SSD for Quickbooks Company File

[Zap]

Something to try before spending money - download the trial version of Superspeed's RamDisk software (http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php) and set up a 500MB ramdisk. Back up your QB file and then move the save file onto the ramdisk. Point QB to open the file from the ramdisk.

Heh, I was going to suggest this.

In my experience, a UPS with old batteries is worse than no UPS at all. Don't ask me to explain it, but I've seen "UPS-protected" computers go dead during a quick power glitch while neighboring "unprotected" PCs stayed running.

That just happened to me (well, to my server - my computer just uses a line conditioner). I went to print something to my laser printer and the UPS beeped as it always does when I print, and then... server rebooted. UPS beeped again, server rebooted again. I managed to get over there and pull the plug after the fourth consecutive reboot.

The current server has two quad-core Nehalem Xeons, 16 gigs of ram and of course two Intel X25-E SSDs in RAID 1. The biggest jump in performance came when I upgraded from 4 Raptors in RAID 5, to the Intel SSDs when they were first released (at $750 a pop). Performance is blazing fast even with 20 users, saving, opening invoices, etc. The server IS overkill, but it is vital to the business.

Wow, yes, overkill on the RAM and the CPUs. Since Quickbooks is just working on its own file and thus isn't a true "normal" database, would it make more sense to have not gotten as high end of CPUs/RAM, but instead gone with four X25-E drives in RAID10 (two striped, two mirror the striped pair)?

 

[Free4ever]

Wow, yes, overkill on the RAM and the CPUs. Since Quickbooks is just working on its own file and thus isn't a true "normal" database, would it make more sense to have not gotten as high end of CPUs/RAM, but instead gone with four X25-E drives in RAID10 (two striped, two mirror the striped pair)?

At the time I built the server, the two SSDs cost around $1500, almost 30% of my server's budget. I knew the price for the SSDs would come down, and I knew the performance would be more than adequate, so I decided to stick to just two. Also because SSD technology is advancing so fast, I didn't know if something better would come along soon.

Actually the CPUs do come in handy when I run a complete backup with verification, or a database rebuild. Each of these tasks can take a few hours and can push the CPUs to over 50%. Also when I was buying parts there wasn't a big price difference between 8gigs and 16gigs of RAM, so I went with latter, even though I didn't really need that much.

The only upgrades I plan to make in the near future is to get 2 more SSDs if necessary and move over to RAID 10 as you suggested, thanks. Sadly the X25-E have not dropped in price in the last 9 months.