Hi guys,

First let me say i have realy small knowledge about computers and technology so i apologise in advance if my questions are so stupid.

I bought a new computer to arive in a week from Dell solely for poker use to run 2x24" and hem and some scripts. I have a sony vaio as well whic i am using now and wont need it when my new comp arives.

I have been reading posts CTH for a while now and saw some people talking about HEM dedicated computers other then their main poker computers. So i have just a few questions.

1- With this computer( details are below ) do i need to use another computer just for HEM ( if it is the better option how can i do that ? )

2- People talking about SSD ( i dont know what SSD is lol sorry ). Do i already have an SSD built in my computer or should i buy it seperatly and if so do i need to install it inside the computer or can i just plug it as a seperate piece?

3- Other then these if u see anything missing or weak in my comp. details for a poker computer please mention it to be added.

Thanks.

D05X8105 1 £833.19

StudioXPS 8100 : Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB) 1

Ship Accessory : English Docs with UK/Ire Power Cord 1

Resource DVD : Studio XPS 8100 1

Memory : 8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1

Hard Drive : 2TB(2x1TB) Serial ATA Raid 0 "Stripe"(7200RPM)Dual HDD 1

Heatsink : 95W Processor Heatsink 1

Optical Drive : 6X Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-Ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) & 16X DVD+/-RW Drives (Win 7 Only) 1

Display : Not Included 1

Graphics Card - Single 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 240 1

Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card 1

Speakers Not Included 1

Mice : Dell Optical, Scroll USB (2 buttons scroll) Black Mouse 1

Keyboard : UK/Irish (QWERTY) Dell Entry USB Black 1

Operating System : English Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) 1

English Microsoft Works 9.0 (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Outlook Express, Powerpoint Viewer) (With Recovery CD) 1

Software : Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic 1

DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1
DataSafe Online size - 2GB Trial 1

Studio XPS 8100 DT Order - UK 1
XPS DT - System Only 1

Not sure what you mean by a "separate computer for HEM". You must be referring to a separate drive or separate partition? This makes sense to me but please clarify if I've missed the point here.

People often run HEM and PostgreSQL on a SSD, or Solid State Drive to improve performance. A SSD is like a really big flash drive (essentially) that has VERY fast read/write speeds compared to a regular HD, which makes it perfect for reading/writing HH files and managing large poker Databases.

Your computer is pretty well spec'd, and there was actually a very recent post asking this same question (if he should install a SSD) with a similar computer running 2 7200rpm HD's in RAID 0. There was a little bit of discussion on whether or not it was worth him getting a SSD right away considering that they are quite expensive, and he just spent lots of money on 2 solid hard drives.

Overall, you can see TONS of talk in CTH about the benefits of adding a SSD for poker and general computer performance increases. It is (fairly) simple to add one, but you just need to choose whether or not you are willing to pay for the performance increases. For your application, it really depends on how many tables you will be playing. If you're only going to be playing 10 tables or less, you may not find it worth it to buy a 3rd drive just for HEM and PostgreSQL, imo.

To follow my previous posts and the fact that it's pretty obvious that I recommend a SSD to basically everyone. Buy one. Install at least Windows+Programs on it if you have a very large database. The database itself on the SSD is just an added bonus so to say.

I think the main point of all this is to get rid of the performance bottlenecks. In a computer the bottleneck is usually the disk access.

In a typical poker computer, this will happen in a gaming session:

- Run the poker program and HUD
-- All sorts of DLLs and EXE files get loaded to be executed, and some configuracion file get read. Once the DLL and EXE files are loaded and the programs are running, they stay in RAM.
- As you play, your HUD does many database reads and a some writes
-- This is the main performance bottleneck, since the executables are already loaded, you are not accessing the dick to continue playing, you are accessing the disk to do the database operations needed by your HUD.

Given all of this, I would recommend the following for better performance:

- First, buy as much RAM as you can, usually up to 8GB
- If you have over 3.5GB RAM, make sure you have Windows 64 bit, so you can use all the RAM
- Then, look to buy a hard disk drive. If you are money limited, buy two normal hard drives so you will split the load.
- Since you are getting a lot of hits on the hard disk during gameplay due to database access, I would put the DB files themselves on their own hard disk. This means that the other hard disk is free to do all the normal access it needs to do. For optimal DB access split the files this way:

Hard disk 1
----------
Everything that is not a database file, including Windows page file

Hard disk 2
-----------
The database data files (not the executables themselves)

You can get much more elaborate setups than this, but for a desktop it's not really worth ti splitting the file over most drives. If I had a third drive I would put the windows page file on that.

You can also play around with RAID 1 mirroring for faster data reads.

I hate myself for typing all of that because if you have a new computer, chances are you probably don't need any of that.

Anyway, you mention also keeping the database in a separate computer (ie, a dedicated database server). That would probably be overkill, plus you would have to account for network latency/capacity in your calculations to see if it is worth it.

Having a separate database server is in the realm of enterprise systems and much bigger databases than a HEM DB with millions and millions of hands.

If you just want fast HEM performance I would put the HEM DB in an SSD drive and everything else in a normal hard drive or a difference SSD drive.

By the way, SSD means Solid Stats Drive. The data is stored in memory chips, and it has no moving parts. It is much faster than a normal hard drive and has several key advantages over a normal hard drive (you can google for them). The main thing to know about SSD: It is much faster than a normal hard drive, has less capacity, and is much more expensive.

People have a separate computer for their HEM database as it frees up the main machine from some of the work and you get less slow down whilst playing. It also allows you to access your hands database from more than one machine (say a desktop machine in one room and a laptop in another).

My postgreSQL is kept on a machine at home in New Jersey but I spend at least half of my time on my laptop accessing the database over the internet.

Queries can take a second or two, but unless you're querying millions of hands (say, ranking all players in a 40 million hand database) then the performance is quite acceptable, even over slow 3g networks.

If you're accessing the database over a typical 100mbs LAN, you won't even notice a difference. In fact, it will likely feel faster.

Do you use the HUD in the same way, over WAN?

Yes.

The import (on a 1mbps up/down wifi at a starbucks I frequent) runs at like 2 or 3 hands per second. It's slow if you're trying to build a database but more than enough to keep up with a human player.