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Originally Posted by senor rubirosa  Is that really an accepted rule? That's a lot of free space in a current-sized hard drive. |
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Originally Posted by VeeP No, it's misguided folklore related to people not knowing the difference between memory and disk storage. Windows will automatically allocate the disk space it needs for it's paging file, although it should be manually adjusted upward if you add more RAM. The most common disk-related performance hit you can take is due to file fragmentation. |
Quite true. Although it's advisable not to run a disk right up to capacity.
A more effective way of speeding up a Wintel system is to have a dedicated
physical drive for the OS, another for paging and another for apps and data. The benefits obtained will depend on the use to which the machine is put of course, for most 'home use' it will often make little difference.
Typically the simplest way to speed up a home PC is to add more RAM, followed by a faster (regularly defragmented) drive. Changing cluster size can help, and there are other things one can do too. The CPU speed is seldom the
real bottleneck in current systems.
Server configurations (especially database servers) are typically set-up like this, with the OS, database application, its data and logs all residing on separate physical drives (or arrays of drives).
I wouldn't agree Vista is a
total turd. But it can certainly come close enough unless set up correctly on the right hardware. That applies to any OS of course, but Vista especially so. SP1 helped some, caused trauma for others.