Dell Server memory

[mondeoman]

Just a quicky - proprietary Dell memory is bloomin expensive, so does anyone know if third party memory is recognised in dell servers?

I've had problems in the past with "cheap" memory not being recognised in a compaq......

[plotloss]

www.crucial.com/uk

If anyone knows its going to be their memory locator thing...

[mondeoman]

Thanks - a bit cheaper for sure.

One last one - with sluggish database, which is the best upgrade? Memory or an additional processor?

[plotloss]

Depends, what is the DBMS?

Could be crap code or an environment issue...

[mondeoman]

Its Goldmine (the application) running a DB5 database and with more users plugging in the apparent response speed is getting slower and slower as we add more data every day. Its not huge by any real standards, but performance has noticably dropped off in the last few months, by just going from 3 users to 5. Server is a Dell Poweredge 2500, one P3 12.GB processor and 512MB.

Additional processor is £300 for a P3 1.2 or £400 for a P3 1.3, memory is £220/1GB minimum.

[plotloss]

Does Goldmine have anything to say on the matter?

Might be some tech stuff on their website.

Depends where the bottleneck is really.

If the buffer is filling and its paging out to disk then the memory is going to be the key. If the buffer isnt filling but the throughput is to blame then upgrading the processor will help.

Generally speaking memory helps concurrency and processor helps throughput but this isnt a one rule fits all scenario due to coding differences between applications.

Can Goldmine run multi-threaded? If so, going to a dual board maybe the way forward...

[mondeoman]

Thanks for the pointers - just spoken with Goldmine and DB5 isn't processor dependant, but memory would make a difference, so memory it is

[JamieBeeston]

mondeoman said:

Thanks for the pointers - just spoken with Goldmine and DB5 isn't processor dependant, but memory would make a difference, so memory it is

Db loves 3 things

a) fast scsi raid hdd
b) fast multi processor (tho MSSQL chews liscnese money for this)

c) most important, oodles of free Ram.

we upgraded one of our clients machiens from 8gb th 32gb ram, and it made a HUGE difference.

Much moreso than the move from 8x p3 Xeon to 4x p4 Xeon.

[maddog[uk]]

try kingston.

[agent006]

http://wm.quest.com/products/SpotlightWindows/

Fantastic piece of software to show you what's holding up your system. They do versions for all sorts of things.