Vista ReadyBoost and SD Memory

I got a Sony VAIO with a built in SD Card and MemoryStick^TM slot. Since I’m running VISTA, I thought I’d utilize one of these slots along with a large capacity MemoryStick^TM or SD card as a ReadyBoost device. My dilemma: Although there are plenty of sites that tell you which SD cards will work with ReadyBoost, none of them tell you which SDHC card or a MemoryStick^TM will work. Additionally, there’s no information on whether or not an SDHC card will work in a built in SD card slot. Well I tested it all, and here’s what I found…

Vista needs the following minimum data read and write speeds in order for a flash memory device to qualify for ReadyBoost use. The requirements are:

• 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes

I tried two 1GB SD (PNY and AData) cards and a Sony 4GB ProDUO MemoryStick^TM, but none of them qualified to be ReadyBoost Devices. So I did some digging into what SD Cards would qualify. I found this great website listing compatible and incompatible SD Cards for ReadyBoost. Now I only had two remaining problems:

• Fry’s Electronics sold a nice 4GB Patriot SDHC card (Model PSF4GSDHC6) for $20 bones (also $20 at StreetPrices.com). Unfortunately I wasn’t sure if SDHC Cards would be supported by my VAIO’s Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Integrated Flash Media slot.
• Secondly, it was unclear whether the Patriot SDHC Card (speed class 6) would be fast enough to support ReadyBoost’s requirements.

I took the plunge, bought the card and luck was on my side. The Patriot 4GB SDHC (PSF4GSDHC6) card was recognized and immediately qualified as a ReadyBoost device. The VISTA event log had this to say about the performance of my Patriot SDHC PSF4GSDHC6 card:

• The random read speed is 3840 KB/sec. The sequential write speed is 2017 KB/sec.
  

I should note that adding a barely qualifying ReadyBoost drive isn’t exactly making my notebook scream with speed, but I think it does help with resuming from hybrid sleep & hibernate. Oh, and I don’t have to bother with any protruding USB thumb drives when I thrash carry my Notebook from place to place.