Bruce,

If I add a SSD as a second drive for use with SockFinder would it significantly speed up my experience of running the Backscanner?  If so how would I direct SF to store data and use the new SSD?

If am using a 64 bit Windows desktop.

It really depends on the particular BackScan and how it is contrained as far as resources. I have found an SSD to be extremely helpful. It sped things up considerably for me (not only StockFinder, but my entire computing experience), but I could not say if it would do the same for you.

If you don't have enough RAM, that would give you more bang for the buck than an SSD, but if you do have enough RAM, then adding more wouldn't help (although you could theoretically cache your HD or SSD if you have enough RAM).

There is also the possibility that the performance is being held up by actual computations. In that case, an SSD wouldn't help either.

If you are only going to get a small SSD and put a little bit on it with most of your stuff on a larger HD, you will want to have StockFinder's price database installed on the SSD as SF usually needs to load the price data repeatedly while the program just gets loaded when you run it initially and stays there.

Version 5.1.18.17548 of StockFinder

I7 2600 CPU @ 3.40GMZ, 3,40GMZ 

16 GB RAM

op. sys. 64 bit

what size SSD would be adequate?  How do I direct the price database to the drive?

I really can't make specific hardware suggestions. All of your data feeds need to be in the same folder so if you have US RealTime Minute Feed data you will need approximately 4 GB per year of market data, plus another 1 GB for the Morningstar feed.

You probably have enough RAM to set up a nice HD cache, but I could not provide any help on how to do so. You would have to research the topic on your own. RAM is a lot faster than an SSD (although for most uses, an SSD is "fast enough" that the difference might not be noticable - I'm not sure about SF specifically).

When you install the data there is an option to Change Data Location at the bottom of the window, but technical support can help you get the data onto your SSD as well.

Thanks

Bruce,

I just installed a SSD.  The BackScanner went from a running time of 1 min +/- to about 20 seconds!!

Thanks and I wish you a good new year.

You're welcome. I am happy to read the improvement was so dramatic. I wish you a happy and prosperous new year!