USING RAMdisk to Ease Excessive CPU Usage

country0129 · 13 Dec 2012

I have, for quite some time, been perplexed with a particular application I use daily. Be advised, this is only a hobby for me, and it's not so terribly important that I want to take up time and effort from anyone that doesn't wish to be bothered.
Here is the problem:
1. I use a fantastic ebook management program, Calibre. This program was, for Windoze, a 32-bit program. It has recently been updated to a 64-bit program for Windoze. It is written using Python scripting language. From the beginning, there was a 64-bit program written for Linux. It has a feature for converting ebook file formats, ie, from *.pdf or *.epub and, in my case, turning them into a *.mobi file that is friendly to my Kindle products. Whenever I perform conversion operations in bulk, the program is very CPU intensive, boosting CPU usage to 100%, but, with the 64-bit program, only maximum usage of about 4.2-3 of the 16 GB RAM I have installed, 14+ or so usable.
My system: HP p6677c
Motherboard Manufacturer: Foxconn
Motherboard Name: H-ALVORIX_HF-RS880-uATX
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Alvorix-GL8E FN-Alvorix-RS880-uATX (Alvorix)
Foxconn Model 2AB1 (1.00) Motherboard
Chipset AMD 785G(RS880/SB710), Alvorix Board: FOXCONN 2AB1 1.00
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 6.04 09/07/2010
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 635 Processor, AMD64 Family 16 Model 5 Stepping 3; Processor Count: 4
RAM: 16127 Mb
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4200, 256 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 941411 MB, Free - 851600 MB; D: Total - 12354 MB, Free - 145 MB; (external) J: Total - 476937 MB, Free - 276144 MB
2. I'm wondering whether creating a RAM disk to crunch a 15 GB database of ebooks, 10,300 individual books - each with supporting metadata, would be more efficient?
3. Can anyone briefly tell me how I can do this? The library is on my C:\ drive and it is backed up on the G:\ drive external. The Calibre program is located, also on my C:\ drive.
Understand, my system isn't a bulldozer, but it isn't a piece of junk, either. My CPU fan, presently, when rendering this database, sounds like a "C-130, rollin' down the strip." I don't have a bios that supports heat sensor information. Core Temp reported 23 degree C at idle and off the chart under 100% load. I'm adding an aftermarket cooler when it arrives, but I'd like to ease that processor load with this idea if it is feasible.
Thanks for your time.

bobafetthotmail · 13 Dec 2012

with the 64-bit program, only maximum usage of about 4.2-3 of the 16 GB RAM I have installed, 14+ or so usable.

Even people doing HD video encoding struggle to use more than 10 GB of ram, so I'd say it is normal.

Using a RAMdisk will surely increase the snappyness of your computer if you put temp files (both of system and browsers and applications) there, but hey, number-crunching is CPU-heavy and you won't change that. Stuff in a RAMdisk can be moved to the processor way faster than stuff in a hard drive (hence the increase of snappyness), but the processor is doing something with that, it isn't just looking at them zip by.

You could be right about cooling, stock ones tend to suck and if they suck too much the processor gets too hot under load and then downclocks itself to avoid meltdown (and the performance takes a big hit when this happens), but the bottom line is that if you really want more performance you need a better processor. I'd frankly leave it as it is, because really, upgrading a processor for Calibri sounds a bit overkill, and even as your motherboardcan support better processors, their price is a bit high. (anyway, CPU benchmark can help you see the processor's powers)

While it won't help for Calibre, purchasing a decent discrete graphic card to put in your PCIe slot will allow you to run GPU-accelerated programs without a lot of CPU load as they offload the serious number-crunching to the GPU that is a lot more powerful than any CPU of its times.

3. Can anyone briefly tell me how I can do this? The library is on my C:\ drive and it is backed up on the G:\ drive external. The Calibre program is located, also on my C:\ drive.

You need softwares that create the ramdrive, by "stealing" some RAM from the available and creating a new disk in My Computer, then you transfer the files you want to work with into that, then you work on them like they were from a drive.
THis thread provides links and walkthrough and some comments.

THere are some programs that create dynamic ram drives (that use up ram equivalent to the size of their contents, not a fixed pre-determined amount, but aren't free.

country0129 · 13 Dec 2012

bobafetthotmail, Sir,

As I iterated in my original post, I've been researching this for quite some time, and I'd about come to the same conclusion that you'd outlined in your post. However, I'd not come across any explanation as technically and well phrased as yours. Thank you.

USING RAMdisk to Ease Excessive CPU Usage

USING RAMdisk to Ease Excessive CPU Usage

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