Update time!
Here is a *potentially* interesting little product for not much money:
http://www.thessdreview.com/hardware/su ... sk-review/
Oddly the hardware itself isn't interesting..
This is your classic 8-64 gig SSD with a USB 3.0 connection - "yawn".
No,
-what's really interesting is the software behind this design that nearly "transparently" creates a RAM disk associated with that "USB stick's" own on-board memory.
(Caveat: you've got to have some system memory available for any performance gain, other wise you've just got another "USB memory stick".)
Assuming you DO have some system memory to spare then you have what amounts to a "blazing" performance drive even if it is limited in capacity on a "static" basis (..or rather it's ability to keep all info that's "passed" its way). I believe 64 gig is the max here.
As mentioned in the link's review article: the latest REVO SSD's from Samsung have this via RAPID, BUT as noted a few posts up (post 66), Samsung's RAPID isn't particularly "rapid" - and some might argue slower. That's NOT the case here!
Caution: a performance improvement like this WILL entail compromises - specifically to write "stability". In other words - if your system crashes while using this and the system RAM drive for this "stick" has NOT fully written to the stick, then you are going to loose that data.
Still, this leaves the product with some particularly great uses - most involving caching where you want some measure of "static" memory but can afford to loose it if a "disaster" occurs.
Ex.s:
1. Browser "Web-page" cache. On a FIFO-basis (first in, first out) - that webpage data that isn't "refreshed" is going to be almost instantly "pulled" from system memory. (..imagine nearly every part of a webpage you've visited before "filling" almost instantly.) PLUS it's not going to be lost every time you power-down your computer (..like it would with just a software system RAM drive). BTW, just the less expensive 16 gig stick with 1 gig system memory should "do the trick" for most people in this example.
2. Game file folders for "Saves". For the most part it's not absolutely critical that you have up-to-date saves actually saved. Most games do an auto-save on a continuing basis (plus you should also be saving games as you can), so even if disaster occurs - you've still got that prior save. Of course the limitation here is your capacity, 64 gig maybe fine for most games - but it might not cut-it for some other games that tend to create huge game-save files.
Note: as an added measure of capacity and fault-tolerance, you could have the USB drive's game save files backed-up to a larger drive. Sort of a "Tiered" effect: say 1 gig system RAM drive, 32 gig USB stick, and 240 gig of Hard Disk for all of your saved games. Open-Source app: "DropIt" - looks like it should work well for this sort of use:
http://www.dropitproject.com/
Understand that this really isn't different than using something like Fancycache for ANY drive (..not just limited to a USB stick drive), BUT Fancycache is still in Beta - and it's not really of the "plug-and-play" variety when it comes to ease of use. This product is pretty much "plug-and-play", at least to the extent of setting-up the software RAM drive that accompanies it. (..you'll still need to take other actions relating to what resides on the drive, and how this drive might be backed-up.)
Also, remember that (as any software RAM drive), you cannot use the caching ram portion for a "System" drive (..or the drive the Operating System resides on). You *might* be able to use the drive itself as a system drive (..if your bios allows that option), BUT the caching portion won't initiate until after the OS is loaded sufficiently.