On 8/9/06, Tom Laudeman <twl8n@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The speed of the query is (as Michael implies) limited to the rate at which the disk can seek and read. I have done experiments with views and cursors; there was no improvement in speed. I've also tried only pulling back primary keys in the hope that a smaller amount of data would more quickly be read into memory. No speed increase. I have also raised all the usual memory limits, with the expected results (slight speed improvements).
Are your data structures normalized? Performance problems queying a single giganto table is usually (but not necessirly in your case) a sign of a poorly designed table structure. otherwise it's pretty clear you get the most bang for the buck with hardware. consider upping ram and/or buying better disks. you could buy cheap sata controller and 4 raptors in raid 0+1 configuration for <1000$ and you will feel like you have supercomputer relative to what you have now :) merlin
