Question Which PC should I upgrade?? (1 Viewer)

[rickyfong]

I got a FE and BE relationship!! Just want to know which PC should I upgrade will run faster than before as a result, if I can only upgrade one of them?? Thanks a lot!!

 

[speakers_86]

It really shouldn't make much of a difference. If speed is an issue, the more likely culprit is either poor normalization of the backend, or a poorly built front end. I had this issue recently with one form in particular, and I fixed it by removing a subquery.

 

[Minty]

If you are dealing with large tables the biggest difference may well be your network connectivity, we have seen a significant performance difference between gigabit switch and 100Mb mixed network performance.

 

[Galaxiom]

Poor database performance is mostly about design rather than hardware.

 

[HiTechCoach]

rickyfong,

I got a FE and BE relationship!! Just want to know which PC should I upgrade will run faster than before as a result, if I can only upgrade one of them?? Thanks a lot!!

The workstation where the Front end is located needs to have a fast CPU , fast video , and lots of RAM. This is were the CPU is used the most.

For the "server" with the back end, it should be dedicated to just a file server and running a true Windows Serer OS. This machine needs a fast NIC and fast hard drives. If it is just a file server then it will not use a lot of RAM and CPU to server files to the network.


In general I go with upgrading workstations first. I recommend Windows 64 bit, 16 GIG RAM minimum, fast video, 1 gig NIC, and then add as must CPU speed as you can afford.

If everything is designed properly, the network is 1 gig, a true Windows Server OS for the server, it still comes down to the workstation horsepower.
I have seen many networks that had powerful servers, fast networking equipment, but slow, low end workstation and the overall performance was slow.

All the tips about database speed optimization should be done even with new hardware.