Since Windows keeps hinting that I could use my CompactFlash card as a ReadyBoost drive, I was just thinking… My Thinkpad has an ExpressCard slot…

….and an 8GB Lexar solid-state drive* is only $90 at NewEgg.

In theory, I could pluck it in and use it for ReadyBoost and as a paging file, and still have a bit of room for Photoshop’s scratch disk and/or random file storage.

Unfortunately, booting from SSD isn’t the wonderful experience everyone raves about. SSD is slower in terms of throughput; it’s only in random-access that it shines. I’ve seen some videos of booting otherwise-identical machines from SSD and not using SSD, and the difference is really not all that great. It is faster, but it’s maybe 25 seconds instead of 30 seconds. Really not worth it in my mind. (I do think that SSD will eventually come to exceed conventional disk drives in throughput eventually, though…)