Swap file location

[frag85]

on my original setup i had 2-120 gig 7200 rpm WDC drives. windows+programs were on one, and the other had a 2.5 gig swap partition where i had a 1.5 gig swap file on for best performance. the rest of the 2nd drive was for storage.

i upgraded to a WD Raptor, and still have the 2-120 gig WDC drives. i moved my windows and programs over to the raptor, on one huge partition.

my question is, where should i put my swap file for best performance?
is there a swap file benchmarking software to see if there is a difference where it is located?

a)on the seperate 7200rpm drive
b)on the raptor with Windows/programs
c)split between the raptor and 7200.

 

[Violator]

It used to be the case that the page file was best placed on the fastest drive available, and ideally that drive was on a seperate IDE channel from the Primary OS drive.

Nowadays with drive speeds being better, it shouldn't make as much of a difference. I still do it out of habit though .

 

[SmokeRngs]

It may be a slower drive, but put the swap file on a different physical drive. This is especially true since you have all your programs installed on the OS drive. You will now have a lot more disk access on the OS drive since it's pulling for the OS and programs themselves. You're still better off having the swap on a different physical drive.

If all of your programs were still on the older drive, I might put the swap on the Raptor or on the third physical drive.

For the most part, it probably won't make a huge difference either way if you don't page much. However, if some of what you do causes a lot of paging, then you will want the swapfile on a different physical drive. You're the only one who knows how your system acts. Try out all the options for a little while and see how things go. About the only way for you to tell the difference is to make the actual comparisons yourself.

 

[Nenu]

Generally, put the swapfile on the fastest drive if you need to use a swap file.
From the looks of your system, you have 1GB ram so you do need it.
Make the swapfile permanent otherwise if it has to grow it will likely be fragmented over slow parts of the hard drive.

If both drives are the same speed put it on the none windows drive while the drive is empty so it occupies the fastest part of the drive. Then fill the drive up as needed and dont delete the swapfile unless you want to get rid of it.
Swapfiles can fragment internally so you may want to look at some tools to keep it in good shape.

With 2GB ram on XP I havent used a swapfile for months and months and my PC is snappier and rock stable.
fyi


This guide is a bit old now but is very good.
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/Swapfile_Optimization/Swapfile_Optimization_01.htm
A few sections are out of date as they refer to Win98 a lot and I havent found a defrag util that will move the swapfile for ages now! Thats why I would create it on an empty second drive so its on the fastest part of the disk to start with and saves messing around after.

Oh yes, if using an IDE drive, make sure it is the only drive connected to the hard drive cable. Another drive on the same cable can force a slower operating mode and both cant transfer data at the same time so they can slow each other down.

 

[MaXimus]

Keep it on th Rapt0r FTW!!!!!!