ReadyBoost vs RAM (no SSD!!!)

giantbucket

Dignified
BANNED
i'm running Win7Pro, 64bit. i have 8G of RAM available. however i CAN NOT run an SSD on this machine since the mobo refuses to run with one for more than a day before i get a BSOD (i tried several). the hard drive is a WD Black 2.5" (7200rpm / 16meg cache), the processor is an A6-3650, and i can toss in a GPU that i have kicking around, like an HD5830 or HD5870.

i rarely game, but will use this for an office machine with lots of Word / Excel / PDF editiing (Foxit Phantom) / AutoCAD / etc. i tend to leave things open and running for far longer than typical, though. i might play a few Steam-based games on a weekend, but only once it's too cold to actually go outside.

would spending $10 (on sale) on a fast USB drive for ReadyBoost be beneficial with 8G of RAM on hand? my other option is to spend $50-plus for another 8G of RAM, but cheaper is always better.

(PS - anyone who says "ram is cheap!" is more than welcome to buy some ram for me using their own money, and sending it to me! :) not so cheap anymore, is it...)

so, ReadyBoost worth it? or is it only really noticeable with 1G of ram?