I am always trying to get the best performances for my development environments. With the 2013 version of SharePoint, VM performances has become a real concern.
I have previously published a complete step by step installation guide for a SharePoint 2013 development environment that take into account this performances concern.
(I will have to update it especially regarding the action of stopping the Distributed Cache service.)
In this previous post I was writing that I started using an SSD drive. I found at this time a not so expensive SSD Kingson HyperX of 120 Go (around 80 canadian dollars one year ago if I remember well).
The only drawback of this item was that it was not possible to use an eSATA connection to plug to the computer.
I can tell you I have been intensively using this SSD for 9 months and I am very happy of its performances and the benefits in matter of time saved while developping solutions for my customers.
Yesterday, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a new SSD with an external eSATA connector.
First of all, it is very difficult (at least in Paris, France) to find this in the form of an unique item to buy. Usually, you will have to buy an SSD plus an eSATA box as a separated item to buy.
That's what I bought :
An Intel SSD 335 series of 180 GB (I choosed this one because of the best performances in matter of disk writing).
An Icy Box IB-20 Series
for an amount of 193 euros (256.40 US Dollar) at LDLC.com
I loved the Icy Box, all is included (cables and a little iron tool to open the box).
I took me between 15 and 30 minutes to get the disk available to plug to the computer.
I had of course to format the disk. And what a good surprise, I could copy a VM of 40 Go from my computer on my new external disk in 6 minutes!!!
Enjoy!!!
