What to use all my new RAM for...
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I just upgraded my dev box with 2 Gb of memory (woo hoo!) and it runs pretty nice now :-) I was wondering if anyone had experience with using a RAM drive and if it made much difference? I was looking at speeding up VC6 builds, in particular e.g. putting all the intermediate files in the RAM drive.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
I was wondering if anyone had experience with using a RAM drive...
Not since Windows v3.11.
"The words of God are not like the oak leaf which dies and falls to the earth, but like the pine tree which stays green forever." - Native American Proverb
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I once tried with VC6 - building to RAM drive is WAY faster (30%..50%). But my Build folder requires 2.5GB, so this is no option for me. I wouldn't do it without having 1G remaining for OS and application.
We say "get a life" to each other, disappointed or jokingly. What we forget, though, is that this is possibly the most destructive advice you can give to a geek.
boost your code || Fold With Us! || sighistThat's what I suspected. The disk gets hit so hard, especially during a link, that I figured a RAM disk could well help (and make Windows that much more responsive). I expect even a small one, say 500Mb, with the key files (e.g. the PCH's) will make a difference. Thanks.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
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That's what I suspected. The disk gets hit so hard, especially during a link, that I figured a RAM disk could well help (and make Windows that much more responsive). I expect even a small one, say 500Mb, with the key files (e.g. the PCH's) will make a difference. Thanks.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
> The disk gets hit so hard, especially during a link, that I figured a RAM disk could well help I used to use a smallish ramdisk (128MB) to write temp files for a specific project a few months back, and it helped tremendously. Of course it's counterproductive for large projects, so I'd say go with trial and error--I'm sure you'll find the right balance. Actually, I'm sure that would make an interesting CP article... :-)
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
It seems to me that any time savings realized by using a ram drive would be devoured by the time it takes to delete/copy/copy those files
I have a lot more than that but a lot of them change very infrequently. So a smart sync will only copy the files it needs to. Plus I can do something else while getting the files set up and save them all as part of my overnight batch runs i.e. it doesn't eat into useful development time. My main dev box is a laptop and I already have a 7200rpm drive so I'm a bit limited in what I can do. I believe you can get RAID'ed laptops now; God knows what they weigh :rolleyes:
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
God knows what they weigh
They're heavy. ;P I've got an Alienware Area 51m with dual RAIDed 60GB hard drives. I'm just thankful that my backpack provides enough support so this thing doesn't break my back. :)
Picture a huge catholic cathedral. In it there's many people, including a gregorian monk choir. You know, those who sing beautifully. Then they start singing, in latin, as they always do: "Ad hominem..." -Jörgen Sigvardsson
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That's what I suspected. The disk gets hit so hard, especially during a link, that I figured a RAM disk could well help (and make Windows that much more responsive). I expect even a small one, say 500Mb, with the key files (e.g. the PCH's) will make a difference. Thanks.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
You can check your CPU usage - if the CPU is clogged, a RAM disk won't help much.
We say "get a life" to each other, disappointed or jokingly. What we forget, though, is that this is possibly the most destructive advice you can give to a geek.
boost your code || Fold With Us! || sighist -
You can check your CPU usage - if the CPU is clogged, a RAM disk won't help much.
We say "get a life" to each other, disappointed or jokingly. What we forget, though, is that this is possibly the most destructive advice you can give to a geek.
boost your code || Fold With Us! || sighist -
I just upgraded my dev box with 2 Gb of memory (woo hoo!) and it runs pretty nice now :-) I was wondering if anyone had experience with using a RAM drive and if it made much difference? I was looking at speeding up VC6 builds, in particular e.g. putting all the intermediate files in the RAM drive.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
Windows automatically uses free RAM as additional disk cache. A RAM disk is not going to save you a lot of time. The first thing you should do is disable the swap file. Windows likes to swap away applications when they are minimized, even if enough memory is available.
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Taka Muraoka wrote:
Windows comes with one installed[^], although it's not very good.
did you read the last two posts on that link? "One other thing you can do is to put your swap file (Page File) on the RAM drive. This is probably better than putting anything you want to keep on it in case you ever want to restart your machine, anyway." :-D
I am impressed by that suggestion - there is some realy good logic there. Guess he has never done any timings to prove a successful result though. :sigh:
Team Leader - Team Code Project[^] :cool:
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Is the compiler smart enough to go idle while blocking on diskio, or does it sit there throwing a steady stream of noops until the read completes?
it's idling (That's the typical behavior if you issue a synchronous file read/write). On my old dev box at w*rk CPU utilization was rarely exceeded 60% after the dependency check.
We say "get a life" to each other, disappointed or jokingly. What we forget, though, is that this is possibly the most destructive advice you can give to a geek.
boost your code || Fold With Us! || sighist -
I just upgraded my dev box with 2 Gb of memory (woo hoo!) and it runs pretty nice now :-) I was wondering if anyone had experience with using a RAM drive and if it made much difference? I was looking at speeding up VC6 builds, in particular e.g. putting all the intermediate files in the RAM drive.
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison Awasu 2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
I recently did a ram upgrade from 1 to 2gb but it made almost zero difference compared to the other upgrade which was a SATA Raid 0 dual Raptor array. Now *that* makes all the difference in the world in build times.
"Hello, hello, what's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here! This is a Local Shop for Local People, there's nothing for you here!" -Edward Tattsyrup