Re: Memory?

From: Ryberg, James

Does anyone know if using 1 GB versus 2 GB memory makes using WDSCi and
other tools faster?

In general, the way you get speed on WDSC is as follows:

1. Disk drive speed.  4200RPM (cheap laptop) is all but unusable.  5400RPM
(standard laptop, cheap workstation) is usable, but you won't be happy.
7200RPM (high-end laptop, standard desktop) is the minimum I would suggest.
I have 15K drives, and I am VERY happy.

2. Memory.  Make sure you have "enough".  For basic RPG editing on a lightly
used machine, 512MB is enough.  Even if you're doing other things on your
workstation, then 1GB is typically plenty and the price differential for the
extra 512MB is typically quite low.  Only if you're doing a lot of web
application development would you need more than 1GB; I have 2GB and rarely
do I have memory issues.

3. Processor.  This is your last bastion of speed improvement.  I recommend
2GHz if you can get it.  Typically, though, the places where WDSC bogs down
are disk bottlenecks, not processor lags.  So a 3.6GHz processor won't do
you a ton of good.  That being said, I have dual 3.2GHz Xeons, and the tool
flies.

Obviously my primary workstation is tricked out.  It's a $3000 machine, and
you get what you pay for.  Note however that I also have WDSC installed on a
5400RPM, 768MB, 1.6GHz laptop.  It's quite slow to start after a boot (it
takes a while to load the JVM) and the first time I use a feature (e.g., the
first RPG source member I open, or the first JSP page I edit) usually causes
a pause of anywhere from 10-60 seconds.  But other than that, the system
works reasonably well and I use it all the time to present onsite
demonstrations, seminars and labs.

On the other hand, my primary workstation fires up in 6 seconds, and you can
get very spoiled by that <smile>.

Joe