Hmmm... What would happen if

[Ant2ne]

What do you think would happen if I removed my current SWAP partition, and then formatted a 2GB flash stick as a SWAP? Would it be possible to speed up a slower computer (one with little physical RAM and an EIDE hard drive) with this "trick"?

[Qqmike]

Re: Hmmm... What would happen if

I don't know.
People worry about wearing out the re-write cycles of the UFDs, but then maybe that's not an issue; it's a function of how often the UFD would actually be written to, right?

[dibl]

Re: Hmmm... What would happen if

I'm vaguely recalling that the USB bus is nowhere the speed of an IDE bus -- especially if it's a USB-1 version. So I don't see how you could go faster that way -- but there's only your time to lose trying it.

:P

[Ant2ne]

Re: Hmmm... What would happen if

I recently had to do a "tech report" on a product for my A+ Hardware class. I chose the flash drive. The re-write problem is mostly solved with nearly 1 million re writes. That is a lot of rewrites. USB device and bus is a lot faster than an IDE, but the read/write times is ALOT faster, and the device doesn't have to spin or move an arm to access data. USB beats SATA period.

Attached is a copy of that tech report. I got an A on it

As for the SWAP question above... assuming some idiot wanted to try it... HOW would one go about it?

[Snowhog]

Re: Hmmm... What would happen if

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=453152

This thread indicates that, while it can be done, using a thumb drive for your swap is not a good idea.

[Ant2ne]

Re: Hmmm... What would happen if

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=453152

This thread indicates that, while it can be done, using a thumb drive for your swap is not a good idea.

That link just describes the same urban legends. Flash can handle more writes, and it is faster. I think that guy was using USB v. 1.0. Maybe that posts year old date says something about how quickly flash technology is improving.