Hi,
As part of a website I'm creating I'm working with a large database (10GB in size) and have to do lots of processing/calculations on the records - very often updating all the records or copying them into a new table. I create php scripts to do all the database processing, which I run just via my browser. I've installed Xampp with the default settings it came with, not really knowing much about changing its settings.
I know a little bit about databases - e.g. primary keys, adding unique/index fields, and how to "normalize" the table. However my scripts have been taking a long time to run - often 2 or 3 days of continous running - and often I need to change the script and re-run things. Months seem to be passing by!
I'm using a laptop with a fast dual core processor and have recently upgraded a couple of things.
I've bought a 120GB SSD Drive - and while I've just installed it, early indications are that this is going to make a huge saving in time compared to my hdd (5400rpm). I've also switched to 8GB Ram (from 4GB) and switched to Windows 7 64-bit so that the extra RAM can be used (I was using Vista 32bit). Obviously if I had the budget I would have preferred something like a fast quad-core desktop.
Working on the databases is the sole use of the laptop and my only concern just now.
However while I can do php and design, I don't know much about optimising Xampp or my system to get the max performance out of it (though I read up on how to change the max_execution_time).
I would be enormously grateful if anyone can suggest ways to maximise Xampp / Apache / PHP / MySql performance - e.g. what settings I should change to ensure the processor spends most of its energy on the scripts, uses all of the RAM available (e.g. to store/cache tables in memory), etc.