PDA

View Full Version : Import & SSD



tilteduser
10-25-2011, 06:21 AM
Hi everyone,

I bought this new laptop, and because of the advice of a friend I went for 7200RPM HDD, he told me that it'd be better for HEM. Now I went on the top 10 performance tips and I saw that my HDD is barely faster than a 5400RPM HDD, and that I should have gone for SSD. Which brings me to the following questions :


Can I install HEM on an external SSD that I plug-in through USB 3.0? Would this affect the performances in a bad way? Would it make the imports faster if the hands that I'd like to import are on the SSD?
Do you know if I still have room on my laptop for a small SSD that could contain HEM and millions of hand histories? (I mean adding a SSD besides the HDD, I'm pretty sure it's not possible though, but you might have an idea of my info-knowledge)
If no, I should change my HDD for a SSD. How many Go do I need if I use my PC only for poker (HEM, Pokerrooms,millions of HH's) and school (life PDF files only)? No music, no pictures, no movies. What kind of SSD do you suggest? I'd like something that has a good quality/price ratio, not necessarily the best since it'd be out of budget.


Now I'm importing millions of HH's (a bit over 3 millions), import is like 25HH's/sec, it's been over 60 at the very beginning. It's been running for 14 hours, and it still requires 23 hours to finish. Unfortunately I have to leave the house where I am know in like... well actually I'd like to leave now.


Can I quit HEM and start the import again where I left it?
If I put the laptop into sleep would the import continue after I use my laptop again?
Can I do right right now, while HEM is already open, things to improve the speed? (I already put the programs in high priority, and it's using all CPU's)



Kind regards,

Patvs
10-26-2011, 02:48 AM
External USB 3.0 SSD (example, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-thumb-drive-flash-drive,2900-13.html)
You don't need to install HEM on it, but it will improve performance if the PostgreSQL database is installed on it.
The actual handhistories also don't need to be placed on the SSD, unless you're doing a massive batch import, importing millions of hands.
For regular imports (auto import when playing) you can just leave the handhistories to be saved on the regular drive.

Most laptops only have room for a single harddisk. (laptops with room for two, making it easy to add a SSD do exist)
So you have three options:
-replacing the current 7200 RPM harddisk for a SSD (not really recommended since you need the 500+ GB regular drive to store media files, and 500 GB+ SSDs are insanely expensive) (and it's also annoying to always have to drag along a external 500+ GB drive with your media files) (advantage of this is Windows will also be on the SSD, resulting in a fast overall system)
-buying an USB 3.0 external "SSD" (there are special USB 3.0 flash drives as fast as a SSD)
Also not really recommended, since they're pretty expensive. And having Windows on the regular drive--> only having the PostgreSQL database on the flash drive, doesn't justify the price/performance gain
-JUST USING THE 7200 RPM, hoping it will be fast enough. (this actually is recommended, especially since HM2 will have much faster import speeds, as fast as using HM1 with a SSD)
If you can multitable playing 16 tables without lagging issues, the harddisk will be fast enough and you don't really need a SSD just to improve your import speeds. (unless you buy handhistories and want to quickly import 100.000 hands a day)

1 million poker hands take up 10 GB of disk space.

Yes you can just click stop import.
And the import will continue where it left of, the next time you run another import.

To improve speeds: read,
http://forums.holdemmanager.com/manager-general/11194-top-10-hem-performance-increase-tips.html

Best 'solution' would be:
Create a backup of your database after it has imported all hands, so in the future you can QUICKLY restore a backup, instead of having to reimport the actual hands again.

And try HM2, where you should get 100 hands/s import speeds. (note: SSD users with HM2 have reported import speeds up to 600 hands/s)

Patvs
10-26-2011, 03:05 AM
So external SSD, you need at least 64 GB (for a 5 million hand database). You need 128 GB if you plan on using a larger database.

Replacing your 7200 RPM for a SSD you need at least 128 GB (64 GB for Windows + Office / 64 GB for the database). Ideally you'd have 256 GB (Windows + installing a couple of programs.. can easily reach 100 GB just for Windows / programs)

tilteduser
10-26-2011, 09:05 AM
Thank you very much for this very complete answer. I think that I'll stay with my 7200RPM then, it is not worth it to buy a SSD and I'm now #333 on the waiting list for HEM2, maybe one day I'll play msnl and that day I'll buy expansive stuff but for now I'll be patient...