One 400GB table, One query - Need Tuning Ideas (SQL2005)

Question

I have a single large table which I would like to optimize. I\'m using MS-SQL 2005 server. I\'ll try to describe how it is used and if anyone has any suggestions I would appreci

Answer 1

I would say that 8 GB are not enough RAM for a 400 GB table. The server has no chance to keep the relevant data in memory if one index alone takes 5-8 GB. So there's lots and lots of harddisk reads which make the query slow.

In my opinion increasing the amount of RAM and having the database on a fast RAID (perhaps splitted on multiple RAIDs?) would help the most.

EDIT: To be sure what's your real bottleneck, run Windows' Performance Monitor.