Using RAM as disk storage?

[Guest]

I know this is insane, but if I get 32 GB of RAM, then reserve 16 GB of that to only my OS, then do you think I'll get those MLG boot times?

 

This is just something I thought up. I don't think paying 100 dollars for MLG boot times is worth it. But I just posted for the opinion, or any other problems that this would stir up.

[Zeke]

Right. RAM can not store data unless constantly powered, which means you'll have to have an additional storage (HDD/SSD) to load the data into the RAMdisk before you boot up. So, no, with modern SSDs breaking 1 GB/s read speeds there's little to no need of using RAM as storage.

[LIGISTX]

You can set up a RAM disk yes, but there isn't a lot of point to it since ever time the PC loses power or shuts down all info in RAM is whipped. Only really worth it if you have 64+ gigs of RAM on a desktop and only need 16 of it and dedicate the rest to your favorite games or applications, but even then, just buy an SSD and call it good.

[Sauron]

ramdisks do exit, but they need to be recreated at every boot, so you'd loose any data on it every time you reboot. This means you can't install an os on it.

[SPAS-ID]

RAMDisk > PCIe SSD, yeah why not ?

[TheRandomness]

Or just wait for Intel's optane SSDs, they've been pictured as DDR4 DIMMs so they can use the bandwidth of the RAM slot (25+GB/s for the fastest DDR4)

[Oshino Shinobu]

ramdisks do exit, but they need to be recreated at every boot, so you'd loose any data on it every time you reboot. This means you can't install an os on it.

You should be able to install an OS on it, just that it will need to be loaded from a non-volatile storage drive first. If you lose power suddenly, then you'll lose data, but shutting down normally won't lose any data. 

[Sauron]

You should be able to install an OS on it, just that it will need to be loaded from a non-volatile storage drive first. If you lose power suddenly, then you'll lose data, but shutting down normally won't lose any data. 

 

yeah, but you'd still need to lead a kernel first, and that kernel should be able to just die and boot the newly copied kernel once it's finished. It wouldn't make boot times better (in fact they might be worse) and it would need an ad hoc solution

[Oshino Shinobu]

yeah, but you'd still need to lead a kernel first, and that kernel should be able to just die and boot the newly copied kernel once it's finished. It wouldn't make boot times better (in fact they might be worse) and it would need an ad hoc solution

Boot times should almost certainly be worse, yeah. Rather than loading straight from a drive, it needs to load to the RAMDisk first, then load from that. 

 

By no means a good or practical thing to install an OS on, but it is possible.