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I have to perform some demonstration about the SharePoint 2010 features. I have for this task only a standard laptop with only 4GB of Ram.

As the demonstrations are multi purpose, I have set up nearly everything possible on the demo computer : a demo AD domain, Sql 2008 R2, SP 2010 Server with all services enabled (except Lotus notes connector) and configured, a bunch of web apps, Office 2010 on the computer, SPD, Visual Studio 2010, Performance point, and even a small mail server to illustrate features with emails (it's not exchange happily).

As you can guess, the whole computer is very very slow, especially when switching from an application to another.

I've already make some tweaks to speed up the environment :

  • the computer have two disks, I've isolated the pagefile in the second disk
  • I set up the performance mode of the system to application
  • All SP web apps runs with the same APP pool, so are all SP Service apps.

I know than buying memory to get 8Gb of ram is one of the best and simple optimization, but it's not accepted by my hierarchy (for many reasons).

Do you know any other "tips" for making the demo computer seeming more fast ?

Of course it's a demo computer. my target is only speed, I can live with security holes or non-optimal solution if it can help.

PS: the system is a Win 2K8 R2 X64

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More RAM will help tremendously. If demos are for outside folks, presenting something on an underpowered machine is not going to help with the presentation or sales pitch. As James suggests, if that isn't an option, you're going to have to artfully craft the demonstrations to minimal features to get your point across or suffer through a bogged down system. – PirateEric Jan 17 '12 at 14:22
Using a solid state hard drive will increase the system performance drastically. Not sure if that's an option in your case but this would definitely make the most difference. – Vassili Altynikov Jan 18 '12 at 20:07
a ssd is less accessible than an new memory module. – Steve B Jan 18 '12 at 21:13

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

There's no magic way to speed up a crammed memory pool filled with maxed out working sets.

The only way you're going to see performance improvements is to turn off the stuff you wont' be demonstrating. If you insist of showing off everything, do multiple sessions where you only show one feature/component at a time.

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I was hoping something else, but I'm not surprised. I'll end up with writing a bunch of PS Script, for each demo/subject that starts/stop services, and/or perform some job (launch search crawl manually instead of schedule) – Steve B Jan 18 '12 at 8:25
up vote 2 down vote

I agree with James Love. I've been in the same boat. I'd stop the search services as I never needed them for demos. Review all the services and decide what's needed and what's not. I also introduced the demo explaining I'm running this on a laptop with poor specs, that in a real environment things will be much faster.

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I already use this approach to blame the demo hardware... Often it's enough. – Steve B Jan 17 '12 at 14:32

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