Gigabyte i-RAM reviewed at Anandtech

Gigabyte i-RAM is perhaps not the best known product among our readers. It is simply a a “solid state” harddrive that uses RAM instead of ceramic plates for storing the data. “Solid state” comes from the fact that a RAM-based harddrive doesn’t have any moving parts. Something that will not only increase the performance significantly but also the reliability. Solid State harddrives have been around for long but they are very expensive, the least to say. Gigabyte promised at CeBit that it will launch the first solid state harddrive for the consumer and now it seems to be here. At Anandtech they’ve managed to acquire on of Gigabytes i-RAM harddrives and has tested a number of uses with a PC.

The biggest problem except from a relatively high price, i-RAM + DDR-memory, is without doubt the capacity. With four slots that only supports 1GB modules which means 4GB is the limit. Which won’t get you far today. Something you are constantly reminded of. The performance is at least very good at regular use even though perhaps not as impressive as you might have expected. That i-RAM is comlpetely silent is of course a big plus to. Just as Anandtech we are very interested to see Gigabyte’s next version of i-RAM as there still seems to be some things that needs to be fixed.

“In the end, the i-RAM is an interesting addition to a system, but it’s usefulness will truly vary from one user to the next. With a bit more capacity, and especially for those users who happen to have a few 1GB sticks laying around, the i-RAM could be a very powerful addition to your system. Hats off to Gigabyte for making something useful, and we can’t wait to see rev 2…”

:: Read on at Anandtech