The reason I ask this is because I was wondering how effective MS Vista is at using a USB pen drive as an extension to a PC's RAM as opposed to using a swap file on an internal hard disc.
Surely the hard disk is faster when it comes to data access speed, so why use a USB pen drive?
2007-02-21 20:53:21 · 6 answers · asked by Kodak 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
In theory the flash memory inside a USB pen is much faster than a internal hard disk. However, generally, performance can be constrained by the specification of your usb connection and device and how your internal hard disk connections. In other words if you have a USB version 1 connection but the pen drive is USB version 2, the performance will be limited to the slower speeds of the version 1 specification.
Another variable is what your computer is doing at the time. This can mean that the fastest is not always best.
2007-02-21 21:14:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
usb 2 pen can be 40 times faster but its depends on how fast is the hard drive lets say 7200 rms is fast then the answer would be the pen will beat the drive
2007-02-21 20:59:22 · answer #2 · answered by vwd2007 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
definitly a pen drive is faster than a hard disc as it has very high speed of access .it is also because hard disc uses mechanical components ie moving parts but a pen drive is purely electronic
2007-02-21 21:05:15 · answer #3 · answered by rakesh 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not today I don't think, but eventually they may become faster. The only benefit I see today is power consumption, which might be a little issue on laptops.
2007-02-21 20:57:46 · answer #4 · answered by Raymond 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
internal hd is faster at reading data, but i think a flash drive is faster at writing data if it's on a USB2 port.
2007-02-21 20:57:15 · answer #5 · answered by brandon 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not currently, to my knowledge.
2007-02-21 20:56:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋