looking at Benchmarks the PCI-e would be higher generally, but in real life boot time and program load times you will not see much difference. I have SATA III SSDs on i5-2500k and on a i5-2410m laptop. In both cases the time from "start loading Operating system to when the "spining Ball stops is like 15 seceonds. (this excludes post time as that is determined by the MB and CPU and what you have attaced to the MB. This Not a "Ramdisk" function - Booting and program Load is Identical for SSD and HDD, it's just that access time for an SSD is in tenths of a millsec compared to 10->12 millisec for a HDD.

With the PCI-e based SSDs you do lose trim cmd (windows 7 and other OS that support this command). Will all new SSDs have an improved wear leveling and Garbage collector algorthium, They function MUCH better with Trim active.

On a Ramdisk - they are about 10 times faster than a SSD which is 20 -> 40 Times faster than a HDD. They are great if you have a need for one such as preloading working files into. They do save on shut down, and load on start up, But loading is After OS is loaded.

Ramdisk I currently use, Free for upto a 4 gig Ramdisk, $15 if you want a large one.
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

 

[JKatwyopc]

I get the impression that you believe that the Ramdisk could be used to boot to your OS similar to what it does from a Harddrive. That is NOT how it works. A Ramdisk uses volatile system memory and software to simulate the functionality of a Hard disk. When you turn off the power to the computer the Ramdisk disappears because the system memory cannot hold onto its contents without system power. An SSD on the other hand uses Nonvolatile memory cells that do not require power to retain their data. While an SSD is much faster than an HDD it is not nearly as fast as system memory.

 

[eXistenZ]

Not meaning to change the subject. . .

When I first installed the SSD, I created a RamDisk to store temporary Internet files and keep things off the SSD. Win7 did perform a system backup but not a C: image backup. That SSD failed.

Has anyone found backup problems with C: image when your system has an R: RamDisk?

Sorry to highjack. Didn't think this was worth a new thread.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Didn't try, so no help there. It might make a diff if it is enabled on startup as opposed to disablled. will try with startup disabled.

Added. Just completed a Image of drive C, with ramdisk disbled on start up - worked fine.
.. I use the ramdisk program I linked to for an 8 Gig ramdrive (fhave 16 gigs of Ram).
.. Ramdrive is pointed to a 2nd drive to create (read/write to) image, so image is NOT on C drive.
.. Would guess that if I restored from image the C drive, the ramdisk image would still be on 2nd HDD and if I then Inable it to read that File on startup it would be fine.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ladamyre]

I get the impression that you believe that the Ramdisk could be used to boot to your OS similar to what it does from a Harddrive. That is NOT how it works. A Ramdisk uses volatile system memory and software to simulate the functionality of a Hard disk. When you turn off the power to the computer the Ramdisk disappears because the system memory cannot hold onto its contents without system power. An SSD on the other hand uses Nonvolatile memory cells that do not require power to retain their data. While an SSD is much faster than an HDD it is not nearly as fast as system memory.

No, I've known that RAM stands for Read Access Memory (at least it did back in '88), and that when you power down the system and turn off the voltage to the modules the data gets lost.

No, I refer to booting from a RAM disk as a warm boot, not cold like you're thinking. Frankly I haven't turned off my machine for months, I have this theory about heat expansion cycles wearing out the PCB's inside.

IIRC, this new RamDisk program will retain data on a cold boot.

 

[Ladamyre]

Best answer selected by Ladamyre.