Gigabyte shows off i-RAM successor

Darksaber · Jun 7, 2006

The new version of the i-RAM has moved from a PCI slot to a 5.25 inch drive bay. The DDR of the previous i-RAM has been replaced with DDR2 and a maximum of 8GB is now supported. The new i-RAM gets its power from the PSU directly.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

wickerman · Jun 7, 2006

I also heard reports that the new Iram successor will use the SATAII connections instead of the standard SATA, any confirmation?

Jimmy 2004 · Jun 7, 2006

DailyTech said:
The Serial ATA interface remains with added compatibility for 300MB/s transfer rates, though it is unknown if the GC-RAMDISK will support SATA 3.0Gbps features such as native command queuing

Sounds like it will be as fast as SATA II but may not have all of the features. These things are still too small unfortunately, 8GB just isn't enough for your average user, but in a few years they could be awsome.

Edit: I would have thought Sata is slower than PCI isn't it? Especially PCI-E.

newtekie1 · Jun 7, 2006

wickerman said:
I also heard reports that the new Iram successor will use the SATAII connections instead of the standard SATA, any confirmation?

It says it right in the article SATA 300MB/s...that is SATA II.

I just wish it wasn't in a 5.25" bay and used a PCI-e x1 slot instead so it was still powered when you turned the machine off since the molex connectors are not hot when the machine is off like PCI and PCI-e slots.

zekrahminator · Jun 7, 2006

Guys, I don't think you understand the purpose of RAMdisks...you use them for your pagefile. That eliminates your hard drive from having to do anything memory related except for storage. That, in turn, speeds up your system by a lot.

Jimmy 2004 · Jun 7, 2006

zekrahminator said:
Guys, I don't think you understand the purpose of RAMdisks...you use them for your pagefile. That eliminates your hard drive from having to do anything memory related except for storage. That, in turn, speeds up your system by a lot.

Ok... it would be me that didn't understand, I was thinking from the description that they were also used for general storage,

overcast · Jun 7, 2006

zekrahminator said:
Guys, I don't think you understand the purpose of RAMdisks...you use them for your pagefile. That eliminates your hard drive from having to do anything memory related except for storage. That, in turn, speeds up your system by a lot.

Why not just buy more RAM, turn off the paging and properly write software to not require a shitty pagefile?

phoenix56 · Jun 7, 2006

my raid goes pretty fast

:

http://web.t-online.hu/foenix/Raid_Boot/raid_test_2.png

Darksaber · Jun 7, 2006

phoenix56 said:
my raid goes pretty fast :

http://web.t-online.hu/foenix/Raid_Boot/raid_test_2.png

what kind of setup (drives and such) do you use?

cheers
DS

newtekie1 · Jun 7, 2006

zekrahminator said:
Guys, I don't think you understand the purpose of RAMdisks...you use them for your pagefile. That eliminates your hard drive from having to do anything memory related except for storage. That, in turn, speeds up your system by a lot.

That was pretty much all the last RAM drive was good for. However, this one you can put both the OS and the Pagefile on there and get even better results.

overcast said:
Why not just buy more RAM, turn off the paging and properly write software to not require a shitty pagefile?

Because even when you completely turn off your page file Windows still finds a way to make one and use it, even with 4GB+ of RAM. You can't just right software to not use the page file, it isn't that easy, there are a lot more machines out there that don't have enough RAM to not have a page file then there are that do.

zekrahminator · Jun 7, 2006

overcast said:
Why not just buy more RAM, turn off the paging and properly write software to not require a shitty pagefile?

Because motherboards get buggy after say, 2GB RAM

. You can turn off the paging file right now, just right click "my computer", click properties, click advanced, under the performance tab, click settings, under advanced, click virtual memory, and then go nuts. And I don't know why people don't write software so it doesn't require a pagefile...in all reality it doesn't, but games seem to like having backup RAM in case the system runs out. So yeah, unless you have 1.5GB+ RAM, you should just leave the page file on.

newtekie1 · Jun 7, 2006

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-51784544344753709&q=gigabyte

There is a video of the last version of the i-RAM in action...it is crappy quality, but good enough to get the point across.

zekrahminator · Jun 7, 2006

That guy has the OS loaded on his RAMdisk, right?

phoenix56 · Jun 7, 2006

Darksaber said:
what kind of setup (drives and such) do you use?

I'm using 3 80 GB Seagate 7200.7 NCQ SATA drives with my NF4U board set up in RAID0 mode. It's a very fast and cheap solution.

Alec§taar · Jun 7, 2006

DOUBLEPOST, sorry, see below...

APK

newtekie1 · Jun 7, 2006

zekrahminator said:
That guy has the OS loaded on his RAMdisk, right?

Yes, I believe the OS is on the ram disk.

Also even when you completely turn off the page file using that method Windows still makes and uses one. If you don't believe me then try it, turn off the page file then reboot and go into task manager. Under Performance it will still say Windows is using a Page File. Windows really does not like not having a page file, you can force it to completely not use a page file using tweaks, but then it gets really upset about it.

Alec§taar · Jun 7, 2006

newtekie1 said:
That was pretty much all the last RAM drive was good for.

I do that here, via a CENATEK RocketDrive (1st partition = pagefile.sys placement, 1gb) & also more things like:

1.) Moving my %TEMP%/%TMP% system environment variables to it, so temp ops take place faster for the OS

2.) Placing my webpages caching for IE &/or Opera onto it

3.) Placing all logging for apps onto it (and OS logging like the System, Application, Security logs from eventviewer)

4.) Placing application's temp variables (progs like WinZip/WinRar allow this as well as others)

5.) Putting the PRINT SPOOLER's temp location onto it

6.) Making it the %COMSPEC% cmd.exe location as well, permanently in RAM.

ALL onto its 2nd 1gb partition, where the pagefile.sys sits on the FIRST one.

newtekie1 said:
However, this one you can put both the OS and the Pagefile on there and get even better results.

Yes, the GIGABYTE IRAM's are bootable - this they have over the one I use (CENATEK RocketDrive) & also others like the HyperOS III, as well as using DDR in their init offering & the SATA interface, whereas mine & the HyperOS III use PATA + PC-3200 SDRAM, & now they are onto even FASTER RAM in DDR2!

Still, imo, the spreading that other stuff (pagefile.sys, logging, temp ops, etc.) around to other drives can help though, keeps concurrent I/O on ANY SINGLE DRIVE overall lower imo, by moving it around to diff. disks...

* Interesting stuff, & the equipment for this has gotten better & better as time passes - maybe they're the diskdrives of the future, but for now? That's how I use mine...

APK

overcast · Jun 7, 2006

zekrahminator said:
Because motherboards get buggy after say, 2GB RAM . You can turn off the paging file right now, just right click "my computer", click properties, click advanced, under the performance tab, click settings, under advanced, click virtual memory, and then go nuts. And I don't know why people don't write software so it doesn't require a pagefile...in all reality it doesn't, but games seem to like having backup RAM in case the system runs out. So yeah, unless you have 1.5GB+ RAM, you should just leave the page file on.

I wouldn't make a generalization that motherboards become buggy with more RAM. Crappy boards and memory controllers are the problem. There are obviously server boards that run tens of gigs of ram. I just bought an AM2 board that supports 8gb, so I'm sure more than 2 isn't a problem.

I'm aware of the paging settings, that is why I said it.

newtekie1 · Jun 7, 2006

overcast said:
I wouldn't make a generalization that motherboards become buggy with more RAM. Crappy boards and memory controllers are the problem. There are obviously server boards that run tens of gigs of ram. I just bought an AM2 board that supports 8gb, so I'm sure more than 2 isn't a problem.

I'm aware of the paging settings, that is why I said it.

Currently the entire A64 line becomes buggy with more then 2GB of memory, I would say that is enough to make his generalization justified.

FLY3R · Jun 7, 2006

Theres no point in getting that now, but down the road in a few years those things are going to be awsome, maby even utalizing DDR3.

mcloughj · Jun 7, 2006

correct me if i'm wrong

There's somethinig i'm not getting here, and it's the use of ddrII ram. Assuming that you upgrade from here on in there's a good chance that you'll be moving to DDRII, with alot of people moving from DDRI. that would mean that people would have lots of DDRI sticks that could be put to good use in a system like this.

That said the use of DDRII doesn't make sense anyway because the ram used just has to create enough bandwidth to fill the 300mb/s of SATAII, something that could easily be acclomplished with pc2100 DDR.

The use of sataII is a good move, something that was so needed on the last version. I'd love to get two in a raid0 config... Kablamo!

Homeless · Jun 7, 2006

i believe ddr 2 modules are less expensive to make and require less power to run; that's my guess on why they used them over ddr1

Alec§taar · Jun 7, 2006

Homeless said:
i believe ddr 2 modules are less expensive to make and require less power to run; that's my guess on why they used them over ddr1

Better bandwidth also, correct, for doing things like this? Quote from a forums post here I did:

"Here is I use SSD's here myself (CENATEK "RocketDrive" user since 2003 here)...

1.) Place your pagefile.sys onto these (faster seek/access/read by far vs. HDD's)

2.) Place your system environment variables of %TMP%/%TEMP% (current user & system-wide) onto SSD's also (for the same reasons as #1)...

3.) Place your EventLogs, via registry hack to their FILE value (for the same reasons as #1)...

4.) Place your Web-Browser('s) webpage caches onto it (for the same reasons as #1)...

5.) Place your logging + temp ops (like WinRar & WinZip can do for instance from their config screens) from other apps onto it (for the same reasons as #1)...

6.) Placing your %comspec% environment var location & actual command interpreter, e.g.-> cmd.exe (for the same reasons as #1)...

7.) Lastly, putting your print spooler location onto it (for the same reasons as #1)..."

APK

P.S.=> I mentioned these here earlier, a month or so max (new here anyhow), here @ this URL which has links to reviews of them:

GIGABYTE "IRAM": Affordable "solid-state" storage

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=12295

apk

Makaveli · Jun 8, 2006

Why do u guys post such Nonsense!

"Currently the entire A64 line becomes buggy with more then 2GB of memory, I would say that is enough to make his generalization justified."

I really hope your joking.

It not even about going over 2GB on a A64 rig. its about fill all 4 memory bank which forces u to use 2t instead of 1t. it just slows down the system slightly it doesn't make it buggy or any less stable.

Where did u learn about computers on the back of a cereal box!

Mussels · Jun 8, 2006

Makaveli: You have missed the point. that 'slow down' can be as much as 30% on memory write speeds, which is rather un-cool for gaming systems.

The average hard drive has about 70MB/s speed, not that hot latencies and so forth. The I-ram can do 150MB, or 300MB/s with the new one, which blows them away. No matter how you look at it, its better for speed in every way.

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