What to do with 8GB of Ram

[actioncomics]

In building my last computer I planned ahead and purchased 8GB of ram. Later on I still plan to utilize this but for right now I am not. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on what to do with it? Before anyone asks I am going to keep the RAM and don't want to send it to you. :lolflag:

What i am thinking of is speed. I read somewhere that you can put your log files in ram and get a slight speed boost. along these lines is what i am looking for.

Can I create a RAMdisk with the operating system on it?
Can I put my tmp/var directory in RAM?
Would it be possible to use it as a "temporary" storage for playing vidoes?

I am looking for any suggestions. This is just something I want to play around with to get my system as fast as possible.

Thanks
ac

[CatKiller]

I'd imagine that the RAM would be kept reasonably full after the computer's been on for a while anyway just with the file cache. All files that are loaded stay in memory until the space is actually needed for something else, just in case. Since you've got plenty of memory, the cache won't need to be flushed often.

It won't improve your disk read/write times, which is generally the main bottleneck, but once something gets loaded it can just stay loaded.

Maybe someone else can think of something more exotic for you, but a RAMdisk is still going to have the same initial delay as it gets populated from the hard drive as the normal file cache would.

[eldragon]

i would install preload and let it take over all your ram...

if im not mistaken, you should be caching all software you use (just leave the computer on).

im not sure how it actually works, but a bit of googling should be enough on how to optimize for 8gb

[actioncomics]

I forgot about preload. used it once and liked it but then after this last formatting i forgot to put it back on.
thanks

[jimv]

You can give it to me...oh wait, you said no already.

You need one of these:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/hyperdrive4-is-a-ram-hard-drive-fast-as-lightning-335274.php

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9312

[actioncomics]

Thanks I did not know these existed. The cost is fairly reasonable.

ac