External SSD for Laptop

[Shotfox]

Hi there

Just wondering if anyone has tried using an external SSD for Handhistories and database (if this is possible??)

Would this offer a significant increase in speed vs my onboard 7200RPM SATA drive?

Would really appreciate anyone's help on this.

Thanks

Matt

[netsrak]

I think there is lots of informations about SSDs in this thread: http://forums.holdemmanager.com/manager-general/11194-top-10-hem-performance-increase-tips.html

[Patvs]

External SSD with a eSATA connection (or USB 3.0), will be as fast as an internal SSD, which in turn will be a lot faster than any internal 7200 RPM regular harddisk.

Do note that not ALL SSDs are fast. Pick one with high 4K read/write speeds.

[Shotfox]

This sounds promising -I have an eSATA port on my laptop.

Is it simply a case of having the HH files saved on the external drive - or does the whole DB need to be on there too?

Will also read through that other thread, so apolgies if this is answered there.

Thanks

Matt

[Shotfox]

ok, so the majority of the thread seems to be about SSD with OS also installed on it. Obv I can't do this with an external drive.

So what SHOULD be on the external SSD if i want to see a significant improvement?

Thanks

Matt

[Patvs]

Install the PostgreSQL database on the SSD.
(you don't need the handhistories from the archive folder on the SSD and since this will be an external SSD you don't need the operation system on it)


Go to C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/8.4/data
That's the main folder that should be on the SSD.
1 million poker hands should take up 10 GB of diskspace.

[Shotfox]

sorry, complete noob in this area - I assume I cant just copy the folder over. How to I go about installing postgres on there without losing my current DB?

And, in your opinion, will this speed up my imports and reporting to any significant extent?

Thanks again

Matt

[Patvs]

You have two options to get the /data folder on the SSD.
-1 Install PostgreSQL to the SSD with an installer from PostgreSQL: The world's most advanced open source database (http://www.postgresql.org)
Reimport your hands into a new database

-2 just move over the /data folder and edit your registry. http://faq.holdemmanager.com/questions/368/MoveDatabaseToAnotherHardDriveOrPartition



The SSD should mainly speed up:
-running queries: for example run a report, view last years graph, etc.
-you no longer need to perform real database maintenance
-(and when you do it will be 20x faster)
-Import speeds should at least double
-Import speeds should remain high, even when the database gets really big (>4 million hands)

[Shotfox]

many thanks for the advice - I think afte looking a prices for "decent" external drives, I may as well just get an internal one lol.

Thanks again, hopefully I will make a decision and do something soon :)

[Shotfox]

OK, So i upgraded and got an internet SSD.

This has defo made an improvement but still only getting like 70h/s on bulk import.

I have friends who tell me they get over 100h/s on a laptop I think is inferior to mine.

So, I have a i5 Quad 2.65ghz, 6gb RAM, 256GB Crucial M4 SSD.

I have made all the appropriate changes to the postgre.conf file which didn't actually make any difference to my import speeds.

Now don't get me wrong, before the SSD i was more like 15-20h/s so there is defo a big improvement. But it perplexes me as to how someone is attaining double this with a slower processor and 7200HDD.

PLease help.

THanks

Matt

[netsrak]

The import speed also depends on the type of hands and the size of the database. So you cant compare speeds from ony system to another.

[Shotfox]

ok, well i started a brand new database as thought that would be "cleaner".

And I'm doing a bulk import of about a million hands from my archive.

All hands are either FTP or PS full ring. (if this is what you meant by type of hand??)

On various forums I see lots of people talking about well over 100h/s and I really can't think of what could be the bottleneck in my current system.

[Patvs]

70 hands/s for a bulk import already is really fast.

People that have 100 hands/s using a regular harddisk:
-either have a near-empty database, and are only importing a small amount of hands (<10.000)
-or they're playing headsup games... maybe even 6max, where the hands are smaller in amount of text, and with less players and less player-actions they can be imported a lot faster.

[Shotfox]

ok yeah I guess I hadn't thought about the 6m vs FR effect. Still, I'm happy that I quadrupled my speed, I'm just a junky to tech and always wanna go faster :)