To test the effectiveness of ReadyBoost on a computer system, PCSTATS has put together a PC with a couple different sizes of memory, 512MB through to 4GB. The PC will be equipped with an enthusiast and a mainstream class hard drive, to see what impact this has on ReadyBoost being able to boost performance.

The configuration should give you an idea at what ReadyBoost can do for your computer system. We'll be testing with Supertalent USB drives in 1Gb, 2GB and 4GB capacities. All of the Supertalent USB drives are rated for 200x transfer speeds. One 512MB PQI Memory Intellegence Stick Pro will also be used, but we're not entirely sure it is ReadyBoost compatible.

The test computer is installed with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, and packing an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU. The motherboard is a reliable Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus, which is based on the nVIDIA nForce 650i chipset. Graphics probably won't impact these tests in any way, so just know we have selected a MSI NX7800GTX-TT2D256E videocard. An 80GB 7200 RPM Western Digital Caviar Serial ATA II HDD will be used because a slower hard drive should show the capabilities of ReadyBoost more than a faster HDD will.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system processor: intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Clock Speed: 9 x 266 MHz = 2.4 GHz Motherboards: Asus P5N32-E Plus (NF 650i) Videocard: MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E Memory: 512MB Corsair CM2X512-8500 1GB Kit Corsair Twin2X1024-8500 2GB Kit Corsair DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-8888C4DF 4GB Kit Mushkin XP2-6400 512MB PQI Memory Intelligent Stick Pro 1GB SuperTalent USB Drive 2GB SuperTalent USB Drive 4GB SuperTalent USB Drive Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital Caviar WD800JD CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x PowerSupply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI Heatsink: Intel Reference Software Setup: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate nVIDIA nForce 650i SLI 8.43 nVIDIA ForceWare 94.224 Benchmarks: Business Winstone 2004 PCMark05 3DMark06 Doom 3 FEAR

Windows Vista Experience Index	Source: Microsoft

The Windows Experience Index is a new feature built into Windows Vista. It is designed to help consumers understand how well Windows Vista and the software running on it will perform on a specific PC. The index achieves this by assessing the capability of the PC and assigning a score to it. Higher scores indicate a better Vista experience on your PC.

Windows Vista Experience Index
Memory Size Configuration:	Points	Ranking
512MB System Memory	1.7
512MB System Memory 512MB ReadyBoost	1.8
512MB System Memory 1GB ReadyBoost	1.9
512MB System Memory 2GB ReadyBoost	1.9
512MB System Memory 4GB ReadyBoost	1.9
1GB System Memory	4.5
1GB System Memory 1GB ReadyBoost	4.5
1GB System Memory 2GB ReadyBoost	4.5
1GB System Memory 4GB ReadyBoost	4.5
2GB System Memory	5.3
2GB System Memory 2GB ReadyBoost	5.3
2GB System Memory 4GB ReadyBoost	5.3
4GB System Memory	5.3
4GB System Memory 4GB ReadyBoost	5.3

The Windows Experience Index indicates that ReadyBoost does make a bit of a difference when there is 512MB of system memory for Vista. The difference isn't large, but it is the only setting where we see changes with the addition of ReadyBoost modules.