RAMDisk, or what to do if you have 128 gigabytes of RAM in your computer

    Hi, GeekTimes! Absolutely incredible power and performance is hidden in the word RAMDisk - Once upon a time there were even special devices that imitate the work of a ramdisk at the iron level - Gigabyte i-RAM, for example. However, now when accessing a huge amount of RAM, building virtual disks becomes even easier. What does this give? The answer is under the cut.



    To begin with, the iron configuration - to make a large RAMDisk you need a lot of RAM. “I have them” - 128 selected gigabytes of DDR4 HyperX Savage - so much more? Strictly speaking, my motherboard does not support this amount of RAM, but with the help of a tambourine and several other shaman accessories, I managed to start a stand, albeit with a reservation, at a frequency of 2133 MHz. Otherwise, everything is on the highest level - eight memory bars of 16 gigabytes each, branded beautiful HyperX Savage radiators, a long warranty period, technical support (in case you cannot cope with setting up and installing yourself). Such a kit needs an appropriate test facility, and it is also at my disposal.

    • Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X
    • Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Extreme, Intel Socket 2011-3
    • RAM: HyperX Savage DDR4-2666 128 Gb (8 * 16 Gb)
    • System SSD: HyperX Predator PCI-E SSD 480 Gb
    • Video card: AMD Fury X
    • Power supply: Corsair AX1200i, 1200W
    • Operating system: Windows 10 Professional (64-bit)


    In the vastness of this RAM, you can deploy anything. Surely you can run all installed programs at the same time, and maybe even several instances of Mozilla Firefox (sarcasm), but today I am interested in virtual disks.

    When it becomes indecent to your computer a lot of RAM you want to use it as much as possible, and RAMDisk is the most successful application. At the moment there is a fairly wide choice of software for working with RAMDisk, but I will build with the help of software, which has already proven itself from the positive side and collected a number of reviews - DATARAM Ramdisk and ROG Ramdisk.
    The first software is shareware, before it was possible to purchase a quality license with a good discount when buying AMD products.
    The second option comes free with the ASUS Motherboards of the Republic Of Gamers series. If the testing will take place on the base of the ASUS Rampage V Extreme / USB3.1 motherboard, it’s a sin not to appreciate the possibilities of this software.







    Of course, there is a great temptation to create 64 gigabyte disks, but I have two programs, which means they will try to devour the entire amount of RAM available. Therefore, I confine myself to two disks of 32 gigabytes each.





    It was not at all easy to test RAMDisk, because many programs do not want to deal with it, such as the familiar and convenient PC Mark 8 - it refuses to pass the test on the indicated section, giving an error. In this case, the fact that the use of RAM Disk will lead to a significant increase in the result and the system of protection against “cheating”, because the PC Mark 8 ratings are used by many enthusiasts to compare the performance of their systems.

    Crystal Disk Mark 5.1.2


    This test allows you to evaluate the drive in four modes: linear read / write, read / write blocks in 4K, linear read / write at a queue depth of 32 commands, read / write blocks in 4K at a queue depth of 32 commands.



    Crystal Disk Mark demonstrates that not all yogurts are equally useful, namely the ROG disk is faster than DATARam and quite significant.

    Copying a file from RAMDisk to another RAMDisk is a very fun procedure - everything happens almost instantly. A huge video file, the write speed of which on the RAM Disk is limited only by the speed of reading from the USB source, flies at supersonic speed inside the RAM.



    Copying a disk from SSD to RAM Disk also turns out to be quite fast - the speed is limited by the speed of reading from the solid-state drive, similarly in the opposite direction - faster than SSD writes it will not work.

    As an application software, I propose a purely subjective assessment: working with photos in the DxO OpticsPro application 10. The task was to export 20 photos from Canon RAW format (CR2) to full-size JPEG with PRIME quality noise enabled. A lot in this task depends on the processor, but working with the data storage is also important.
    The result is a difference of about 20 percent compared with exports to the HyperX Predator system PCI-E SSD. Is it a lot? Yes, quite a significant increase, because overclocking the processor by 10% (300 MHz) changed the packet processing time by only 1%.



    For games, it was impossible to use all the benefits, or rather, everything works correctly, without questions, but FPS in two very demanding toys: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Total War: Attila did not grow relative to the test results of games that were installed on PCI- E SSD.



    So what is RAMDisk for? What can be accelerated with it? Archivers (who will need to compress / decompress data so quickly). Browsers (quick access to all the cache that you have). Saving of a resource of record of cells of SSD (the controversial moment taking into account the cost of a large amount of RAM) content creators spinning large files in Adobe PS / AI and so on (the most realistic example).

    The cost of RAMDisk does not relate to the strengths of the "project". In terms of a ruble per gigabyte SSD drive will be much more profitable than a huge amount of RAM - SSD Kingston KC400 with a capacity of 128 Gb costs from 3,800 rubles, a set of 128 Gb memory will cost 83,000 rubles . But the speed of reading / writing exceeds the budget, and not only, SSD more than 10 times, and besides, a large amount of RAM has never harmed anyone. Is that the wallet will be unhappy, but who asks him =).

    There are some nuances and drawbacks: A small amount of information is stored, although if we are talking mainly about temporary storage of media files during processing, you should not complain. The second caveat: in case there is no ASUS ROG board - there is a need to purchase high-quality software to create a RAMDisk. The third feature: volatility - let the RAMDisk image be saved every time you exit Windows, but in case of a sudden power failure - data loss cannot be avoided.

    Thank you for your attention and stay with Kingston on Hiktatimes!

    Even out of the irony of the situation with iron there is a way out - from “voting with a wallet” to technical progress, which slaps the well-fed faces of marketers and makes them release what buyers crave. Everything will be cool, we promise!
    And we are damn, incredibly happy to communicate with like-minded people in our blog and intend to give high-quality Kingston hardware to our subscribers. At the end of June, we will give 11 subscribers of our blog 1 HyperX Savage SSD-drive at 120GB and 10 DTSE9 flash drives at 8GB , and we will not stop at this (between the first and second ...), but raise the degree of gift-iron steepness, so that readers can see for themselves Kingston is good.

    And besides, we have prepared a special promotional code for all readers of our blog.geekpromo for purchasing HyperX Savage DDR4 memory of any frequency and volume in the Yulmart network with a 10% discount. You can use the promotional code until July 24, 2016, share information with friends!

    For more information about Kingston and HyperX products, visit the company's official website . In choosing your kit HyperX help page with visual aids .

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