I believe you can stick a usb 2 gig memmory stick or more in your PC and use it as ram. Surely this would help when running some music applications. As anybody done this and can you provide anyfeedback.
Thanks in advance.
I try to do the same thing too . but that dependes on the OS your are running at the moment . for example if your os is 32 bits it will work perfectly with 4 gigs . even do you add a usb memory stick the system still will only read till 4 gigs of Ram. unless that you get an OS of 64 bits . then you can add as much Ram as 8 more to your computer to run like a beast .
even do i am working on a 32 bits OS on an I7 I do think that is enought to run a studio.
What a cool idea, didn’t know you could do this. To be honest i haven’t had any issues with my current 6GB ram 
I recently upgraded to windows 7 ultimate and also have 6 gig of ram but its good to know its there as a back up should we need it.
Think im going to do it anyway and just leave a USB stick in there all the time - i suppose there is nothing to loose having extra ram, plus saves opening up your PC and adding some in there - also cheaper:)
ive done this on vista 64. cant say ive really noticed much but its a cool idea
sounds interesting, but aren’t USB sticks painfully slow compared to a normal ram?
Not sure if USB sticks are slower - would imagine they would be as its not considered a direct replacement for the RAM. Suppose we need some computer geek’s input on this one lol:D
Yeah!! 
all tho I must say that the biggest performance increase for me was swapping Windows for MBP
[quote]seanl (20/04/2010)[hr]Yeah!!
all tho I must say that the biggest performance increase for me was swapping Windows for MBP :P[/quote]
AMEN!!!
I find that windows 7 or XP both Work FANTASTIC!!! the very second after you install them but a few weeks later they suck.
MAC OS seems to run fine with all the crap of the day installed… i couldnt install more stuff on my mac… ive got MS office, Final cut, screen flow, photo shop etc. etc. and it still works like its a fresh install.
Windows ive tried to keep as clean as possible but it seems to build up loads of background progs and services that slow it to a slow grind.
Id be lucky to get 30 mins on W7 with out a random Ableton Crash.
Im about to do another clean install but it just seems a tad futile if its gona be all clogged up again in a month.
So what’s the score, do i have to do something in the settings or does it just automatically use a plugged in USB as extra RAM?
I imagine its just like using virtual ram… which i think is called the page file.
the write speed on solid state drives are pretty poor but they are quicker at accessing data… this may give you a marginal improvement over your system drive.
Best just going 64bit with more ram and trying to avoid it using the Vram/pagfile etc. altogether.
Phil,
Must agree with you on this one - windows does slow down over time and is a real pain. Unfortunatly im stuck with a PC in an ideal world i would get myself a MAC but just cant afford one at the minute.
Pretty much like you i try to keep it clean and usually end up doing a fresh install of the OS after about 3 months just to get it running fast again - it bugs the hell out of me. I was hoping that windows 7 was a little better for not leaving a trail of destruction after uninstalling programmes and general use.
if you are having trouble with artifacts after uninstalling try usnig somethign like REVO Uninstaller to remove programs instead of the native uninstaller. It runs the native uninstaller and will then do a deep clean of all program related artifacts.
I think you can do similar in crap cleaner.
I get the point with people saying they get PC’s slowing down, but it’s just a case of simple maintenance,.
Past that it all depends on what you’re using your PC for, if it’s online it’s going to get clogged up so I’d say make sure you are running CCcleaner once a week, it takes a few minutes but will return great results, same with prog’s like Malware Bytes leave it going over night.
The best advice I’ve been given though is to try and keep your Net PC and Studio PC seperate - obviously cost can be prohibitive, but I’ve just done my first clean re-install after 7 years with XP on a non internet PC.
I’ve had a Vista PC running for over a year acting as amedia centre and not experienced any problems.
Having said that I’m just buying a new PC with 7 on it for the studio, so maybe i’ll see a difference with it clogging up now.
Roben
I havent tried this yet as i dont have a usb memmory stick - but if your using windows 7 64 bit plug in the USB it will show a menu - select the bottom item i think it mentions something to do with speed up. You then select how much of the stick you want to dedicate to the memmory as you can use a seperate part of it to store files as you would normally. Click apply and then its job done. I dont think you will notice any significant differences but the options there!
Aapie,
Thanks for the heads up on the programmes for trying to keep window clean 