importing slows down system

[ironhide]

I'm having real problems trying to play when the auto-import is on. I'm mostly running 4-6 tables Hold Em NL on Everest Poker.

When auto-import is on the whole computer gets laggy och slow, sometimes I even time out hands!

PT3 v 3.00 beta 30.1
database is standard postgreSQL 8.3 with only ~40k hands, I'm housekeeping it like once a week.

Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate with latest updates, CPU is AMD 64 X2 5000+ 2,60GHz, memory is 4GB DDR2-800.

I think the black sheep may be my systemdisk, an older drive at 160GB that is ATA100 with 8MB cache. The database is installed on this drive.

I got a SATA150 disc with 16MB Cache should I move it there, or maybe ghost the whole partition to run on that instead?

[WhiteRider]

Are you using the HUD as well?
The slowness is more likely to be retrieving and displaying stats on the HUD rather than the import itself.
Check that your HUD Options aren't configured to prevent use of the cache, and if you use Auto Rate do not enable it while auto importing as that can cause delays.

What speed is your disk?
In a decent system a slow hard disk is likely to be the weak link as databases require a lot of disk access.

If you have a spare disk and are able to have just your postgres database on that disk with nothing else using it then you will get better performance.
Have a look at the Database / PostgreSQL FAQ for links to help you set this up if you want to try it.
(Make a backup of your databases first, though - File > Backup)

[ironhide]

yeah maybe I was a bit unclear it most certainly has to do with the HUD updating.

last night I removed some unnecessary stats, and checked the box enhanche hud performance(what does this option do exactly? and should I change performance level?) now it seems like it's running a bit smoother. Will test more and report back.

Disk is 7200RPM it says internal speed 85 MB/s, latency 12,7 ms, average searchtime 8,5 ms

Edit: I don't use autorate, never used it

[kraada]

Fewer stats will definitely help. Enhanced HUD Performance and the various performance levels are legacy options that really shouldn't be needed these days for most users. The most notable thing Enhanced HUD Performance does (from your perspective) is disable translucency. So long as you have an up to date cache those options shouldn't be necessary. If you're using a lot of HUD groups you may also want to think about consolidating them; that could help.

[ironhide]

ok, the transluency is really neat I will click that back

I have not configured the HUD groups just using the defaults, could I improve the performance more if I remove some of the stats there? Are they just updating when I click them up, or in background all the time?

[kraada]

Your system is plenty powerful given that you're using the defaults.

Could you please report the slowdown so we can investigate further for you?