I have to correct what might have been a false impression I may have created with the previous post about this topic. Having now 'consulted with the oracle' here, meaning my friendly neighbourhood computer fixer-upper, and having done some homework of my own on the wild and wonderful web last night, I'm here to say that if you're running a 32-bit (x86) version of Windows, and you already have 4 Gb of installed RAM, then your system is already optimized to make its best use of the full amount of Random Access Memory it is capable of using, and those cute little Flash Memory Sticks, with their built-in flashing lights as they process data - they'll be helping your performance not at all. Nada - Nyet - Non, mes amis. So keep on using them for portable memory to transfer your files & photos, but forget performance enhancement, because they can't do the impossible if your system isn't designed for using any further help.
However, if you have Windows 7 ( and you should ) and your PC has a 64-bit processor and you are using the 64-bit version of Windows on it, that's a whole other ballgame. Windows 7 is happy with more than one memory stick being used for performance enhancement, as long as that is on a 64-bit system, which is happy using more than the 4 Gb of RAM of 32-bit systems. You can then augment the installed RAM with these extra 'ReadyBoost' dedicated Flash Memory Sticks, and gain an advantage for things like multi-tasking, which uses a lot of RAM. But if you're more of the 'single-minded' type, and only do one or two things at once, then you may not notice any improvement - as with a 32-bit setup. Last but not least, don't try using older flash memory sticks because those may not be capable of as fast data transfer times as today's modern hard-drives now deliver.
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