BleepingComputer.com: Should I Get Readyboost For My Laptop?

Basically, this Dell laptop was bought around March 2007, and it's pretty much the base configuration.

Specs:
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53 1.70 GHz
1 gb RAM
32 bit Vista Ultimate

ATI Radeon Xpress 1170 (or the like)
(more info about the card I dug up:
Total Available Graphics Memory: 319 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 128 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 191 MB)

Now, my OS doesn't run nearly as slow as it should, since I did a lot of tweaks to optimize it.

However, I figured with only about 800 or so RAM to play around with, there are times my computer will get sluggish, mainly when I start multitasking or starting up games.

Since I'm planning on buying a new laptop next summer, I've been advised by my friends to not bother spending $70~ on extra RAM. Thus, I'm curious if spending $20-30 on a Readyboost USB Flash Drive would help (after getting the new laptop, I'd just use the drive for storage since I've read it doesn't really help once you have 2 gb RAM)

4gb Readyboost:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220251
8gb Readyboost:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220252


Seeing a speed boost would be nice, but it's not life-or-death.

Thanks!

EDIT: HDD is most likely 5400 RPM, with about 45 GB for available use (other part is allocated for RECOVERY)

This post has been edited by The Insane Mao: 23 September 2008 - 10:28 AM

Id get the extra ram.

ReadyBoost is, IMO, a substitute for more RAM - and is especially useful when you can't put any more RAM in the system.
Back when it first came out, ReadyBoost was a good thing if you only had 512 mB of RAM on Vista. But beyond that, there weren't many benefits to it. But I haven't seen it addressed recently, so I wonder if the breakeven point of 512 mB still applies.

The first thing, IMO, would be to check in Task Manager to see if there's excessive use of your pagefile. Windows uses the pagefile when it runs out of physical memory (although some programs will use it before then). But, if there's a lot of pagefile usage - then you'll need more memory. ReadyBoost will help - but it's slower than RAM. And DDR2 memory is very cheap these days (I found some 1 gB sticks on PriceGrabber for $16 just now)

Finally, if you buy a new laptop that has DDR2 also - you may be able to use this memory with it.

Hi insane. I have 3gigs of ram and added a 4 gig readyboost and I actually do see a diffrence, mostly in how fast my programs load. However my ready boost flash drive is the fastest one on the market (Apacer) and that makes a big diffrence, it also cost 79.00 which is quite expensive for a flash drive. I only took that option because I have the maximum memory that a 32 bit OS can use. Since your memory can be increased I would go that route.

Thanks kelley_k! I haven't seen any other posts about this recently, so it's good to know that it will help out even with higher levels of RAM.