Is a browser cache worthwhile with broadband?

[jtr1962]

I've been on broadband now for close to two months. More and more I'm starting to wonder if there is any point to having a browser cache since pages I've already looked at don't seem to load any faster than ones I haven't. I'm not concerned with gaining back a lousy few hundred MB of disk space here. Rather, the system can become somewhat less responsive when there's a lot of hard drive activity. At its worst I'll get a "sticky" mouse. Also, about one out of maybe every 50 or so right mouse clicks is processed as though it were a left click, although that is probably unrelated to hard disk activity.

Has anybody here actually turned off their browser cache ? What were the downsides, if any?

And does anybody know if there is a way to remove "Set as Wallpaper" from the list of choices when you right click on a picture? I can't say how many times I've been saving pictures and then accidently clicked on "Set as Wallpaper" instead of "Save Picture As", which is right above it. :x I have carpal tunnel and when my fingers start getting tired I lose quite a bit of precision with the mouse. Right now, BTW, my hands are killing me in large part because of those long posts I made in the B&G. :drinka:

 

[Fushigi]

I'd leave the cache on but reduce it to 10 or 20MB. If your cache is currently rather large, doing that should eliminate HD delays. I think it'll run better that way than with either a large cache or no cache whatsoever.

I also normally set the history to something relatively low like 10 days.

 

[Mercutio]

I find browser cache quite useful. Every once in awhile I have a "serendipity" moment where I remember that I looked at something x days ago that's important to me now. I like being able to rummage through my cache to find that thing.

Er, when I can remember which PC I was using.

 

[mubs]

I'd leave the cache on but reduce it to 10 or 20MB. If your cache is currently rather large, doing that should eliminate HD delays.

I wonder, sir, if having too small a size will actually hurt more? As in, the quota is filled up, search for the oldest file, delete it, and then write the new file in the cache, as opposed to just writing the new file.

If one does not need to go back to the cache like the Hon'ble Mercutio, it might be better to write a shutdown or startup script that will empty the browser cache. Then setting the cache size to a reasonable size (large enough to accomodate browsing in a given power-on cycle) should result in optimum performance for the duration of that power-on cycle. If you don't power down, have the script run at an hour when you're sure you won't be using the m/c (I'm afraid to mention an hour - JTR has unique sleeping patterns!)

 

[Bozo]

In IE you can have it empty the cache on exit. Same with Firefox.


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[jtr1962]

(I'm afraid to mention an hour - JTR has unique sleeping patterns!)

:mrgrn: Quite true-because of my schedule, or rather lack of it, there is no one time when I'll definitely be sleeping. In fact, the last few months I basically just stay awake until I'm ready to drop, go in bed a few hours, and repeat when tired again. I find it's easier to get going again by taking "catnaps" rather than resting once a day for six to eight hours.

Unfortunately, thinking about this a little more, I use the cache for the same purposes Mercutio does, which is one reason I currently have it set at 400MB. Sometimes it comes in quite handy when a link you want to look at again is dead, or Google gives you 100,000 hits and you don't feel like trying to refind what took you two hours to find the first time.

Maybe a best of both worlds scenario here based on the replies so far might be reducing the size somewhat (maybe to what I fill in a week), and emptying my cache one in a while after archiving it in a .zip file which I store on another drive/partition. I'll have to think about this some more.

 

[Handruin]

If you're in the mood to tinker, try setting your cache location as a ram drive. Maybe that'll get rid of some of the sticky mouse effect.

 

[mubs]

In IE you can have it empty the cache on exit. Same with Firefox.

I can't seem to find this setting in Firefox, Bozo. Can you tell me where it is?

Incidentally the about:config shows an option to enable/disable the browser disk cache. Probably not a good idea to disable it, though.

 

[e_dawg]

If you're in the mood to tinker, try setting your cache location as a ram drive. Maybe that'll get rid of some of the sticky mouse effect.

The solution, of course, is to get a 15k SCSI drive to make those browser cache hits lightning fast

Don't laugh. Tannin bought an X15 for his web/e-mail machine, and I bought an Atlas 10k3 for my desktop. Some people don't think it's worth it, but if you want to experience that always responsive feeling, that's one way to do it.

 

[Handruin]

I also did it. In my last machine I used a 9.1 GB atlas 10K III as my boot and I loved it.

 

[Tannin]

What E_Dawg said.

 

[Tannin]

Err .. as an afterthought, I bought three of them, one each for three often-used machines. I'd buy one more, except that I haven't figured out how to fit an X15 into my laptp yet.