Re: what kind of computer for programmer ?

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 10:27:29 -0500, Rob Thorpe wrote
(in article
<1119886049.822418.10250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):

> Randy Howard wrote:
>> On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 06:08:09 -0500, Johan \MrDutchy\ van den
>> Broek wrote
>> (in article <d9omqq$7uf$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):
>>
>>>> * Speed of the disk the compile is done on (a ramdisk is best for fast
>>>> compiles)
>>>
>>> Thats a nice idea, does anyone know of a trustable and free tool for
>>> windows (xp) i could use?
>>
>> Add more memory to your machine instead, it serves almost the
>> same purpose, but pays off in everything you do, instead of just
>> compiles. Same goes for hard drives. If you have a slow
>> hard drive, it's hurting everything you do. A SATA RAID 0
>> layout across a few small (less expensive) drives for doing I/O
>> intensive tasks would be quite nice.
>>
>> With a ramdisk, you still have to copy everything into it, then
>> back out, etc. The file system buffer cache does almost as well
>> with a lot of RAM.
>
> This depends on the system. The last time I did this the machine had
> enough memory to disk-cache the intermediate files - but the operating
> system didn't do this well. So, overall a ramdisk was faster.

I didn't say it wouldn't, but it is rarely worth the effort,
IMO.

I would much rather have a very fast I/O system overall, and
reap the benefits all the time, rather than only in the case
where I bother to use the ramdisk.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: what kind of computer for programmer ?
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