RAMBoost drives substitute for RAM on Vista PCs
updated 12:30 pm EST, Tue January 16, 2007
US Modular RAMBoost drives
Launching today is the RAMBoost series of USB flash drives, marketed by US Modular as a cheaper alternative to buying new RAM modules for your motherboard. The drives take advantage of the ReadyBoost feature in Windows Vista, which lets a computer use removable flash drives as a temporary cache. Though not as fast as dedicated RAM chips, they should still improve speed over a similar hard drive solution, and data kept on the drives is encrypted so that it can't be accessed if removed prematurely. There should be no other harmful effects if a drive is taken out. Sizes range from 256MB to 4GB, with prices starting at $19. RAMBoost products will be carried by retail outlets such as Sam's Club and RadioShack, as well as a variety of online stores.
