Old Laptop, CF for Paging File?
 

Hello,

I have an old laptop, a Gateway Solo 9500, with a Pentium III 1.0GHz
CPU, 512MB RAM, and a 30GB IDE HDD. I love the laptop's 4:3 aspect
ratio 15.7" TFT display and the TOSLINK fibre-optic audio out port.
However, it is slooow.
I am thinking about doubling the RAM to 1GB, which, unofficially should
be possible, but officially, Gateway says that 512MB is the maximum.
The "unofficially" is because I've seen the 1GB maximum on an old spec
sheet from Gateway and also on a memory vendor's web site. Currently,
Gateway is saying that 512MB is the maximum.
Another Idea I have to inexpensively speed up my computer, is to
purchase a CardBus (PCMCIA) to Compact Flash (CF) adapter and a 1 or 2GB
CF card, then to move the Windows Swap File from the primary HDD onto
the CF card, which I would leave in the slot permanently.
If I clear the check-box for "removable" in the CF properties in
Windows XP Professional, is this possible to do?
Since solid-state memory can be an order of magnitude faster than a
disk drive, this should, theoretically, speed up Windows two ways: one,
by moving the swap file to another drive, program access to the hard
disk drive and swap file access simultaneously should be possible (vs.
one-at-a-time with both on the same drive); two, the solid state CF disk
should be faster than a roughly 5,000RPM spinning disk).
Feasable?
Practical?
Cost/Benefit?

Thanks,
Fred


P.S.: The O/S is Windows XP Professional, SP3