Comments on: Improving Visual Studio Performance: Additional Tips http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/ My Experiences with Software Development Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:17:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: don http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-24624 don Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:02:59 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-24624 Published specs are usually misleading. Locate reviews that you feel you can trust. The Patriot brand of flash drives are one that gets a good review of approx 20 mb on both read and write. Most flash drives perform poorly on write. Many brands use high speed flash chips for the first part of the drive that typically gets benchmarked and slow speed flash for the remainder so watch out. Flash has low latency but poor transfer speed compared to hard drives. The best flash is 20 mb/sec while a good 7200 such as the Seagate 500 can do 80 mb/sec down to 40 mb/sec at the end of the drive. USB or FireWire limits drive transfer speed to 40 mb/sec at best and some USB controller chips lowers that even more. The best external drive interface is e-Sata which runs at full Sata speed. Many laptops can be outfitted with e-Sata through an expansion card which coupled with a 3.5 inch sata external drive and enclosure will be less expensive and faster than an internal 7200 laptop drive and either will be faster than a USB stick. http://storagereview.com is an expert place to find comprehensive reviews of hard drives. Published specs are usually misleading. Locate reviews that you feel you can trust. The Patriot brand of flash drives are one that gets a good review of approx 20 mb on both read and write. Most flash drives perform poorly on write. Many brands use high speed flash chips for the first part of the drive that typically gets benchmarked and slow speed flash for the remainder so watch out. Flash has low latency but poor transfer speed compared to hard drives. The best flash is 20 mb/sec while a good 7200 such as the Seagate 500 can do 80 mb/sec down to 40 mb/sec at the end of the drive. USB or FireWire limits drive transfer speed to 40 mb/sec at best and some USB controller chips lowers that even more.

The best external drive interface is e-Sata which runs at full Sata speed. Many laptops can be outfitted with e-Sata through an expansion card which coupled with a 3.5 inch sata external drive and enclosure will be less expensive and faster than an internal 7200 laptop drive and either will be faster than a USB stick.

http://storagereview.com is an expert place to find comprehensive reviews of hard drives.

]]> By: Brennan Stehling http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23875 Brennan Stehling Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:44:56 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23875 http://www.memorysuppliers.com/customshapes.html You can also order custom USB flash drives. I just found this link and it has some pretty cool examples. http://www.memorysuppliers.com/customshapes.html

You can also order custom USB flash drives. I just found this link and it has some pretty cool examples.

]]> By: Wyatt http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23844 Wyatt Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:00:16 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23844 I found a good deal on a flash drive with fast read/write: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227263 It looks like some of these flash drives are almost as fast as a SSD I found a good deal on a flash drive with fast read/write: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227263
It looks like some of these flash drives are almost as fast as a SSD

]]> By: Brennan Stehling http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23843 Brennan Stehling Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:11:26 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23843 I do not have a brand that I would recommend, but I would suggest getting one that has a secure cap that you cannot lose easily. The Cruzer Micro has a cap that you can easily lose. I try to protect the metal connector from contact with my car keys in my pocket and any static charge when I am walking around with it. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1024507&Sku=S153-3002 You can see the A-Data is all connected when it is closed or open. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2224131&Sku=A208-1074 This other one from SanDisk is not bad and it is 8GB. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3283217&Sku=S153-3264 It seems all of the ones being sold now are USB 2.0 drives, but make sure you get one if you want the best possible speed. There are so many to choose from and I have used several different kinds on Windows XP, Vista and MacOS X but I have not really noticed any difference among any of them. I connect the drives to the computer and it always comes up to browse as I expect. But be careful about any places where they do not allow USB drives. They may have the USB ports disabled for external storage and the thumbdrives will not work. Otherwise every brand I have used has worked as they are supposed to and all have been fast enough for my needs. I do not have a brand that I would recommend, but I would suggest getting one that has a secure cap that you cannot lose easily. The Cruzer Micro has a cap that you can easily lose. I try to protect the metal connector from contact with my car keys in my pocket and any static charge when I am walking around with it.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1024507&Sku=S153-3002

You can see the A-Data is all connected when it is closed or open.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2224131&Sku=A208-1074

This other one from SanDisk is not bad and it is 8GB.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3283217&Sku=S153-3264

It seems all of the ones being sold now are USB 2.0 drives, but make sure you get one if you want the best possible speed. There are so many to choose from and I have used several different kinds on Windows XP, Vista and MacOS X but I have not really noticed any difference among any of them. I connect the drives to the computer and it always comes up to browse as I expect. But be careful about any places where they do not allow USB drives. They may have the USB ports disabled for external storage and the thumbdrives will not work. Otherwise every brand I have used has worked as they are supposed to and all have been fast enough for my needs.

]]> By: yaip http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23842 yaip Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:44:06 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23842 I have a Acer Ferrari laptop with 2 GB of RAM. Any recommendations on SSD? I have a Acer Ferrari laptop with 2 GB of RAM. Any recommendations on SSD?

]]> By: yaip http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23841 yaip Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:41:58 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2007/11/01/improving-visual-studio-performance-additional-tips/#comment-23841 What brand of flash drive do you recommend? And what should be the speed? What are different speeds available? What brand of flash drive do you recommend? And what should be the speed? What are different speeds available?

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