Author: Robert Henry Durrett
Date: 10:26:01 06/23/98
I am trying to determine how much money I would have to come up with to move to a first-class database setup, including the cost of the software program, the cost of the database data, and the hardware required to obtain maximum benefit from the database software. The biggest costs which seem to be "hidden" are the hardware costs. For example, if a 130,000,000 game database is to be used, then would the program work faster if a dedicated hard drive were used to store these 130,000,000 games? If so, how big would that Hard drive have to be? In using a database, it is typical that smaller databases would be created from the original database. For example, if one wanted to study the Ruy Lopez from the Black side, then a set of Ruy Lopez games [including games that transpose into the Ruy Lopez] would be created. That database would have to be stored somewhere on a Hard Drive, so the HD storage space is another of the "hidden" hardware costs. Then, to study specific lines for Black, such as lines stemming from 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6, a new database, which would contain a subset of the Ruy Lopez games database, would have to be created. This new database, too, would have to be stored somewhere on a HD, adding another "hidden" hardware cost. These "hidden" hardware costs will depend on what hardware someone has already. Since everybody is different in this respect, it would be best to just identify what would be the ideal hardware setup, and then let anybody interested in upgrading their hardware identify for themselves what new hardware they needed. There may also be other hardware features or specifications required to make maximum use of the database software. These also need to be identified to allow complete hardware cost estimating. Since Chess Assistant and ChessBase seem to be the "biggest and best" of the databases suitable for a "power database user," then the information for these databases would be most useful. The bottom line question [for anybody] is "How much money will I have to come up with to move to the best database setup?"
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.