Speed up your web browsing with a RAM disk

[Edwin]

I followed the instructions here to set up a RAM disk so that my browsers could use it to store their TEMP files.
http://thessdreview.com/Forums/software/1834.htm

NOTE: You should really have 8GB+ of memory, and make sure you keep at least half of that for Windows, otherwise you risk inadvertently slowing other stuff down. I chose to set up a 2GB RAM disk from 12GB of physical RAM.

It's early days, but the speedup was instantly visible, with pages basically flying open as fast as the servers at the other end were willing to serve them. I can also open a whole bunch of links into new tabs in quick succession, just as fast as I can mouseover and right click each link. Before the RAM disk, I was limited to opening 3-4 tabs at a time before the browser hung for a while while it waited for one or other tab to finish loading.

WARNING: the instructions are long and quite complicated. However IF YOU FOLLOW THEM TO THE LETTER you should be ok. Use at your own risk, etc.

 

[Bailey]

Cheers for that Edwin. I'll implement that

 

[Aaron Clifford]

Just to follow up the picture, I've got a pretty bog standard PC, 4gb ram, I have firefox open all day (usually with chrome aswell), and more than often have 10/20 tabs open without issue whilst working on something in photoshop. My broadband is also fairly quick and pages do load quick...I guess this is just "something to do", it's not really a benefit, or at least it doesn't look like it from my end.

 

[Admin]

Could be overkill but depends on how you surf, I imagine that Edwin has a lot of sites open at once so doesn't want to lose time each time he launches his standard tab set.

I do it differently, I use multiple screens plus my iPad as an additional screen if I want to monitor Acorn or a particular site without taking up screen estate or resources on my PC

Admin

 

[Aaron Clifford]

I edited my post so not sure if you saw, I've more often than not got 10/20 tabs open whilst doing other stuff and don't have an issue on a bog standard desktop PC without issue.

 

[Admin]

I'm in X64 whichs means I can get high RAM amounts than x32, not sure if it really helps while surfing.

A lot depends on the host site anyway. I have been spending time trying to get Acorn pages loading faster (aside from the issues last couple days) and also looking at a caching engine on the server itself.

Admin

 

[tifosi]

Computer says no

 

[mat]

This sounds alot like when you put a performance air filter in your car and can instantly feel that extra 3mph speed on the first outing

 

[Edwin]

Just to follow up the picture, I've got a pretty bog standard PC, 4gb ram, I have firefox open all day (usually with chrome aswell), and more than often have 10/20 tabs open without issue whilst working on something in photoshop. My broadband is also fairly quick and pages do load quick...I guess this is just "something to do", it's not really a benefit, or at least it doesn't look like it from my end.

It's not the number of open tabs that was ever the problem, it was the number of tabs I have loading at the same time IN PARALLEL. For example, if I went to a news site and saw 8 articles I want to read, I can now open each one as fast as I can click without the browser hanging. But you're right, the improvement may be minimal. Personally, I love the fact that most web pages hosted on "decent" servers now load literally as quickly as I can click.

 

[Aegean]

My new laptop has an SSD which has sped up everything for me to no end. Great invention.

 

[Aaron Clifford]

It's not the number of open tabs that was ever the problem, it was the number of tabs I have loading at the same time IN PARALLEL. For example, if I went to a news site and saw 8 articles I want to read, I can now open each one as fast as I can click without the browser hanging. But you're right, the improvement may be minimal. Personally, I love the fact that most web pages hosted on "decent" servers now load literally as quickly as I can click.

You don't read all eight at the same time, I can imagine it was fun to implement and fun to tell people, but it doesn't really have a use.

 

[Edwin]

You don't read all eight at the same time, I can imagine it was fun to implement and fun to tell people, but it doesn't really have a use.

You say that, yet...

Bottom line is this: I have a fast, custom-built PC (picked all the parts myself) with a recent model SSD, 12GB of RAM. I've spent many months tweaking every setting you can possibly dream of to wring more speed out of it, including hand-picking every running service, and turning off all unnecessary bells and whistles. I've got the Windows pagefile switched off so that the OS never hits the disk, I've got 100Mbps broadband, and the RAM disk tweak has still sped browsing up very perceptibly!

At the same time, I get nothing out of recommending this. But I just wanted to make clear that - for a certain set of circumstances - you WILL see a benefit from it.

 

[tifosi]

dunno, but if I had a pc with that spec & broadband speed I'd be a bit worried if I could notice any difference to site loading speed by a few tweaks!

The only variable I'd expect that 'should' make a difference would be your isp's namersevers and the site the server is hosted on.

 

[AssetDomains]

This will definatley be my next tweak when I get chance. I've been more than happy with the boost from SSD but if this helps speed things up even more will give it a go.
For those with desktops that havent got an SSD get one. Its a must have upgrade to house the OS on.
Soon becoming a reality on for laptops as prices on higher capcity SSD's droping all the time. 120gb under a £100 and the more roomy 250gb samsung SSD are only just over £100 now

 

[Skinner]

For those with an SSD a ram disk can reduce wear on the drive.

I used to use http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/fancy-cache/ but my current laptop is jacked up and overclocked to buggery and fancy cache didn't seem to make much of a noticable difference. On my other laptop and desktop it made a huge difference.

 

[martin-s]

I wouldn't usually recommend switching the paging file off. Move it onto a second disk by all means..

And wouldn't a RAM disk mean that you lose the temp files on reboot? I.e. longer term caching won't work as well?

 

[Edwin]

I wouldn't usually recommend switching the paging file off. Move it onto a second disk by all means.

Mine's been off for over a year. If anything, it has improved stability. I can only remember a couple of "fatal" crashes during that time, whereas Windows 7 used to keel over every couple of months.

BTW, if anyone else does decide to try the RAM disk route, I'd love to know what your experience is like.

 

[Pellam123]

free and does the job....

http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/

 

[Edwin]

Just to say that I've been running with a RAMDISK for the browser cache for just over a month now, and the browser has only crashed twice during that period (which is pretty amazing for Firefox, in my experience).

It has definitely sped up browsing for me - as alway, your mileage may vary.

 

[murph]

I normally run 2 FF windows with at least 10-15 tabs on each. I find this fine for a while but FF seems to leak memory as it's constantly climbing. Eventually it grinds to a halt! Anyone else experienced this?