Sims take a long time to run, as you know.
Could I speed things up by buying a faster computer? Or is the limit the speed the central P1213 server runs at? Or is the spped of a sim run determined some by the spped of my computer and some by the speed of the server?
-Bob
Bob,
Everything is run on the P123 servers. Speeding up your computer won’t make any difference. 
[quote]
Could I speed things up by buying a faster computer? Or is the limit the speed the central P1213 server runs at? Or is the spped of a sim run determined some by the spped of my computer and some by the speed of the server?
[/quote]Hi, Bob,
The sales people at BestBuy would LOVE you, if you spent another $2K on a brand new PC. However, no, I do not believe that purchase would help. How about a quick overview of what happens when you run sims?
The time spent can be divided into the following 7 stages:
Stage 1: The time it takes for you to make the appropriate choices and set up the sim you want to run.
Stage 2: The time it takes for your computer to send your request, from the moment you’ve hit Enter on your keyboard.
Stage 3: The time it takes for your telco / cable company / ISP to transmit the request to the servers of P123.
Stage 4: The time it takes for P123’s servers to process your request.
Stage 5: The time it takes for your P123’s hosting company / telco / cable company / ISP to transmit the request to your computer.
Stage 6: The time it takes for your computer to receive and display the data it has received.
Stage 7: The time it takes for you to mentally process the results of the new sim, before you’re reafy to get to stage 1.
The time spent in each of these stages is…
Stage 1: From 5 to 300 seconds (and this depends on you)
Stage 2: From 1 to 2 seconds (even if you have an older computer)
Stage 3: From 1 to 60 seconds (fast, if fast cable, slow, if dial-up )
Stage 4: From 60 to 600 seconds (this takes the longest)
Stage 5: From 1 to 60 seconds (fast, if fast cable, slow, if dial-up )
Stage 6: From 1 to 2 seconds (even if you have an older computer)
Stage 7: From 5 to 300 seconds (and this depends on you)
Please keep in mind that all of these numbers are approximate; they’re just educated guesses.
As you can see, stage 4 uses up FAR MORE TIME than any of the 6 other stages. Servers are usually, but not always, are fast UNIX machines. Of UNIX machines, dedicated UNIX machines are faster (but more costly) than shared machines. Additionally, in connection with P123’s servers, there may be a software queue (or queues), meaning your PC may have to wait for its turn, before the P123’s server starts processing the request your PC has sent. If you’re really concerned, and really want to speed things up, you may want to ask Marco or His Crew of all these technical details on P123’s servers that could make a difference.
However, I’m sure Marco and His Crew is doing their best to speed things up. Just a short 6 months ago, you probably recall how many server issues P123 used to have. In sharp contrast to April 2006, fast forward to November 2006, and realize that currently there are no major P123 issues that we’re aware of. Knock on wood!
I hope this helps.
Robert