Best setup for this bespoke system/application

[lmartinefc]

Hi,

I am using a piece of 32 bit database software for analysis purposes. It produces tests on the data/fields etc.

I have the following :

1 x 64Gb SSD
1 x 2.5" Seagate 7200rpm 500Gb hard drive
1 x 3.5" Samsung F3 7200rpm 500Gb hard drive (very fast)

Being 32 bit it will only use 4gb of RAM and so when using larger files like a 10gb database, the rest of the temp data spills over into the page file and a 'TEMP' directory used by the software (I can define the location for this)

The key to speedy analysis is splitting the various elements across several disks to remove read/write backlog.

Thinking have the operating system on the SSD and host the program here. Then store the data on the 3.5" Samsung for quick access etc... then point the page file and the 'TEMP' folder towards the 2.5" Seagate?

I could buy another identical 2.5" Seagate and seperate out the page file and the 'TEMP' drive. The page file is obviously used by windows, and the 'TEMP' file is used for writing and recalling (large) temp files that are deleted once an analysis, summarization, criteria has been completed etc. Would it hurt to have them on the same drive, or better to seperate, as they are both effectively being used as temporary memory locations?

Alternatively I could connect both Seagate drive in RAID so they could act together rather than independantly to handle the page file and 'TEMP' directory?

Any thoughts, input welcome!!!!!

 

[GhislainG]

If access speed is the goal, why not add another SSD (or two) for the page file and the Temp folder? That should be faster than any hard disk as long as your OS supports TRIM. If access is random and you use a hard disk, then a 300GB Velociraptor would be faster than the 500GB Seagate and a 15K SAS drive would be significantly faster.

 

[lmartinefc]

I know, but not wanting to put any more money into the system at present. Using windows 7 32 bit. So looking for best config based on what I have at present.

Thoughts? The system drive will be random access of course and so SSD. The reading of database file should be sequential so data can be stored on the samsung. Page file/temp file read/write random or sequential.

Thought I saw somewhere there is a way to force sequential writing of page file? And something called short stroking?

 

[lmartinefc]

Also, the SSD I am using (if it helps in any way) is a Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue 64Gb 250Mb read / 170Mb write. Going to use seagate diskwizrd to transfer current HD contents over to this.

Rest of the system is an atom dual core 330 @ 1.6 with 4 logical cores (HT) and 4gb DDR3 RAM in dual channel (of which 512mb is stolen by Nvidia ION for HD graphics).

The software isnt processor intensive, performance comes from RAM and drive access times