Cache settings for IE to minimize hitting the hard drive??
- Thread starter Santilli
- Start date
Generally, caching to a HD is a good thing because the HD is far faster than re-downloading. So rather than trying to stop the caching process, encourage it.
With cable a normal spped is 1.5Mb/s which comes out to around 200KB/s and even a very slow disk with lots of seeking can operate at 10MB/s. Encourage HD accessing. If there is a slowdown of your web experiance it is unlikely to be the HD caching algorithums unless you have very little RAM and very high paging file usage and with 384MB that is not likely to be the case either. Look elsewhere to find your performance problem (is there a program running in the background like findfiles that is causing a problem?)
With cable a normal spped is 1.5Mb/s which comes out to around 200KB/s and even a very slow disk with lots of seeking can operate at 10MB/s. Encourage HD accessing. If there is a slowdown of your web experiance it is unlikely to be the HD caching algorithums unless you have very little RAM and very high paging file usage and with 384MB that is not likely to be the case either. Look elsewhere to find your performance problem (is there a program running in the background like findfiles that is causing a problem?)
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Good advice from P5, as always. Maybe what you need to do is increase your RAM cache, so that you can flick more-or-less instantly through recently visited documents. In Opera you go file -> preferences -> RAM cache, in Moz you go edit -> preferences -> advanced -> cache -> memory cache. But in IE, I can't find a setting to do this. IE is poor at flicking through recently loaded documents at the best of times, even Netscape 4.x is better, perhaps it doesn't have any RAM cache at all? Anyone know?
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2002
- Messages
- 5,174
ok I;ll give that a try
I've changed the settings to 20 mb for hardisk storage for frequently cached pages.
It's just odd that on one machine, with 384, lots of caching, on one with 512, hardly any. Weird.
Maybe I'll put Mozilla on the Dell.
s
I've changed the settings to 20 mb for hardisk storage for frequently cached pages.
It's just odd that on one machine, with 384, lots of caching, on one with 512, hardly any. Weird.
Maybe I'll put Mozilla on the Dell.
s
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Tannin said:
Certainly there is no setting for specifiying the RAM cache amount.
e_dawg
Storage Freak
If you are going to try another browser, Greg, Opera 6.05 is known for its good caching performance (see the Opera thread). For some reason, IE insists on hitting the HD as much as humanly possible, which is why I argued that HD performance is a factor in web browsing a couple years ago on SR, much to the chagrin of BigT and company.
Actually, too large a browser cache will slow things down because IE will have to search through thousands of files every time you access it. This is more noticeable with high speed. You should keep your IE browser cache below 12 MB. Maybe 16 MB if you do alot of streaming video/audio where the cached files are much bigger. The slower your HD is (i.e., 5400 rpm or on a laptop), the smaller your cache should be. I use 8 MB max on my laptop.
I also recommend clearing out your Temp Internet Files and History every now and then to restore speed. Yes, it is good to have a couple hundred of you most frequently downloaded images cached locally, but Windows and IE are not efficient at handling thousands and thousands of files in the browser cache.
You can have too much of a good thing.
Actually, too large a browser cache will slow things down because IE will have to search through thousands of files every time you access it. This is more noticeable with high speed. You should keep your IE browser cache below 12 MB. Maybe 16 MB if you do alot of streaming video/audio where the cached files are much bigger. The slower your HD is (i.e., 5400 rpm or on a laptop), the smaller your cache should be. I use 8 MB max on my laptop.
I also recommend clearing out your Temp Internet Files and History every now and then to restore speed. Yes, it is good to have a couple hundred of you most frequently downloaded images cached locally, but Windows and IE are not efficient at handling thousands and thousands of files in the browser cache.
You can have too much of a good thing.
e_dawg
Storage Freak
BTW, you should let Opera build up its browser cache for a couple days before judging its performance. It will seem slower when you first use it because it has nothing stored in its virgin cache. After browsing around your favourite sites, it will have downloaded many of the pics, and you should have speedy performance with half the disk thrashing as you got with IE.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2002
- Messages
- 5,174
edawg...
Is opera free? haven't checked.
On my machine with the raid, I'm not concerned about IE caching, since it occurs at about 100 mb/sec data transfer, you don't notice it much.
It's the other, slower machine, that I'm currently trying Mozilla on for my browsing, on occassion.
Just checked my settings, and this machine, the faster one, is set at a 19 MB cache, and it seems just peachy.
Now, I'll give some thought to the other machine. I do remember your argument about browsers, since I agree, and, at that time, just as it is on this P2 400MHZ in the other room, it's REALLY noticeable.
Is opera free? haven't checked.
On my machine with the raid, I'm not concerned about IE caching, since it occurs at about 100 mb/sec data transfer, you don't notice it much.
It's the other, slower machine, that I'm currently trying Mozilla on for my browsing, on occassion.
Just checked my settings, and this machine, the faster one, is set at a 19 MB cache, and it seems just peachy.
Now, I'll give some thought to the other machine. I do remember your argument about browsers, since I agree, and, at that time, just as it is on this P2 400MHZ in the other room, it's REALLY noticeable.
Tea
Storage? I am Storage!
Not free, Greg, but you get what you pay for. Free to download to try out, but the free version has advertising. Register and no more ads.
e_dawg
Storage Freak
Opera licenses are half price now, Greg. $20 ($10 if you are a student) seems like a pretty good deal to me. The ad isn't too obtrusive in the free version, BTW. I thought it would be worse. I could have actually lived with it there all the time, but I felt good quality shareware like this should be supported... and for $10 (I am taking MBA courses now), it's practically a steal.
One thing you can do to reduce your disk access is to reduce the frequency with which you refresh your cache. In IE, you can adjust this in the same place where you adjusted the size of your browser cache.
In Opera, you have more control over both your memory and disk cache, as well as the frequency with which you refresh cached content:
Increasing the number of days between checking for new images should speed things up.
One thing you can do to reduce your disk access is to reduce the frequency with which you refresh your cache. In IE, you can adjust this in the same place where you adjusted the size of your browser cache.
In Opera, you have more control over both your memory and disk cache, as well as the frequency with which you refresh cached content:
Increasing the number of days between checking for new images should speed things up.