CS5 RAMdisk for scratch *Free software*
 

*Edit* Happy Thanksgiving!

At the moment I am using my 'B' rig due to a RAID disk failure on my ARECA 1222 (need to recover data) on my main rig. My 'B' rig is an ancient albeit upgraded Gateway GM5478 unit. I do not add a lot of effects or do much grading in post; i usually shoot very technical and flat with MagicLantern on my T2i's.

I recently created a 2GB RAMDisk for scratch drive on this machine, and i am highly impressed with the results. Mostly, i use Neatvideo V3.3 to clean up noise, and Magic Bullet as well as some mild color grading and exposure control as i shoot with Cinestyle (VERY flat).

Because my 'B' rig processor is rather slow and old, i noted my system never uses over 5.3GB of RAM in most renders or exports, so i had 2.8 or so free GB of RAM; hence the 2GB RAMDisk.

'B' rig specs
Intel G33 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo (quad core) 2.4Ghz Q6600
8GB Corsair 1066 Mhz RAM (6GB available to OS/CS5)
Intel X25M 80GB SSD 80MB/sec write 200MB/sec Read
-Boot/OS/CS5/source drive
Intel 4 disk RAID 10 Export drive
-4x Fujitsu Lifebook 8MB Cache, 7200RPM, 80GB (148GB formatted), 190MB/sec write, 220MB/sec read
Seagate 500GB storage drive 8MB Cache, 7200RPM, 90MB/sec write, 95MB/se read
2GB AMD Radeon RAMDisk
Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX+ OC 1GB DDR3 (MPE enabled)

The RAMDisk has cut render times in half; easily, and AMD's software is both free and works flawlessly. I had considered trying a RAMDisk before but glad its much easier with AMD's freeware. The max size you can make with the free version is 4GB btw. You can even set it up to refresh/delete everything when the machine reboots, so you do not have to manually delete renders to save space.

AMD Radeon RAMDisk

I just bought a new set of RAM for my new machine (32GB, 8 sticks of 4GB Corsair PC12800, of which 24GB will go into my X58/i7 based main rig. Since at max utilization, the 4 core/8 thread system uses no more than 17 GB when tested (based on my effects/utilization), and apparently CS5 systems benefit from 16+ GB of RAM more than a faster RAID array or HDD's or processors (again based on my configuration and tests), i will create a 4GB RAMDisk (maybe later a 7GB) and stick with 20 or 17 GB of RAM for the system itself.

I am keeping the 12GB i already have, and bought the 32GB for the next i7 12 core build (used, 4 channel, 8 sticks, matched etc) from a friend.

Anyways thought i would share a great little tool for those whom it may help.