Hi, this is my first post so forgive me if I ve done something wrong, because this is my first experience with a forum post which works through a mailing list. I am bumping this topic because as a long time pokertracker user who's tried to maximize the performance of his system for years, this topic has been the most useful in terms of understanding the type of things that would help on that front. It's become a bit of an ancient scroll full of wisdom if you will. Having said that, I ve got certain issues with my setup and I would like to hear the answers of the people here. Let me get into it: *1. My Hardware Setup.* I ve got an Intel i7 860 with 16 GB of RAM, an Intel X-25M G2 160GB disk and a 5750 Radeon card. *2. My Software Setup.* I am using Windows 7 x64, but the database -and my poker playing- is installed in a Virtualbox VM running Windows XP x64. I have assigned 1 processor (out of 16) and 12 GB of RAM in that machine. *3. My Database and its uses.* Before I came to post this, I checked its size through the PG admin and it's 31 GB. In contrast to the OP, I usually play around 18 tables, but they can sometimes -not often- get as high as 24. I also looked into my HUD and apparently, it displays 12 statistics for each player. *4. What prompted me to consider a hardware upgrade.* My Intel drive has gotten full, so I ve decided to upgrade to either a 240GB Intel 520 or the new 256GB Samsung 840. This will allow me to move the VM to the new extra drive probably giving me some extra speed boost. However, the fact that my motherboard only supports SATA 2 and 16GB of memory has me wondering whether I should upgrade my motherboard as well. If I do upgrade, I am also wondering whether the 32GB of RAM supported by the 1155 platform is going to be enough or whether I should buy a 2011 based one allowing for 64GB of RAM. All other things being equal, I d rather not. Another option is to wait until the Hasswell CPUs come out. *5. Why do I need so much memory? * Well, sometimes I dabble with photoshop - photoshop CS6 is the next thing I am getting after the upgrade- and 4 GB for my main OS are less than I would prefer. I am also interested in adding a third VM that's going to use another 2-4 GB. Last but not least, each time I ve added more memory, postgresql performance has improved. So, should I go with an 1155 motherboard, I will have 8GB allocated to my main OS, 4GB allocated to may secondary VM and 20GB allocated to my poker playing VM. Besides the fact I am not sure whether 8GB is enough for my main OS -and in any case you can always turn the VM off-, I am wondering if 20GB is enough to be completely carefree. This question is prompted by the advice in this thread that my memory allocation should be larger than my database size. Since my database is 31GB, do I really need more than 32GB of memory for my poker VM, if I want to have top notch performance? *6. It's been already said that it depends on how much of your database you put to use. * I wish I could understand how to use the tools suggested in this thread in order to measure that question. What I do know is this. My database goes back to 2010. When I am at a table, most players are players that started playing recently. However, there are other regular players with whom I have playing history going back to 2-3 years. So I am guessing that I am using the full breadth and depth of the database. *7. Overall, I am pretty pleased by the performance of the database, but as things stand, there are two issues:* The first is that when the number of tables get high -let's say around 24- I am experiencing lag, less so now that I ve got 12 GB or RAM, more pronounced when it was 8GB of RAM. Needless to say, experiencing lag when you ve got 24 tables open is the last thing you want to be happening, precisely because you ve got less time available to make decisions to begin with. The second issue is that the more tables I ve got open, the more behind stats tend to be. Not by much, but enough that on some occasion it can make a difference in your decision making. For example, if I or some of my opponents have played 25 hands in a table, the HUD may be showing stats for 22 or 23 hands. Which doesn't sound like much, but it such a small sample size, it can make the stats -and thus the resulting decision making- be skewed greatly in one or the other direction *8. That pesky CPU. * As I ve said I ve only got 1 CPU out of 16 devoted to my poker playing VM. Why? Pokertracker has a housekeeping function which allows you to optimize the database. So I ve ran several experiments and I noticed that the less cpus I assigned, the faster the process finished. For example with one CPU assigned to the VM, the operation ends in something like 4 min. But with 3 or 4 it takes up to 15 minutes. I am guessing that this has to do with the turbo mode of the 860, but I can't tell for certain. I do not know however, whether the increased speed in this scenario where I am doing one thing at a time is relevant in a scenario where I am running the poker client and a multitude of tables at the same time. 9. *What about the GPU.* In the past, I ve upgraded my graphics card and I ve seen a decrease in lag. Supposedly, the gpu shouldn't matter, but besides my experience I know that if I turned the hud off while continuing to import, any lag I experience simply vanishes. * 10. So to sum up.* Given all the information I presented above: a. What amount of memory is optimal for my 31GB database regardless of cost? b. How many cpu processors should I assign to my VM?. Should I try assigning 2-4 CPUs for actual play? And if I do, is there an objective way to measure performance? c. Given the kind of different traits that postgresql demands from hard drives in terms of sequential and random writes and reads, which SSD should I get, the Samsung 840 or the Intel 520? -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Building-an-home-computer-for-best-Poker-Tracker-performance-tp4597798p5726666.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
