Dabase Performance / Table Space Question

[PokerBot]

1) I recently got a 60GB OCZ Agility; the performance is good but i wouldn't mind better. I was thinking of buying a 2TB Western Digitial Cavair Black hard drive that spins at 7200RPM; would i see a performance gain by table spacing that; or would it be slower since the SSD is that much faster albeit having no table space?

2) The other option would be to use "Drive Xpert" which is an Asus motherboard feature like Raid 1 stripping; what would occur with performance if i table spaced on two raided eco drives which run at 5400RPM?

3) Anotehr possability for me is to create a "RAM Disk" and then put my database on that. Does anyone have any experience with using poker tracker like this; what is performance and stbility like etc?

4) I know you cannot discuss too much about poker tracker 4 but would it be much faster; more responsive etc than PT3; or is the performance related more to the hardware of a PC?

Thanks

[WhiteRider]

As I understand it it is possible to get similar performance from top-end hard drives in optimum configurations as you can from an SSD, but to do that you'd need to have the drive purely for your database(s) - any time that the drive has to do anything else you will lose performance accessing a database so having Windows on the same drive wouldn't be optimum (if you're really looking for optimal performance). I'm not an expert so I can't give you precise recommendations, but if you search for SSD in these forums you'll find quite a few threads. 5400 rpm drives will be slower, though.

PT4's performance should improve on PT3, but it will be doing more too, so it won't be a huge jump - you'll probably get more gain from improving your system than you will by waiting for PT4.

[PokerBot]

1) Does anyone else know what the performance difference would be from the these three setups? Or have a guess of performance from 1-10?
a) SSD for windows and SQL / no table space (what i have now)
b) SSD for windows / Raptor 600GB for Table space with other documents
c) SSD for windows / 2tB Caviar Black 7200RPM drive for Table Space with other documents

Thanks

[kraada]

I suspect the single SSD is still fastest though if your databases get large you may want to consider the other solutions as SSDs are much more expensive on a per-gigabyte basis. I haven't personally performed these tests and so cannot say for certain the differences in speed between each setup.

[tarix]

a) SSD for windows and SQL / no table space (what i have now)
c) SSD for windows / 2tB Caviar Black 7200RPM drive for Table Space with other documents

In my setup A is about 6 times faster than C.

[PokerBot]

1) I'm just puzzled that NOT table spacing can be faster, i know SSDs are fast but table spacing with 7200RPM+ drives i would expect more performance. I also remember asking about this before and people suggested that table spacing with a raptor would be best. So you have actual first hand evidence that says table spacing on a 7200RPM is SLOWER than just having it on the SSD right? And i assume using the raptor will be faster than the 2TB but STILL slower than all on the SSD?

2) )Any ideas what i could expect lie x percentage improvement of performance if i were to
a) table space with another SSD
b) raid two SSD's for windows/SQL on the same array?

Thanks

[tarix]

Any increase in I/O bandwidth has given a similar increase in import speed. For example if you go from a 3GB/s SSD to a 6GB/s SSD then you get a speed improvement. I would assume that raiding two 3GB/s SSDs would be a similar speed increase.

How many hands are you trying to import per day?

[PokerBot]

Its not so much hands per day but i want a super quick, responsive experience when playing poker. Also when reviewing hands i often get crashes / lags and have been getting them for years; i have given support tickets numerous times; since getting the SSD they have improved; so i assume that improving my database set up will improve them further; not to mention general performance.

I guess i can just use it like i have now; all in the SSD; when that gets full then ill have to either table space with another SSD for best performance or a raptor if its too expensive. Though what do you think the performance would be relative to all on the SSD if i were to raid two 1TB Western Digital 7200RPM Caviar Blacks and put table space on that?

[tarix]

Its not so much hands per day but i want a super quick, responsive experience when playing poker.

In this case you will need to balance everything. Your CPU and memory speed are going to be equally important here.