Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Why OS X Doesn't Need a RAM Disk

Dan Knight - 2002.02.01

As noted elsewhere today, I've been using ramBunctious, a classic Mac OS RAM disk program, for years. Although it works in Classic mode under OS X, the RAM disks it creates are inaccessible to X, so I've retired a real workhorse program.

I like the idea of using a RAM disk, because these are files I may be accessing many times during the course of the day, but now I've learned that Mac OS X may make RAM disks a thing of the past. That's because X can use any available system memory to cache files - which helps explain why Classic under X had a higher disk score than Mac OS 9.2.2 all by itself in yesterday's tests.

As Ric Davis explained to me, X will intelligently cache files - the more often you access them, the more likely they'll be cached for lightning-fast access. Although that won't give the same speedy load times the first time a file is accessed, repeated access should be at pretty much RAM disk speed.

Benefits of not using a RAM disk include not locking up all that memory (128 MB in my case), not spending several seconds loading the RAM disk image at startup, and not having to worry about the computer crashing with unsaved contents on the RAM disk (which shouldn't be a problem with X anyhow).

That said, Gregory Youngs writes that all disk writes are cached under BSD/OS X, which means that a freeze, lockup, or power failure could cost you "saved" data that's only been cached and not yet written to the hard drive. Youngs further notes that the Unix sync command, which forces the OS to write all cached data to disk, doesn't appear to be available under OS X.

With the stability of Unix and a UPS (or portable), you minimize the chance of losing unwritten cached data, but there's still a risk. (It's probably less of a risk than we had with the regular freezes, bombs, and other problems that required a forced restart under the classic Mac OS).

Perhaps best of all, under OS X you don't have to fiddle with disk cache size for optimum performance - it's all done automatically by the OS.

I'd still like to see a RAM disk like ramBunctious (they're working on it), even if only to see if it's worth trying, but with caching this good, a RAM disk might not make any sense at all.

Recent X-Basics Columns

Internet sharing a breeze in OS X, 04.07. Another OS X advantage -- sharing an Internet connection is very easy.
Using Jaguar's Finder for FTP, 02.11. You don't need any special software to download files via FTP; it's already built into Jaguar.
X Files, 07.24. How the Home folder in Mac OS X helps you better organize your work.
More in the X-Basics index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: iMac Core2, Sep. 2006 - Apple introduced the biggest screen ever in an iMac with a 24" Core2 Duo model at 2.16 GHz.
Group of the Day: G-List is for Power Mac G3, G4, and G5 users.
March 21 in LEM history: 00: The compelling Mac - 01: All that for $129? - PowerBook 100 - 02: Improving AppleWorks - 03: The G3 ain't dead yet - Pismo a good value - Western Digital drive issues - 05: iPod halo effect - 06: Rip DVDs so you can watch them on your iPod - 07: Maximum drive size in older Macs - 08: Safari 3.1 fastest browser?
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Intel iMac Deals, 03.17. Used 17" from $600; 20" from $750; 24" from $825; refurb 21.5" nVidia, $999; new, $1,099; refurb Radeon, $1,299; new, $1,399; refurb 27" 3.06, $1,499; more.
Best G5 iMac Deals, 03.17. 17" 2.0 GHz, $380; 1.9 GHz iSight, $479 shipped; 20" 1.8 GHz, $509 shipped; 2.1 GHz iSight, $549 shipped.
Best Time Capsule Deals, 03.17. Close-out 500 GB, $140; new 1 TB, $279; used 2 TB simultaneous dual-band, $400; new, $455. Shipping included.
Best iPad Deals, 03.16. 16 GB iPad, $499; 32 GB, $599; 64 GB, $699; 16 GB with 3G, $629; 32 GB 3G, $729; 64 GB 3G, $829. Free ground shipping.
Best iPod classic Deals, 03.12. Used 20 GB, $119; 40 GB, $139; 60 GB, $159; 30 GB video, $129; 60 GB, $159; 80 GB, $169; refurb 120 GB, $189; new, $214; 160 GB, $228 shipped.
Best G3 iBook and AirPort Card Deals, 03.12. 366 MHz 12" clamshell, $89; 466, $125; 500 white CD, $100; 600, $199; 800 Combo, $239; 14" 900, $225.
Best Xserve Deals, 03.12. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $499; 2.0 dual G5, $599; 2.3, $749; refurb 2.26 4-core Nehalem, $2,499; new, $2,699; 8-core, $3,449; refurb 2.66, $4,299; new, $4,799; more.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.