Where to put my swap file?

[gerwen]

Just wondering where i'll get the best performance. Should i leave my swap file on my main Sata II drive that contains my windows install, or should i move it to my second drive which is IDE master, with my DVD burner as slave. The primary Sata drive is definitely a better performer. E6400, GA-965P-S3 mainboard, 1Gig ram if it makes a difference.

Will it make a tangible difference? Can it interfere with burning operations on the same IDE channel (doubtful, i know). Any other caveats?

 

[corkyg]

For speed and stability, and to minimize fragmentation, I would put it on the SATA/OS drive and fix the size at 5 GB. That should be all you'll ever need and it will be fixed in one location and not shove other things around causing fragmentation.

 

[Nothinman]

New rule, you're not allowed to ask pagefile questions until you learn how to use the search feature of the forums.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
New rule, you're not allowed to ask pagefile questions until you learn how to use the search feature of the forums.

Amen.

While corkyg gave accurate advice, to answer your question about it making a tangible difference, I'll say that unless you are running a file server, NOOOOOO!

Outside of a few benchmarks, you will notice absolutely zero difference.

 

[bendixG15]

Well, here's MS thoughts on the subject..... but nobody believes it

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/en-us

 

[Nothinman]

While corkyg gave accurate advice, to answer your question about it making a tangible difference, I'll say that unless you are running a file server, NOOOOOO!

Even if you're running a file server it won't help much, unless everyone's accessing the same file it's going to be seeking like mad anyway.

Well, here's MS thoughts on the subject..... but nobody believes it

Well it's difficult to believe their docs because they can't even use the term Virtual Memory consistently. I'd be happy if they just used it wrong everywhere but sometimes it's right and sometimes it's not depending on who wrote the article.

 

[gerwen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
New rule, you're not allowed to ask pagefile questions until you learn how to use the search feature of the forums.

I did search. I got no relevant results from:
page file
pagefile
swap file
swapfile

Since i was searching with the most general term i could think of, and found no threads that looked relevant, i figured i was safe to ask my question.

*edit* just noticed the search defaults to last 90 days, i'll see if i can find anything relevant from more than 3 months ago.
*edit again* Yup, lots of relevant results, my mistake.

 

[Nothinman]

Well normally I wouldn't say anything but threads about how to optimize your pagefile and which Linux distro you should try are so frequent that it gets a little old.

 

[gerwen]

I don't like regurgitating old stuff on forums either, so i try to search first. (albeit poorly in this case)
Last i heard, it was better to have your swap on a separate drive. My real question was is it better to have it on a separate, but slower drive, which i'd never really heard addressed.

My improved search (and answers in this thread) learned me to just leave my swap file for windows to handle, as any gains to be had are likely marginal.